A Thought On Parshas Devarim
A Thought On Parshas Devarim
"...yosef aleichem ka'chem elef pa'am'im..."
"...HaShem will increase you a thousand times..." (1:11)
The Torah repeats that HaShem promises to multiply the ranks of Jews. We will be compared to the stars of the sky, the sand of the shore, the dust of the earth. We are likened in multitude to things which cannot be counted, for they are too numerous.
Rabbeinu Chaim Paltiel is puzzled with this. Throughout the Torah and in later writings, the Jews have been counted by one form of census or another. There is no doubt that we are a small nation, relative to the teeming throngs which inhabit this planet. When did or when will this promise be fulfilled? We have never been "beyond numbering."
He offers a novel perspective: consider sand, if that doesn't go against your grain. Notice that a little sand or a lot of sand is still called sand. In addition, if you take a bucket of sand from the sea shore and dump it somewhere else, it is still called sand. So it turns out that sand, whether transported and relocated, or subtracted from or added to, always retains its name and status.
This is the survival quality of the Jew as well. We lose numbers, we gain numbers, we are exiled hither and yon. We are transported, uprooted, scattered and banished. Yet, we remain Jews. We are known to others as Jews. We consider ourselves Jews. We never give up our name and therefore we always retain our identity.
This is the promise, explains Rabbeinu Chaim Paltiel, which has accompanied us throughout our history. From Egypt to Spain to Greece, England, Magdeburg, Dunkirk, Iran and America, and points in between, we are still Jews. And in the times to come, he adds, this will be the fulfillment of the prophecy (Hoshea 2:1) "Yet the Children of Israel will be counted like the sands of the sea which cannot be counted". Wherever we are found, there shall we be, still Jews.
May Shabbos Chazon make way for those better times ahead. Good Shabbos. D Fox
"...yosef aleichem ka'chem elef pa'am'im..."
"...HaShem will increase you a thousand times..." (1:11)
The Torah repeats that HaShem promises to multiply the ranks of Jews. We will be compared to the stars of the sky, the sand of the shore, the dust of the earth. We are likened in multitude to things which cannot be counted, for they are too numerous.
Rabbeinu Chaim Paltiel is puzzled with this. Throughout the Torah and in later writings, the Jews have been counted by one form of census or another. There is no doubt that we are a small nation, relative to the teeming throngs which inhabit this planet. When did or when will this promise be fulfilled? We have never been "beyond numbering."
He offers a novel perspective: consider sand, if that doesn't go against your grain. Notice that a little sand or a lot of sand is still called sand. In addition, if you take a bucket of sand from the sea shore and dump it somewhere else, it is still called sand. So it turns out that sand, whether transported and relocated, or subtracted from or added to, always retains its name and status.
This is the survival quality of the Jew as well. We lose numbers, we gain numbers, we are exiled hither and yon. We are transported, uprooted, scattered and banished. Yet, we remain Jews. We are known to others as Jews. We consider ourselves Jews. We never give up our name and therefore we always retain our identity.
This is the promise, explains Rabbeinu Chaim Paltiel, which has accompanied us throughout our history. From Egypt to Spain to Greece, England, Magdeburg, Dunkirk, Iran and America, and points in between, we are still Jews. And in the times to come, he adds, this will be the fulfillment of the prophecy (Hoshea 2:1) "Yet the Children of Israel will be counted like the sands of the sea which cannot be counted". Wherever we are found, there shall we be, still Jews.
May Shabbos Chazon make way for those better times ahead. Good Shabbos. D Fox
posted by Rabbi Dr. Fox at 11:52 AM
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