A Thought on Parshas Va'eschanan

"...v'yodata ha'yom v'hash'eivosa el levav'echa..." "...and you shall know, this day, and take it to your heart..." (4:39) This verse is a familiar one. We recite it daily in the Aleinu prayer. It emphasizes that there is no other G-d than the One Above Who is the One below. The term "v'ha'sheivosa el levav'echa" - and you should take it to heart - has always intrigued me. The verse demands of us that we know clearly and well that HaShem is One. What is added by telling us that we should also take it to heart? Does it mean that I have to know it, and feel it too? Does it mean that I have to believe in the Unity of HaShem and somehow make that belief reflexive and second nature? None of the classic English translations shed light on the meaning of the clause. Rashi is mysteriously silent here. The Gan, however, wants us to understand the clause. We will notice that the word is levav'echa, instead of leibecha. The latter word is singular whereas the former - the one used in our verse - is plural. Literally, the clause would read "take it to your hearts." Now, perhaps because of that nuance, the Gan infers what Chazal often infer when the "heart" word is written in plural, namely, that it encompasses "the other part of our mind" which we know as the "yetzer ha'ra." In other words, the Torah preempts here the wayward thoughts that one is inclined to have, even upon realizing how great HaShem is, that our baser side would consider that there is no need to make a big deal about things just because of that theological premise. HaShem is here, HaShem is there, HaShem is truly everywhere, as the children's song goes, but the restless adult is very likely to say that he knows that to be true yet he still has an impulse to counter that this belief in G-d is "just" a universal reality, not a personal and subjective one that has to shape or interfere with private life. Sort of like a very bright Jewish thinker I know of who contends that he is "non-practicing Orthodox." The Gan says that what the Torah instructs here is to know that HaShem is One, and to recognize that this knowledge is a mechayav - it obligates us in accepting Him within ourselves as well. The next verse (40) teaches "follow His ways for your sake and for the sake of your descendants and for all times." The "knowledge" of HaShem is a major step but it is not a guarantee of anything at all if we do not fully internalize that knowledge. Living in accordance with that knowledge is the next step, leading to continuity, to ascendance, to generations, and to eternity. Next time I say Aleinu and get to that verse, I hope to emphasize this point: I know that HaShem is One Supreme, and I do want that knowledge to make a difference in my life. I want to know Him and believe in Him, and I want to make that knowledge my undisputed living truth. Good Shabbos Nachamu. D Fox

