Parashat Devarim

Parashat Devarim
Drash given at Beth Jacob
on Shabbat, Aug 6, 2011
by Alexandra Hart


Alex: "Posted for reference as my accent may interfere with delivery"

Some weeks back, having started to prep for today, I realized that the term ‘hope’ was a recurrent theme. This Shabbat, we not only read Parshat Devarim but alongside it was read the haftara taken from Yeshaya, commencing; ‘chazon’ ‘vision’. It is Yishaya’s prophecy after the chorban, the destruction of the Bet HaMikdash, when all hope seemed dashed yet it is from this vision that this Shabbat is named Shabbat Chazon. It is the Shabbat preceding Tisha B’Av, a fast day, the saddest date of our calendar yet with this haftarah we are provided with hope in advance of the day.

I pondered about hope for a while, it’s so very intangible, nothing’s secure. No precedent with which to have expectation and pondered some more. I asked the other half of my soul how to differentiate between hope and expectation. The response received came back as a percentage. An interesting route, but not so useful for a dvar Torah.

But Hope. It really is essential. In our (shared) English vocabulary we have many maxims to keep chin up. We say things like ‘Night follows day’ or, ‘Tomorrow will be a better day’ or even ‘There’s light at the end of the tunnel’ and as parents, we may rub and kiss a scrape and say “you’re going to be ok” and so forth. We need hope.

Armed with hope, we live and plan for tomorrow in all manner of ways. Few of us live life without backup and actually live the maxim ‘live in the here and now’, we may of course act it but few of us are really footloose and fancy free.

We hope that things won’t turn bad but if they do, there’s a plan, on a shelf, in a bank, with a lawyer. We have never been able to stop time; we have to move with it. We take what life throws at us, the rough with the smooth and hope that we’ve planned as best as we could.

Perhaps the best way to deal with it all, is to evolve with it. To reinvent or die. To press the refresh button.

Speaking of evolution, I recently heard the neuroscientist, Dean Buonomano being interviewed as part of a review for his latest book, Brain Bugs: How the Brain's Flaws Shape Our Lives. I was entertained by the following demonstrative excerpt about evolution from the same:

When attacked, a skunk's natural inclination is to turn around, lick its tail and spray a noxious scent. That works when a skunk faces a natural predator in the wild, but it's not as helpful when faced with, let's say, an oncoming car.

"They didn't evolve to deal with that circumstance," says the neuroscientist "And humans suffer some of the same consequences of living in a time and place we didn't evolve to live in.

Could evolution, in this sense, ever apply to us as Jews? Let’s get to our parsha. Like all parshiot, they are read year in, year out but each year there’s a new way to look at the very same words.

Here in Devarim, Moshe’s at the end of his life. A fitting time, one might think, to compare and contrast how he has changed from the once meek individual, unwilling, unable, to speak publicly. However, we see a changed character now here in Devarim. He’s jettisoning, projecting his hope on to Yehoushua. Moshe, a man who was never keen to speak, has his final day in the sun. In Devarim, Moshe continues recounting the encampments, as he had done in Parshat Masei. This is to give chizuk, to give hope. Perek gimmel, posuk caf bet, Moshe says to Yehoushua,

“Your own eyes have seen all that G-d your Lord has done to those 2 kings. G-d will do the same to all the kingdoms to which you will be crossing. Do not fear them, since G-d your Lord is the One who will be fighting for you.”

The recounting of the journeys and the trials and tribulations en route is a method with which to inspire – look how far you’ve come! One more push! Yes, there have been troublesome times but things will only, can only, get better! G-d will deliver!

Perhaps Joshua, like any person stepping into a new role is entitled to ask what is expected of him. What the duties are and what of the cause and effect of his actions. Moshe in this speech, coerces him by pointing out, it’s not just hearsay, it’s not a sales pitch. “Your own eyes have seen it!” A meek individual no longer. Moshe has certainly evolved.

