Torah Reading: DEVARIM, Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22, Isaiah 1:1-27.

From the very beginning of time, many people have felt that they could set their own standards of morality and ethics. They try to live by their own standards of good and evil, without any connection to Divine revelation or involvement. Of course, this is unsuccessful policy for living one’s life. But it is not new; it is the result of generations of philosophers who have unsuccessfully grappled with the human condition. But if philosophy has proven anything in the past 2500 years, it is this: that unless there is a revelation by some higher power, no objective standard of good and evil could exist.

It is impossible for a person to live by his own moral standards. For when he fails to live up to them - and some degree of failure is inevitable - he is left with no recourse. Since he has no authority other than himself, no authority can forgive his guilt. This is one reason why guilt has become such a large part of the contemporary human experience.

Judaism defines sin as a spiritual sickness, and more precisely - as temporary insanity. Indeed, if a person did not loose track momentarily of the priorities of life; if he did not suddenly and inadvertently suffer a momentary disconnection from the Divine purpose of life, and a short “snap” of his bind with the Eternal Creator... then he would never sin! Thus the rabbis teach, “a person does not sin unless he is temporarily seized by an insane impulse.”

Pure logic dictates that this is true... for if we considers what happens when a human being sins, we may wonder: How is it possible for a person to transgress the will of the Al-mighty!? After all, when one sins, it is as if the entire universe is going in one direction, fulfilling the will of the Creator and thus sanctifying Him, but this one person... is going in the opposite direction! And what’s more... he takes the very life energy that G-d gives him, the very force which enables the blood to stream through his body and the air to flow, the very strength which allows him to use his limbs... and with that G-d-given power, he uses it against G-d, by directing his energy into an area which G-d does not desire! Can there be a greater brazen audacity than this? It is as if he is handed a cup of wine by a benevolent benefactor, and in sheer ingratitude, he throws in the latter’s face!

But if sin can be defined as spiritual sickness, then G-d has provided repentance as the cure... and if sin is impurity, then G-d has provided the means for purification. Therefore, one of the fundamental teachings of Judaism is that when any person repents, his sins are forgiven. Thus the Torah states:

“If you return to G-d your L-rd and listen to His voice... G-d will then accept your repentance and have compassion on you” (Deut. 30:2-3)

The doors of repentance are open to every human being, Jew and non-Jew alike. Repentance is effective for every sin - no matter how serious. The rabbis teach, “Nothing can stand before repentance.” It helps no matter how often a sin was repeated... provided that it is no longer repeated from this time forth, as we shall discuss. It is equally effective to rectify an entire lifestyle, as it is to rectify individual sins. This means that the power of repentance is so great, that even if a person has lived an absolutely evil life, even having denied G-d, he can still be forgiven. This is the meaning of the verse, “The evil of the wicked man shall not trip him up on the day he turns away from his wicked way” (Ezekiel 33:12).

Why is repentance so powerful? Because G-d created the universe for the ultimate good of mankind. The only reason that evil and sin exist in the first place, is to allow man the opportunity to have free will and choice. And since G-d created man with free will, it is all but inevitable that he will sin, as the verse states, “There is no man who does not sin” (I Kings 8:46). But evil itself is not a primary part of G-d’s purpose... it is not a permanent thing. G-d allowed the existence of evil, but only as it serves His plan for allowing man to improve himself by choosing good... evil is like a stain on the fabric of creation, and it is erased by repentance. In this light the sages teach that the concept of repentance was included in G-d’s original plan for creation.

Since as we mentioned above, it is inevitable that every man sins to some degree - even someone who is considered righteous, if there were no means of erasing sin, man would be completely overwhelmed with guilt. His guilt would accumulate until he would cry out in anguish as Cain: “My sin is too great to bear!” (Gen. 4:13) For this reason G-d gave man the greatest of all possible gifts... repentance.

The Bottom Line

As always, we commence the reading of the book of DEVARIM (Deuteronomy), the last of the Five Books of Moses, on the Shabbos preceding the fast of Tisha Be'Av (9th Av) commemorating the destruction of the Holy Temple. Tisha Be'Av is a call to Teshuvah (repentance), setting us on course for the season of Teshuvah during the months of Av and especially Elul, in preparation for the coming New Year and the Days of Awe. Our study of DEVARIM will continue for the whole of this period, until we conclude the annual cycle of the Torah reading at the end of the festival of Succos, on Simchas Torah.

