Parashat Va'etchanan

Parashat Va’etchanan
Av 16, 5772 ~ Aug 4, 2012
by Michal Kohane

On December 16, 1932 a fire erupted at the Shirokiya (or Shirakiya) Department Store in Tokyo, Japan. It left 14 people dead and 67 injured. At the time, the store was having a year-end Christmas theme sale, and the interior was extravagantly decorated. A clerk in the toy section witnessed an electrical spark from a light bulb on a Christmas tree. The spark landed on some highly flammable celluloid toys, ignited them, and quickly spread. The open staircase enabled the fire to spread through the staircase to other floors. Some of the saleswomen were forced to go up to the roof; from there they jumped into safety nets held by firemen. Many attempted to escape the building using ropes made from clothing or curtains. About 80 people climbed down from the 7th floor in this manner. Others could not hang on and fell to their deaths.

It is believed that this fire changed fashion customs among Japanese women since kimono-clad women did not wear panties. News spread that during the fire, saleswomen in kimono refused to jump from the roof into safety nets because they were ashamed to be seen from below, and as a result died. It has been alleged that in the aftermath of the fire, department store management ordered saleswomen to wear panties or other short underwear under their kimono, and the trend spread.

Contrary to this belief, Shoichi Inoue, a professor of Japanese customs and architecture at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies found that most people were saved by firemen, and the story of women who preferred to die with their modesty intact was fabricated for the benefit of Westerners. It is what we otherwise call an “urban legend”.

In Parashat Va’etchanan, the Torah warns us lest we come to think of our experience at Sinai as an “urban legend”. Knowing some day we might be tempted or challenged to do so, the text gives us tools how to remind ourselves and others of the validity and criticalness of the Sinai experience. I could copy all of this parasha and especially Deuteronomy chapter 4. Here are only a few gems:

27-29: “And Hashem shall scatter you among the peoples, and you shall be left few in number among the nations, where Hashem lead you away. And there you shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. But from there you will seek Hashem your God; and you shall find Him…”

Who is this that can prophesy so accurately into the future, and guarantee not only ours but G-d’s behavior? The text continues: 

32-35: “For if you ask…. whether there has ever been any such thing… Did ever a people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live? Or has God ever come to take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, and by wonders… according to all that Hashem your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? To you it’s been shown so that you know that Hashem, He is God; there is none else beside Him…” 

Moses, in this last dramatic speech said during the month before his death, is talking to the generation that did not stand at Sinai as adults. He wants to instill a paramount core concept: 

The Jewish People are not an organic creation of time and place. Rather, their birth is a creation of G-d, and just like the first creation of the universe, it is a creation of yesh me’ayin, Ex-nihilo – “out of nothing” so is this People. Each member might not have the same language, specific history, ethnicity or culture as the next one, but they continue to be one extended family with a unique mission. Indeed, it is natural that one nation or another will have great influence on the world but it’s highly unlikely that this nation will be tiny, scattered and persecuted. Yet, this is what is promised here. The Jewish history and life never bends according to the customary laws of nature. 

Why? Over and over we ask this question. Why? Why the Jews? Why us? Why like this?

The text continues:

37-40: “…Because He loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them, and brought you out with His presence, with His great power, out of Egypt… to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day… And you shall keep His statutes, and His commandments… that it may go well with you, and with your children after you…”

What is the reason? Not our great qualities, wisdom, strength, beauty or talent. But love. Why does anyone love any person over another?? We can reason all we want, but at the end of the day, there is no explanation. As if to say, there is an irrational element in this journey that cannot be fully figured out no matter what. Even here is G-d’s fingerprint: It’s just so. And no matter how long we explore, question and wonder, at some point it’s just “so”. 

What’s left for us to do? Just keep “his statutes and His commandments… that it may go well”. The Hebrew says, “asher yitav lecha”, from the word “tov” meaning good. “Good” in the Torah usually does not mean a kind, considerate loving being, but one who fulfills who s/he is. Think of how we say, ‘this is a good table’. We surely don’t mean that this table is embodied with acts of loving kindness. We mean that it does what it supposed to do in the best possible manner. Likewise for us: following G-d’s mitzvot provides us with an opportunity to be better versions of who we are, while reminding those around us that our story is not a legend.

Shabbat Shalom.