Parshat Dvarim - Shabbat Chazon
Parshat Dvarim - Shabbat Chazon
A father on his death bed only desires to offer advice that could positively alter their child’s life decisions. The final book of the Torah is a lengthy, colloquial, and dense reminder from Moshe, our leader what to do and how to be in order to maintain a society and dwell in security. The Parsha begins by stating “These are the words that Moshe spoke to all of Israel, in the wilderness, in the plain, opposite (the Sea of) Reeds, between Paran and Tophel and Laban, and Chazayroat and Di Zahab.”[i] This book opens with coordinates, a physical location that exists today. In this physical location, amongst, in between and around all these places, the Jew’s history was founded.
The Midrash relates that these places actually represent sins that the Jewish people committed on their journeys. I would like to focus on the importance of these coordinates, and more specifically how some of the stops along the way relate perfectly to the three weeks of mourning. The sin of evil speech is found in the midst of our protected journey through the wilderness. The stories of Miriam, Korach, and the spies all happened in these locations. The jealousy expressed to Aaron through Miriam took place in Chazayroat. The power hungry Levite—Korach—began to devise his evil plan in Chazayroat, and finally, Chazayroat was also the place where, before the great princes spied out the Land of Israel for assurance, they spoke untruthful evil speech as a report. “These are the words that Moshe spoke to all of Israel.” These are the examples of destruction caused by the inappropriate speech of our ancestry.
According to Rashi, Moshe’s reasoning was to rebuke the nation for the sin of evil speech. “He (Moshe) said to them, ‘you should have learned from what HaShem did to Miriam at Chazayroat because of evil speech, yet you spoke against HaShem again, (at the sin of the spies)’”[ii] The greatest leader of all had one dying wish, that we struggle to live up to over 3,000 years later: learn from your history, learn from what destroyed your unity in the past, and what has the potential to destroy you again in the future. Let us learn.The saddest day of the year is amongst us and yet most of us; both educated and uneducated feel no sorrow, know very little pain and believe in the depths of their cognitive thinking that meat is the greatest thing we are missing. To this I have many things to say, and I hope that the words I write are for the sake of Heaven, and that the reader does not receive the following as a bashing on the Jewish community, but more in order to strengthen us and bring us to a higher recognition of what we must fix in our communities, homes and schools.
The three weeks of mourning are unique in the Jewish calendar, seeing that these weeks do not require us to do anything other than remembering history; recounting what tragedies befell us in the past, and in hope that maybe, just maybe, we will learn from the people before us.Evil speech was the cataclysmic force that ripped apart our nation. We hurt each other, pushed one another away, thus we were forced away. In this week’s Haftorah written by Isaiah the Prophet (he’s my boy), the Lord says: “Why do I need your numerous sacrifices?...Bring your worthless meal offering no longer, it is incense of abomination to me…when you spread your hands upward, I will hide My eyes from you, even if you were to intensify your prayers, your hands are filled with blood.”[iii]
Our hands are cover in much blood. This summer two holy people died by the sword: The Baba Sali’s grandson R’ Elezar Abuchatzeira and Leiby Kletzky. These two people were murdered in cold blood—there is not anything else to say.This is not the only way that Jews kill other Jews. We know that slandering a fellow person is as if stabbing them in the chest. We all know the power of words, we have all known them through both the most inspirational of frameworks and most hurtful of interactions. The Talmud asks "Why was the metzora singled out to live in isolation? Because [through evil speech] he/she caused a husband to separate from his wife, and friends to become distant from one another".[iv]
Was it not idolatry, adultery, and killing that led to our destruction?! The Talmud states that evil speech rips apart the love of marriage—causing the eyes and heart to wander (adultery). Speaking evil is often a self-centered and egotistical thing to do based on personal insecurities (idolatry) and insulting another person is like murdering them (spilling blood). We destroy when using evil speech.Our nation looks proud and strong on the surface but so do flowers plucked from the ground at harvest. They may maintain their color for some time but eventually, with no roots, life will cease to exist, and Israel will fall into the hands of the historical scribe. The question we ask repetitiously is, what has been the greatest catalyst for such sadness and brokenness in the world? What has caused the world and more specifically the Jewish people such tumult and mourning during these three weeks?
From our great sages, as stated above, we know the three causes for the destruction of the Temple, but what spiritual destruction took place beforehand that allowed for greater destruction? The Talmud relates that “The cause of the Temple’s destruction was because Jews hated each other without reason.”[v] Please ask yourself, we mourn the loss of Leiby and R’ Abuchatzeira, but we don’t mourn the loss for an entire society that fell apart because of words?! Because, both now and then, many could care less about how others view the person that the evil is being spoken about.
