A thought on Parshas Ha'azinu

"...ki dor ta'hapuchos hae'ma..." "...for they are a reversing generation..." (32:20) The expression "reversing generation" (dor means generation; ta'hapuchos comes from the word "hepech" which means opposite or reversed) sounds unusual. What does a generation of people do in order to be called "reversing"? Some of the commentaries struggle with this. Rashi suggests that it means that our people would behave in such a way that would reverse the Divine quality of tolerant mercy into an emanation of wrath and anger. This happens in exile and is a cause of our going into exile. The Bechor Shor sees it differently than Rashi. Perhaps he is troubled by the all inclusive plural wording in the term "reversing generation." According to Rashi, there is only one reversal, our testing Divine Providence until mercy seems to turn to anger. That might have fit had the term been "dor me'hapech" which is singular. The word ta'hapuchos suggests more than one reversal. Perhaps on the strength of that observation the Bechor Shor writes that this reversing has less to do with how we provoke HaShem and more to do with our selves. He writes that we often take our good times for granted, and drift away from HaShem. That means that when HaShem has blessed us with bounty, we reverse our selves from being grateful recipients to being defiant opportunists. Furthermore, when life gets harsh and difficult, we reverse ourselves from being opportunistic ingrates to dependant penitents seeking rescue. Either way, we tend to alter our mode of conduct, our orientation, without consistency I saw a young man this week in my office who has been exploring his struggles with staying religious. He talked about how he realizes that his conflict has less to do with staying or not staying religious and more to do with feeling or not feeling religious. He says that he has tried to analyze this and has formulated in his mind that the core of his struggle growing up in the religious community was trying to deal with religious peoples' hypocrisies. The contradictions, the reversals, the ta'hapuchos which mark the gap between our professed values and the values which we live by are a challenge. May our spiritual and interpersonal work this year focus on consistency and stability. May we merit being called Yeshurun - a nation of integrity and stable yashrus. Good Shabbos. Gmar Tov. D Fox