But what of the general population? The hoi polloi? On Devarim, The Chief Rabbi of the UK, Rabbi Sacks, remarks on the introduction of the word ‘Yisrael’. It’s not only Moshe who has changed. Parshat Devarim begins with the words ‘Kol Yisrael’. This intimates that they are no longer, Bnei Yisrael. Kol Yisrael suggests that the Jewish people are now a collective. They too have evolved.

Moshe in Devarim says: “G-d your Lord has increased your numbers until you are as many as the stars of the sky.”

Of course, amongst the population, there may well be division, 2 Jews, many opinions but they are inclusive.

Let’s consider inclusivity for a moment; a feature of our people that will never grow old. Rabbi Dr. Lord Sacks reminds us that the word Chayim, Life, is plural. To live life is to live amongst more than one; it is not good for man to be alone.

The word Simcha, though we haven’t celebrated smichot over these past 3 weeks, simcha too cannot be translated into the singular either.

Though in English, an individual can feel joy or happiness alone; simcha is rejoicing as a plethora.

Let’s also consider dark times. Also in dark times there is strength in numbers. And it is here on Shabbat Chazon we are reminded that we are commanded to give hope to those who are alone, those that have no other person with whom to join to learn from, to share merriment, with even whom to share a thought.

If we think back for a moment, our most recent chag was Shavuot.

On Shavuot, we read Ruth, in which are demonstrated the commandments of pe’eh, leket & shikecha., of leaving grain out as hefker for the poor, of showing that you, the farmer, have spared a thought for those that have no one or nothing. It allows these people to have hope that they will be able to live another day. The keeping of these mitzvoth opens more than just a door; it marks the advent of a dynasty; that of King David. These mitzvoth will reappear in Devarim chapt.26.

Here in today’s haftora portion of Yeshaya we read that we are to be inclusive to the widow and to the orphan. It is not good for man to be alone.

As for an orphan, one who has no parents from whom to understand, to point the direction and from whom to learn; I am able to refer back to my own family.

My grandfather became an orphan at the tender age of 7. Instead of all hope being lost, his community ensured that he and his 7 siblings were cared for. They were difficult times, that of The Great War, WWI. But they didn’t lack chinuch, a Jewish education. In fact, it was through his education that his son, my father, was able to give strength and hope to another.

They were holidaying as a family in Spain in the early 1950s. My grandfather, a jeweler by trade, entered a jewelry store and, striking up a bargain, he, together with my dad, entered the back of the shop. The shopkeeper noted that my father’s tzizit were on show. He delved further and to my grandfather’s astonishment, began weeping. He was a Morrano. He explained that his community, his kehilla had, during WWII all agreed to become Morranos, burying all trace of being Jews and giving the outward appearance of being regular Christians, Catholic no less. The shopkeeper had truly believed that all continental, European Jews had been wiped out during the Shoah. With my grandpa’s and father’s appearance his hope was now rekindled; through a child and the chinuch of his father, an orphan.
And to the present day and microcosm once again. My little family has not been here in the US, never mind Oakland and Beth Jacob for very long. Less than a year. With great hope, we made a pilot trip in June 2010 and made our decision to move here having seen and been comforted by the familiar inclusion and continuity of that that had been infused in us by our own upbringing back in the UK. We could envisage that our children could grow up with a similar education. We could evolve yet remain the same. Furthermore, the kehilla of Beth Jacob exemplifies the idea of inclusivity. A middah we are keen to emulate.

So on this Shabbat, Shabbat Chazon, each of us may be searching for a vision, having come through 3 weeks when G-d is not as apparent. We may be expecting solace or some form of enlightenment before one of the greatest fast days of our calendar. Not all of us get to have guidelines for how the future will fall out, there’s only so much for which you can plan. But there are those that can provide pointers and it is in their vision in which we can have that expectation. The words of Moshe to Kol Yisrael transcend time. His words allow us to look back and move onwards with refreshed hope and it is with the guidelines of inclusivity we read in Yeshaya that we understand how this expectation may best be achieved. With these great words of hope, I wish you all a Shabbat Shalom v’ Tzom Kal.