The themes of DEVARIM are appropriate for this period. The Book of DEVARIM is the Torah's "mouth", summarizing all that has gone before in the "main body" of the Torah. DEVARIM calls to the inner ear of the soul of Israel to hear the essential message of the Torah. Each of the twelve months of the year is integrally connected with one of the twelve tribes and one of the twelve basic human faculties (Sefer Yetzirah). The month of Av corresponds to the Tribe of Shimon and the faculty of hearing (see Genesis 29:33). It is significant that the phrase "SHEMA YISRAEL! Hear, O Israel" recurs in four key passages in the book of DEVARIM. The message is that we must "Hear the words of the wise!" (Proverbs 22:17). "These are the words (DEVARIM) which Moses spoke." (Deut. 1:1) -- "SOF DAVAR, the last word, after everything has been heard: fear G-d" (Kohelet 12:13).

We find in the opening verses of our parshah that Moses began the concluding discourses of his career "in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month on the first of the month" (Deut. 1:3). This was on the first day of the month of Shevat (Jan.-Feb.), thirty-seven days before Moses ascended Mount Nevo to gaze over the Land of Israel and leave the world on 7 Adar. Each of the six winter months is thematically connected with its corresponding summer month. Just as Shevat, fifth of the winter months, is the eleventh month of the year counting from Nissan, so the month of Av, fifth of the summer months, is the eleventh month of the year counting from Tishrei. The months of Shevat and Av are particularly propitious for deeper understanding of the Torah, and it is therefore fitting that Moses' concluding discourses, delivered in the month of Shevat, are the focus of our Torah study during the month of Av.

Moses' concluding discourses constitute a Covenant which he struck between G-d and Israel in the Plains of Moab, just as he had struck a Covenant between G-d and Israel at Sinai forty years earlier (see Deut. 28:69). At the end of the forty years wandering in the wilderness, Moses was now the undisputed leader of Israel. The rebellious generation of the Exodus had all died in the wilderness, to be replaced by the new generation that stood before him now, poised to enter the land under Joshua. All the challenges to Moses leadership -- the Golden Calf, the sin of the Ten Spies, the rebellion of Korach, the sin of Baal Pe'or, etc. -- had been overcome and were now part of history. In DEVARIM, Moses again and again returns to this history, in order to draw out its lessons for the future.

Thus the opening verse of our parshah of DEVARIM appears on the surface to give the location in which Moses delivered his discourse. However, since the various locations mentioned in the verse are all somewhat different, they are construed by the Aramaic Targum and biblical commentators as being a series of allusions to the various sins of the past and the lessons that were to be learned from them (see Rashi on Deut. 1:1). It is with this veiled reproof to the nation that Moses began his final task as leader: to forge the thousands and thousands of Israel -- who were "like the stars of the heavens for a multitude" (Deut. 1:10) -- into a single, unified, purposeful nation that would be worthy of entering the land promised to Abraham and inheriting it for eternity. Thus it is that the book of Deuteronomy begins with reproof but ends with blessing -- "And this is the blessing which Moses, man of G-d, blessed the Children of Israel before his death. Happy are you, Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by HaShem? . Your enemies will waste away for you, and you will tread upon their high places" (Deut. ch. 33 v. 1 & v. 29).

Throughout Deuteronomy, Moses repeatedly addresses the people by the name of Israel. Not only does the name Israel carry the connotation of victory, "for you have struggled with G-d and with men, and you have prevailed" (Gen. 32:28). The letters of the name Israel also include the word YASHAR, "straight", "upright". This is even more explicit in the other biblical name for the Hosts of Israel - YESHURUN (Deut. 32:15; 33:26). The names Israel and Yeshurun indicate that when the people are united and purposeful under the sole, unchallenged leadership of Moses, the archetypal Tzaddik, they are the epitome of order and rectification. (Kabbalistically, YOSHER, the "upright" scheme of the Sefirot, indicates order and repair, as opposed to IGULIM, the "circular" scheme, indicating repeated cycles of disrepair and chaos.)