A Thought on Parshas Devarim

"...Re'aeh noson HaShem...lifan'echa...es ha'aretz..." "...See that HaShem has placed before you the land..." (1:21) With this week's Torah reading, we begin the final book of Chumash. We have been studying the Torah according to the insightful views of Rabbeinu Aharon ben Yosi haLevi - the author of the Gan. At times he offers a "pshat" - an interpretation, which draws on the exact meaning and sequence of the words. At times he draws on a midrash - a lesson derived by our sages - which veers from the midrashic approach cited by Rashi. At times, the Gan is more homiletic, culling lessons and values from the context of the verses. This week, on the above words, he draws such a lesson. What is it that HaShem wanted us to "see" with regard to "giving" the promised land to us? After all, he had not yet given it to us; we were still en route to that new territory. Moreover, what was there to "see" if we had not yet set eyes on that land? The terminology needs clarification. The Gan writes that HaShem wanted us to look back - to see - that He was presenting us with a special land indeed. The terrain which we had endured for forty years was, by the Torah's own description (8:15) "a massive and frightening wilderness, a place of venomous snakes, scorpions, waterless expanse, thirst, rock and flint." The deserts which we traversed were hostile and inhospitable. Yet, we made it through, surviving the elements and the odds. We could look back and we could see that. Now, with that retrospective, one might easily dwell on the horrors and the dread which we had faced, and get fixated on the fearsome trauma of having had to endure those hazards. What the Torah teaches us, in this verse, is that HaShem wanted us to dwell not on the fact that we had confronted terror but rather that we had clearly survived all of that terror. What that means is that HaShem had His plan which definitely included the planned outcome that despite our being exposed to danger, we were destined to make it through virtually unscathed. That means that HaShem did not want us to succumb to the dangers; He wanted to take us past all of that in order to bring us elsewhere. That could only mean that whatever was in the past was but a prelude to the next step ahead, that of entering the Promised Land. This, then, is the sequence of the verse: look back and see what you were protected from, and rather than fret over what might have happened to you, focus on what it means that you were saved from tragedy. Being saved means that HaShem wanted you to reach this destination, so that He could give this land to you. I recently returned from Israel, where part of my time centered on the second yartzeit of my great rebbe, the Admor of Savraan ztvk'l, who trained me as a dayan. One of many lessons that the Rebbe zchuso yagen aleinu v'al kol Yisrael taught me is that when one has survived an ordeal, a trauma, it is important that he focus on the outcome rather than obsess about the process. That is, don't allow your thoughts to mull over and over the horrors - worrying over what might have been - dwelling on unraveling and "undoing" in the mind the processes that one went through. Rather, one needs to look at the end result, the finale, the crescendo with which the matter was finished, and recognize that it is a loving G-d who may have placed you in that process but who wanted you to outlive and overcome it. The Rebbe used to say that this is what we say during Yamim Noraiim when we pray "V'kol maminim sh'Hu... zocher l'mazkirav tovos zichronos" - "we believe that HaShem gives us ways to remember the memories of what was good." This is in contrast with our proclivity to get stuck on the memories of what was not good. We are on the eve of the Ninth of Av. Like Rabbi Akiva, who saw the desolation of the Temple Mount yet laughed because he focused on the apex, the good yet to come, rather than on the painful process of past and present, may we soon merit that point in time when the world will look back and recall only the wonderful finale, the arrival of Moshiach, the return of Malchus Bais Dovid, the evaporation of Amalek y'sh, binyan Bais HaMikdash and kibutz gol'yos. Good Shabbos. D Fox

A Thought on Parshios Matos Massei

"...la'ses nikmas HaShem..." "...to take HaShem's vengeance..." (31:3) Moshe orders the Jewish warriors to respond to the treachery of Midian by counterattack. He refers to this as "avenging the assault against HaShem." This is depicted as if it is the vengeance sought by HaShem himself. The Gan observes that there is a midrashic thought on this. One verse earlier, HaShem instructs Moshe to "avenge the vengeance of Benei Yisrael." When HaShem speaks, He refers to the counterattack as "the revenge of the Jews", whereas when Moshe speaks, he terms it "the revenge of G-d." What is the meaning of this contrast in terms? The midrash cited by the Gan darshans: "Moshe said, "Master of the Universe! This vengeance is not about us. It is about You! These nations do not hate us, other than for the fact that we represent You. We live by Your Torah and follow Your commandments. It is our way of life that the nations reject, so their hatred of us is in reality a disdain for Your Torah and mitzvos." Moshe reframed the idea that we needed to avenge our own honor. He insisted that the vengeance was about HaShem and His sanctified system. When a Jew walks in the ways of Torah and abides by mitzvos, he is an ambassador of the Divine. When his pure and sincere efforts are respected, this brings Kiddush Shem Shomayim to Earth. When those efforts, that lifestyle, is ridiculed and despised, this is an affront to that same Shem Shomayim. In turn, when we ourselves ridicule or compromise our professed roles in this life by veering from the Divine path, it is not just ourselves whose image is sullied. It is the higher ideals which we are meant to model that are tarnished. Good Shabbos as we begin the Nine Days of Av. May we live in the way which will bring us yeshuos. D Fox The Gan was written by 13th century Rabbeinu Aharon ben Yosi haCohen, Baal Tosfos More pirushim presented by Rabbi Dr. Dovid Fox at http://thoughtonparsha.blogspot.com/