A thought on Parshas Haazinu
"...al p'nei Yericho...tireh es ha'aretz..." "...facing Jericho...you will see the land..." (32:50,52)
I have often wondered why the Biblical town of Jericho is spelled two different ways in the Torah and in TaNaCh. Sometimes it is written with a tzeire vowel mark and pronounced Ye-ray-cho. No functional second yud is present with this spelling. Other times it is written with a functional second yud and with the chirik vowel mark, pronounced Ye-ree-cho.
Rabbeinu Bachya offers an insight: whenever the word is written in reference to Yehoshua, it is spelled and pronounced Yeraycho. Elsewhere, in the Torah, we also find the alternate form Yereecho. Rabbeinu Bachya explains that the Torah form is associated with the word yar'each (moon) and forms the term yar'each vov - this would mean "moon-like through the vav or through the sixth." This is an allusion to Moshe Rabbeinu's grasping two Divine features in the course of his communing with the Al-mighty. He grasped the moon-like feature of tifferes or heavenly splendor from Above, and he grasped the feature (the sixth Divine attribute) of kavod or glory. This meant that Moshe saw clearly and deeply.
In contrast, his disciple Yehoshua, as all of the nevi'im, grasped his prophetic visions in a lesser form of vividness than Moshe. He could sense a trace of the Above, alluded to in the word Yeraycho which comes from the word rayach which means a scent or a trace. His vision was rayach yud: a trace through the emanation of the tenth Divine feature, malchus, where he beheld something of the majesty of the Divine as compared with the splendor and glory which are (as we can try to understand at some level) stronger and clearer features of the Divine aura grasped only by Moshe.
At the end of the parsha, Moshe Rabbeinu is ordered to look towards the land. Rabbeinu Bachya notes that the verse does not use the usual expression eretz Kanan but simply eretz - the land. He explains that Moshe was able to see with more than the mortal eye alone. He was able to see with the higher consciousness of the soul. Therefore, he was able to see both the land of Kanan and Jerusalem of the Above - the higher realm which is the eternal eretz ha'chaim.
He closes by explaining that when we say zachrainu l'chaim v'kasveinu l'chaim - when we ask HaShem to remember us for life and inscribe us for life on Rosh HaShanna and on Yom Kippur, the intention is that we pray for HaShem to grant us mortal life in order that we earn acceptance into that higher realm of life, which is the eretz that Moshe Rabbeinu could perceive while everyone else looking could only see the lower land.
May each one of us be inscribed for life and for life as we pray this New Year ha'ba aleinu v'al kol Yisroel l'tova. Good Shabbos. D Fox
I have often wondered why the Biblical town of Jericho is spelled two different ways in the Torah and in TaNaCh. Sometimes it is written with a tzeire vowel mark and pronounced Ye-ray-cho. No functional second yud is present with this spelling. Other times it is written with a functional second yud and with the chirik vowel mark, pronounced Ye-ree-cho.
Rabbeinu Bachya offers an insight: whenever the word is written in reference to Yehoshua, it is spelled and pronounced Yeraycho. Elsewhere, in the Torah, we also find the alternate form Yereecho. Rabbeinu Bachya explains that the Torah form is associated with the word yar'each (moon) and forms the term yar'each vov - this would mean "moon-like through the vav or through the sixth." This is an allusion to Moshe Rabbeinu's grasping two Divine features in the course of his communing with the Al-mighty. He grasped the moon-like feature of tifferes or heavenly splendor from Above, and he grasped the feature (the sixth Divine attribute) of kavod or glory. This meant that Moshe saw clearly and deeply.
In contrast, his disciple Yehoshua, as all of the nevi'im, grasped his prophetic visions in a lesser form of vividness than Moshe. He could sense a trace of the Above, alluded to in the word Yeraycho which comes from the word rayach which means a scent or a trace. His vision was rayach yud: a trace through the emanation of the tenth Divine feature, malchus, where he beheld something of the majesty of the Divine as compared with the splendor and glory which are (as we can try to understand at some level) stronger and clearer features of the Divine aura grasped only by Moshe.
At the end of the parsha, Moshe Rabbeinu is ordered to look towards the land. Rabbeinu Bachya notes that the verse does not use the usual expression eretz Kanan but simply eretz - the land. He explains that Moshe was able to see with more than the mortal eye alone. He was able to see with the higher consciousness of the soul. Therefore, he was able to see both the land of Kanan and Jerusalem of the Above - the higher realm which is the eternal eretz ha'chaim.
He closes by explaining that when we say zachrainu l'chaim v'kasveinu l'chaim - when we ask HaShem to remember us for life and inscribe us for life on Rosh HaShanna and on Yom Kippur, the intention is that we pray for HaShem to grant us mortal life in order that we earn acceptance into that higher realm of life, which is the eretz that Moshe Rabbeinu could perceive while everyone else looking could only see the lower land.
May each one of us be inscribed for life and for life as we pray this New Year ha'ba aleinu v'al kol Yisroel l'tova. Good Shabbos. D Fox
posted by Rabbi Dr. Fox at 9:55 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home