Know: every time you slander someone to their face or behind their back, every time you judge someone without cause, it is as if you are holding a knife to their heart pushing forth with every word. You and I are just as guilty of the destruction of our society as the Jews 1951 years ago were.Friends, our world is going through many changes, but we must believe that salvation for humanity is possible. We must actually believe that peace and love of all of G-d’s creations is attainable. To not love a people based on a crazy few is not Jewish, it’s idolatry. It is spitting at G-d. “Love your neighbor as you love yourself” does not only apply to Jews!
We have a serious mission for the next generation, and it is not going to be completed solely by the hands of men in overcoats with long beards, Imams or Priests, it is going to be carried out by the hands of all of our toil, and all of our abstinence from judgments and evil speech. Let us change the course of history and learn from its dark moments and transform them into light.The famous words of Isaiah the Prophet ring in the ears of many: “He (HaShem) said: It is insufficient that you be a servant for me (only) to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the ruins of Israel: I will make you a light for the nations, SO THAT MY SALVATION MAY EXTEND TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH.”Let us not be mistaken, to slander a Jew is the exact tragedy in its sin as slandering a non-Jew. Be not mistaken, all of mankind is divinely linked to the same source. It starts with us, the nation of physical and spiritual prosperity and who needs to spread this message throughout the world.
It is the Jew’s responsibility to bring these teachings through the world. Yet we have failed. Another year, another Tisha B’av. I was hoping for a holiday, but until then, let us believe that we can change.“We gotta make a change...It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes. Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live and let's change the way we treat each other. You see the old way wasn't working so it's on us to do what we gotta do, to survive.”[vi] “Strengthen weak hands and give support to falling knees. Say to those of impatient heart, ‘Be strong: do not fear, behold! You G-d will come with revenge, with divine retribution; he will come and save you; then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the dead will be unstopped. Then the lame man will skip like a gazelle and the tongue of the mute will sing glad song, for water will have broken out in the wilderness and streams in the desert.’”[vii]
This week I will try to: Read this again on Tisha B’Av and contemplate its deeper meaning.
[i]Deuteronomy-1:1
[ii]RaSHI ibid.
[iii]Isaiah: 1:11-15
iv]Arachin 16b
[v] Yoma 9b
[vi] Tupac Shakur - "Changes"
[vii] Isaiah 35:1
A father on his death bed only desires to offer advice that could positively alter their child’s life decisions. The final book of the Torah is a lengthy, colloquial, and dense reminder from Moshe, our leader what to do and how to be in order to maintain a society and dwell in security. The Parsha begins by stating “These are the words that Moshe spoke to all of Israel, in the wilderness, in the plain, opposite (the Sea of) Reeds, between Paran and Tophel and Laban, and Chazayroat and Di Zahab.”[i] This book opens with coordinates, a physical location that exists today. In this physical location, amongst, in between and around all these places, the Jew’s history was founded.
The Midrash relates that these places actually represent sins that the Jewish people committed on their journeys. I would like to focus on the importance of these coordinates, and more specifically how some of the stops along the way relate perfectly to the three weeks of mourning. The sin of evil speech is found in the midst of our protected journey through the wilderness. The stories of Miriam, Korach, and the spies all happened in these locations. The jealousy expressed to Aaron through Miriam took place in Chazayroat. The power hungry Levite—Korach—began to devise his evil plan in Chazayroat, and finally, Chazayroat was also the place where, before the great princes spied out the Land of Israel for assurance, they spoke untruthful evil speech as a report. “These are the words that Moshe spoke to all of Israel.” These are the examples of destruction caused by the inappropriate speech of our ancestry.
According to Rashi, Moshe’s reasoning was to rebuke the nation for the sin of evil speech. “He (Moshe) said to them, ‘you should have learned from what HaShem did to Miriam at Chazayroat because of evil speech, yet you spoke against HaShem again, (at the sin of the spies)’”[ii] The greatest leader of all had one dying wish, that we struggle to live up to over 3,000 years later: learn from your history, learn from what destroyed your unity in the past, and what has the potential to destroy you again in the future. Let us learn.The saddest day of the year is amongst us and yet most of us; both educated and uneducated feel no sorrow, know very little pain and believe in the depths of their cognitive thinking that meat is the greatest thing we are missing. To this I have many things to say, and I hope that the words I write are for the sake of Heaven, and that the reader does not receive the following as a bashing on the Jewish community, but more in order to strengthen us and bring us to a higher recognition of what we must fix in our communities, homes and schools.