Since the issue of leadership is so crucial, it is the first raised by Moses in his discourses, after recounting how G-d had told him to leave Mount Sinai and begin the journey to the Land of Israel. It was far from easy to lead a people as fractious and argumentative as this. In order for Moses' leadership to permeate to all levels of the people, it was necessary to establish a hierarchical system of "captains of thousands and captains of hundreds, captains of fifties and captains of tens, and police". The verses in our parshah defining the necessary qualities of the people's leaders and judges and explaining how they are to adjudicate (Deut. 1:13-17) constitute the main foundation of the Torah laws of judges and judicial procedure. These deserve particular attention today, when the absence of leadership of true integrity and caliber is the bane of all our lives.

History And Prehistory

Moses' discourse in parshas DEVARIM covers some of the key events in the forty years wandering in the Wilderness and the lessons to be derived from them. These include the Sin of the Ten Spies, which is of particular relevance to us this week as we approach Tisha Be'Av, since this is not only the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple but also of the evil report given by the spies in the Wilderness, the ultimate cause of the destruction of the Temple. Similarly, the rectification of LASHON HARA, evil speech, is one of the main preconditions for the rebuilding of the Temple.

Moses' historical survey retraces the final stages of the journey of the Children of Israel to the Land, including their circuiting of the lands of the Edomites, the Moabites and the Ammonites and their conquest of Sichon king of the Emorites and Og king of Bashan. The original narrative of these journeys and conquests was given in the later parshiyos of the book of BAMIDBAR (Numbers) -- CHUKAS, MATOS and MAS'EY.

The Children of Israel were forbidden to try to conquer the territories of the Edomites, the Moabites and the Ammonites. These three territories were among the ten promised to Abraham (together with those of the seven Canaanite nations), but they were forbidden to the Children of Israel (until in time to come) because they were already in the hands of Abraham's descendants or associates. The Edomites were the children of Esau, Abraham's grandson, while the Moabites and Ammonites were the descendants of the daughters of Lot. Lot had been rewarded with these territories because of his loyalty to Abraham in Egypt by not revealing that Sarah was Abraham's wife (Genesis ch. 12).

Moses introduces some prehistory into his historical account by explaining how the Edomites, Moabites and Ammonites conquered their respective territories from the frightening prehistoric giants who inhabited them previously. For: " 'He explains the power of His works to His people give them the inheritance of the nations' (Psalm 111:6) -- for if the nations of the world say to Israel, 'You are robbers because you have conquered the lands of seven peoples,' they can reply to them: 'All the earth belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He; He created it and gave it to whom he saw fit. When he wanted, He gave it to them, and when he wanted, he took it from them and gave it to us' " (Rashi on Genesis 1:1).

Kabbalistically, the Seven Canaanite Nations correspond to the broken vessels of the seven lower Sefirot (from CHESSED down to MALCHUT). The conquest of the Land of the Canaanites and its transformation into the Land of Israel parallels the rectification of these seven broken vessels (IGULIM) and their reconstitution in "upright" form, YOSHER = Israel. The territories of Seir, Moab and Ammon correspond respectively to the three upper Sefirot of Keter, Chochmah and Binah. These will become the inheritance of the true heirs of Abraham in time to come, when the cycle is complete and the world attains perfect rectification.

The Land of Israel was given to Abraham as part of the Covenant. The sign of the Covenant is BRIS MILAH, the circumcision, in which the foreskin is cut off and the membrane over the organ peeled away, signifying the peeling off and removal of the husks of evil that conceal holiness. In order to conquer the Land of Israel, it was first necessary to conquer the two giant kings who were the main bulwarks of the Canaanites: Sichon king of the Emorites and Og king of Bashan. Sichon corresponds to the foreskin, while Og corresponds to the membrane (ARI). The removal of these "gigantic" evil husks could be accomplished only by Moses, King of Israel: "And there was a king in Yeshurun, when the heads of the people gathered, the tribes of Israel together" (Deut. 33:5).

"All that HaShem your God did to these two kings, so HaShem will do to all the kingdoms to which you are passing over. Do not fear them, for HaShem your G-d, He will fight for you!" (Deut. 3:21-2). 

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