A Thought on Parshas Re'eh
"...lo tas'un k'chol asher anachnu osim po ha'yom..."
"...you will not worship then in the way we are doing now..." (12:8)
Moshe foretells of the time to come when his people would be free of oppression from the surrounding nations, and would construct a central shrine to HaShem, that would become the makom ha'mikdash. From that time onward we would worship in a set way, not "in the way we are doing now."
The Chezkuni writes that the prohibition on portable sacrificial altars, which resembled the portable desert mishkan, was to commence only once we had respite from all of our enemies. Only at that time would it be possible to erect a stationary central Bais HaMikdash.
The Chezkuni reasons that as long as we had enemies to fight, our people would have been too distracted, and frightened, to congregate in one place for worship. This would have left our lands unguarded and would have isolated us into an easy target for our foes. So, until the land was safe and secure, each person was able to worship "as seemed right to him" (end of our verse.)
It seems to me that there is a difference between subjective praying and collective worship. When an individual faces HaShem in prayer, it is understood and even acceptable that he, or she, may be feeling fear. Prayer is for the anxious. Prayer is for the frightened. The needy, the fearful and the worried individual naturally turns to Heaven with supplication, with sorrowful pleading, and this is what HaShem expects of us. Thus, in the midst of fighting battles against our enemies, there could be formal offerings to HaShem, yet they were to be brought on impermanent, stationary altars, each person as he saw fit. Turning to HaShem was still a subjective and private experience which included a sense of fear and warranted a temporary altar which symbolized that sense of impermanence and transitoriness.
With the removal of our enemies, the rules changed. There was now room for a central shrine, a place where the entire nation could gather during key points in the year, and offer forth communal, nation-wide sacrifices. This was collective worship. It could only happen when the nation had grown out of its fears. Worshiping HaShem as a nation demanded a freedom from fear and worry.
Being afraid of people is antithetical to collective worship in a central temple. To gather together as a nation in order to praise Heaven had to be a declaration of our utter trust in Him. Anything that might distract or worry the nation, such as the presence of an enemy somewhere out there, would detract from the spirit of worship, by definition.
Friends in Israel tell me that the north of our land is largely deserted. People have relocated, temporarily, to towns in the South, further from the border and its hazards. The northern town of Teveria is the home of a branch of Yeshivas Or Elchanan, founded by my great rebbe Rav Simcha Wasserman zt'l. As the yeshiva ended its summer semester, the bulk of its students and the young men of its kollel joined their rosh yeshiva in Jerusalem, where they took up temporary quarters there, guests of Yeshivas Ner Yakov whose American students had returned to their families in the United States for the summer. The morning after Teveria was "emptied," rockets landed at the site of the yeshiva, but only glass window panes were damaged.
Even when the nation lives in collective fear, which can happen only when there is no Bais HaMikdash, there remains in the Torah world a deeper awareness and a higher recognition that despite the understandable fear, there is a security that the Guardian of Israel neither sleeps nor slumbers (Tehillim 121:4). We are not afraid to congregate in a central makom to show our trust in the Makom. Our people have not fled nor wandered aimlessly but have converged near the site of makom ha'mikdash, declaring allegiance to HaShem through delving further into His Torah.
We too cannot sleep nor slumber during this time, "v'eis tzara hi l'Yakov u'mimena yivashe'a" (Yirmiahu 30:7) - "for though it is a time of trouble for Yakov, he will be saved from it."
Let us devote this Shabbos to collective worship, subjective prayer and growth in Torah. Good Shabbos. D Fox
"...you will not worship then in the way we are doing now..." (12:8)
Moshe foretells of the time to come when his people would be free of oppression from the surrounding nations, and would construct a central shrine to HaShem, that would become the makom ha'mikdash. From that time onward we would worship in a set way, not "in the way we are doing now."
The Chezkuni writes that the prohibition on portable sacrificial altars, which resembled the portable desert mishkan, was to commence only once we had respite from all of our enemies. Only at that time would it be possible to erect a stationary central Bais HaMikdash.
The Chezkuni reasons that as long as we had enemies to fight, our people would have been too distracted, and frightened, to congregate in one place for worship. This would have left our lands unguarded and would have isolated us into an easy target for our foes. So, until the land was safe and secure, each person was able to worship "as seemed right to him" (end of our verse.)
It seems to me that there is a difference between subjective praying and collective worship. When an individual faces HaShem in prayer, it is understood and even acceptable that he, or she, may be feeling fear. Prayer is for the anxious. Prayer is for the frightened. The needy, the fearful and the worried individual naturally turns to Heaven with supplication, with sorrowful pleading, and this is what HaShem expects of us. Thus, in the midst of fighting battles against our enemies, there could be formal offerings to HaShem, yet they were to be brought on impermanent, stationary altars, each person as he saw fit. Turning to HaShem was still a subjective and private experience which included a sense of fear and warranted a temporary altar which symbolized that sense of impermanence and transitoriness.
With the removal of our enemies, the rules changed. There was now room for a central shrine, a place where the entire nation could gather during key points in the year, and offer forth communal, nation-wide sacrifices. This was collective worship. It could only happen when the nation had grown out of its fears. Worshiping HaShem as a nation demanded a freedom from fear and worry.
Being afraid of people is antithetical to collective worship in a central temple. To gather together as a nation in order to praise Heaven had to be a declaration of our utter trust in Him. Anything that might distract or worry the nation, such as the presence of an enemy somewhere out there, would detract from the spirit of worship, by definition.
Friends in Israel tell me that the north of our land is largely deserted. People have relocated, temporarily, to towns in the South, further from the border and its hazards. The northern town of Teveria is the home of a branch of Yeshivas Or Elchanan, founded by my great rebbe Rav Simcha Wasserman zt'l. As the yeshiva ended its summer semester, the bulk of its students and the young men of its kollel joined their rosh yeshiva in Jerusalem, where they took up temporary quarters there, guests of Yeshivas Ner Yakov whose American students had returned to their families in the United States for the summer. The morning after Teveria was "emptied," rockets landed at the site of the yeshiva, but only glass window panes were damaged.
Even when the nation lives in collective fear, which can happen only when there is no Bais HaMikdash, there remains in the Torah world a deeper awareness and a higher recognition that despite the understandable fear, there is a security that the Guardian of Israel neither sleeps nor slumbers (Tehillim 121:4). We are not afraid to congregate in a central makom to show our trust in the Makom. Our people have not fled nor wandered aimlessly but have converged near the site of makom ha'mikdash, declaring allegiance to HaShem through delving further into His Torah.
We too cannot sleep nor slumber during this time, "v'eis tzara hi l'Yakov u'mimena yivashe'a" (Yirmiahu 30:7) - "for though it is a time of trouble for Yakov, he will be saved from it."
Let us devote this Shabbos to collective worship, subjective prayer and growth in Torah. Good Shabbos. D Fox
posted by Rabbi Dr. Fox at 11:15 PM
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