The three weeks of mourning are unique in the Jewish calendar, seeing that these weeks do not require us to do anything other than remembering history; recounting what tragedies befell us in the past, and in hope that maybe, just maybe, we will learn from the people before us.Evil speech was the cataclysmic force that ripped apart our nation. We hurt each other, pushed one another away, thus we were forced away. In this week’s Haftorah written by Isaiah the Prophet (he’s my boy), the Lord says: “Why do I need your numerous sacrifices?...Bring your worthless meal offering no longer, it is incense of abomination to me…when you spread your hands upward, I will hide My eyes from you, even if you were to intensify your prayers, your hands are filled with blood.”[iii]
Our hands are cover in much blood. This summer two holy people died by the sword: The Baba Sali’s grandson R’ Elezar Abuchatzeira and Leiby Kletzky. These two people were murdered in cold blood—there is not anything else to say.This is not the only way that Jews kill other Jews. We know that slandering a fellow person is as if stabbing them in the chest. We all know the power of words, we have all known them through both the most inspirational of frameworks and most hurtful of interactions. The Talmud asks "Why was the metzora singled out to live in isolation? Because [through evil speech] he/she caused a husband to separate from his wife, and friends to become distant from one another".[iv]
Was it not idolatry, adultery, and killing that led to our destruction?! The Talmud states that evil speech rips apart the love of marriage—causing the eyes and heart to wander (adultery). Speaking evil is often a self-centered and egotistical thing to do based on personal insecurities (idolatry) and insulting another person is like murdering them (spilling blood). We destroy when using evil speech.Our nation looks proud and strong on the surface but so do flowers plucked from the ground at harvest. They may maintain their color for some time but eventually, with no roots, life will cease to exist, and Israel will fall into the hands of the historical scribe. The question we ask repetitiously is, what has been the greatest catalyst for such sadness and brokenness in the world? What has caused the world and more specifically the Jewish people such tumult and mourning during these three weeks?
From our great sages, as stated above, we know the three causes for the destruction of the Temple, but what spiritual destruction took place beforehand that allowed for greater destruction? The Talmud relates that “The cause of the Temple’s destruction was because Jews hated each other without reason.”[v] Please ask yourself, we mourn the loss of Leiby and R’ Abuchatzeira, but we don’t mourn the loss for an entire society that fell apart because of words?! Because, both now and then, many could care less about how others view the person that the evil is being spoken about.
Know: every time you slander someone to their face or behind their back, every time you judge someone without cause, it is as if you are holding a knife to their heart pushing forth with every word. You and I are just as guilty of the destruction of our society as the Jews 1951 years ago were.Friends, our world is going through many changes, but we must believe that salvation for humanity is possible. We must actually believe that peace and love of all of G-d’s creations is attainable. To not love a people based on a crazy few is not Jewish, it’s idolatry. It is spitting at G-d. “Love your neighbor as you love yourself” does not only apply to Jews!
We have a serious mission for the next generation, and it is not going to be completed solely by the hands of men in overcoats with long beards, Imams or Priests, it is going to be carried out by the hands of all of our toil, and all of our abstinence from judgments and evil speech. Let us change the course of history and learn from its dark moments and transform them into light.The famous words of Isaiah the Prophet ring in the ears of many: “He (HaShem) said: It is insufficient that you be a servant for me (only) to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the ruins of Israel: I will make you a light for the nations, SO THAT MY SALVATION MAY EXTEND TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH.”Let us not be mistaken, to slander a Jew is the exact tragedy in its sin as slandering a non-Jew. Be not mistaken, all of mankind is divinely linked to the same source. It starts with us, the nation of physical and spiritual prosperity and who needs to spread this message throughout the world.
It is the Jew’s responsibility to bring these teachings through the world. Yet we have failed. Another year, another Tisha B’av. I was hoping for a holiday, but until then, let us believe that we can change.“We gotta make a change...It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes. Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live and let's change the way we treat each other. You see the old way wasn't working so it's on us to do what we gotta do, to survive.”[vi] “Strengthen weak hands and give support to falling knees. Say to those of impatient heart, ‘Be strong: do not fear, behold! You G-d will come with revenge, with divine retribution; he will come and save you; then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the dead will be unstopped. Then the lame man will skip like a gazelle and the tongue of the mute will sing glad song, for water will have broken out in the wilderness and streams in the desert.’”[vii]
This week I will try to: Read this again on Tisha B’Av and contemplate its deeper meaning.
[i]Deuteronomy-1:1
[ii]RaSHI ibid.
[iii]Isaiah: 1:11-15
iv]Arachin 16b
[v] Yoma 9b
[vi] Tupac Shakur - "Changes"
[vii] Isaiah 35:1
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