Weekly Mission: Parshat Mattot-Masei-Renewing Our Vows
Parshat Mattos-Masei (the 3 weeks-5770)
“My vows to HaShem I will pay, in the presence of his entire people, in the courtyards of the house of HaShem in your midst JERSUALAM, Hallelujah!”[i]
Regardless of our age, we have always been told to mourn for the destruction of the Temple. Rabbis end their sermons with the hopeful prayer “speedily in our days,” our very prayers call to HaShem to forgive our sins of old so we may see the greatness of the Temple, and yet ”she sits in solitude! The city that was great with people has become like a widow.”[ii]
When we are told to connect to something that is seemingly “irrelevant,” how do we react? “I didn’t do it; people have been mourning for the temple for almost two millennia! How am I supposed to mourn for something I have never seen!? How am I supposed to cry if I don’t know what I am crying for?”
King David cries to Hashem saying “we have been led like sheep to be slaughtered, to be killed destroyed, beaten, and humiliated.”[iii] Throughout history our nation has seen so many calamities that our collective confidence has been severely bruised. We cannot connect to our essence as Jews because since we left Egypt, people have been trying to destroy us. Holy Brothers and sisters, we cannot remain weak! We cannot throw the towel in my intermarrying, or the usual: sex, drugs and rock n’ roll. You are Jewish, and to throw that away now after everything is like sitting down to a drink with Hitler.
If we are so far now, how do we mourn, how do we relate? We must reconnect, we must rekindle and we must renew our vows. As our generations continue to spiral downward, which one will say enough is enough? We can’t do it as individuals, so when will we, as people, say enough is enough?! Chevre, are we not that generation? As we birth the next generation, should our mourning increase, as Jeremiah says “our dancing has become mourning,”[iv] or should it be as King David once wrote “You have changed for me my sorrow into dancing?”[v]
Renewing our vows reminds us of our commitments. We infuse our thoughts with what was, what is, and what should be, and we slowly rectify our sins. In this week’s Torah portion, HaShem commands us to hold to our vows after they have been implemented. The vow of our forefathers from almost 2,000 years ago has become our vow. Our vow to come close to the creator and to rebuild our temple is up to us. As Maimonides teaches: "In the future the messiah king will arrive... and build the Temple... and all the laws will be reinstituted as in former days; sacrifices will be brought, and the sabbatical and jubilee year records will be adhered to as specified in the Torah..."[vi]
Rebbe Nachman teaches that when we go to the lowest of places and we still decide to make a blessing, speak words of Torah (substance), and speak HaShem’s names, we rectify that place, we fix the brokenness, we say “even here, HaShem exists.”
This week I will try to: renew my vows to HaShem. I will find the destroyed temple of my own heart, and I will mourn for it. I will fight for my generation, and I will join, with collective efforts to build our nations confidence. I will say one nice thing, one blessing, or one teaching in a place of great spiritual destruction, and I will bring HaShem into my world, and my life.
The Aleph-Bet: Aleph and Bet joined together make the word Av. Av is the Hebrew month that starts this Monday at nightfall. It is the month that G-d is seemingly farthest away, but yet the name is Av, which also means father. As a father has mercy on his children, please may You have mercy on us HaShem.”[vii]
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