From: Netvort@aol.com
Sent: Friday, July 28, 2006 6:06
AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort : parshas Devorim,
5766
Bringing It
Back
By Rabbi Joshua (judiciously known as The Hoffer) Hoffman
In solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Eretz Yisroel.
In the beginning of parshas Devorim, Moshe tells the people
of the preparations that had been made, in the second year after the redemption
from Egypt, to end their encampment at Mt. Sinai and enter the Holy Land. He
then recounts that those efforts were frustrated as a result of the sin of the
spies. Between his account of the preparations and his account of their
frustration, Moshe interrupts his remarks with a seemingly unrelated matter. He
tells the people, "I said to you at that time saying; "I cannot carry you
alone.." (Devorim 1:9). He then proceeds to recount the command to appoint
judges to assist him in dealing with their litigations.
There is
a dispute in the midrash regarding what the words 'at that time' refer to,
precisely. But, as Rabbi Shmuel Bornstein, in his Shem MiShmuel, points out,
whether it refers to the time when Yisro advised Moshe to appoint these judges,
or the later incident of the 'misonenim,' or complainers, (Bamidbar 10:1), the
account is out of chronological place at this point in Parshas Devorim. Why,
then, was it placed here? Rabbi Bornstein, in his commentary, suggests several
explanations, all of which are on a mystical plane. Rabbi Yehudah Shaviv, in his
MiSinai Ba, offers a more basic explanation, which I would like to present and
expand on.
In Parshas Shoftim, we are told,"Judges and
officers you shall appoint in all your cities which the Lord, your G-d, gives
you. Righteousness, righteousness you shall pursue, so that you will live and
take possession of the land that the Lord, your G-d, gives you" (Devorim
16:18,20). Rashi there, to verse 20, sites the Sifrei, which comments that the
merit of appointing decent judges is worthy of keeping Israel alive and of
settling them on their land. Rabbi Ephraim of Lunshitz, in his commentary Keli
Yakar to Parshas Devorim, already cited this Sifrei to explain the reason for
Moshe's mentioning of the appointment of judges in the middle of his account of
the preparations to enter Eretz Yisroel. Rabbi Shaviv explains that the conquest
of the land needed to be done by a united people, and there was therefore a need
for judges to settle disputes that may arise and thereby maintain the nation as
a cohesive whole.
Although Rabbi Shaviv does not elaborate on
this point, there is, in fact, a halachic need for the nation to form a cohesive
whole in order for the land they conquer to be considered as part of Eretz
Yisroel proper. As Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, zt"l, has explained, this is
the function of the Sanhedrin and the king in the process of milchemes mitzvoh ;
the obligatory wars that are to be fought in conquering the land. However, I
believe that there is another dimension, as well. That the unity of the people
serves in the process of entering Eretz Yisroel, for which a system of judges is
necessary.
Ramban, in his introduction to the book of Shemos,
writes that the redemption from Egypt was not completed until the mishkan was
built, and the divine presence again rested among the people, as it had rested
above the tents of the patriarchs. In his commentary to parshas Terumah, Ramban
adds that this dwelling of the divine presence in the mishkan was really a
continuation of the experience of Mt. Sinai, when G-d's presence rested upon Mt.
Sinai. Thus, when the people were readying themselves to journey to Eretz
Yisroel, part of their preparation was to maintain the dwelling of the divine
presence among them. What typified the experience at Mt. Sinai, the midrash
tells us, was the unity of the people at the time, in contrast to the
quarrelsome way in which they had been conducting themselves until then. In
order to maintain that sense of unity as they embarked on their journey to Eretz
Yisroel and to carry that unity into the land itself, there was a need to set up
a system of judges and courts. That is why, I believe, Moshe mentioned the
establishment of that system in the midst of recounting the preparations that
the nation made for entering the land.
This coming Shabbos,
which is the Shabbos before Tisha B'Av, is known as Shabbos Chazon, or the
Shabbos on which the haftarah beginning with the words "Chazon Yeshayahu," or
"The vision of Yeshayahu (Isaiah)" is read. In that haftarah, the prophet
discuses the perversion of justice that existed in Yerusholayim before the
destruction of the Temple, for which G-d said he will bring punishment. The
Haftarah ends with the words, "Tzion shall be redeemed with justice, and her
captives with righteousness" (Yeshayahu 1:27).
The famed Rav
Gavriel Zev Margolis, affectionately known as Rav Velvele, who served as a rabbi
of the Baldwin Place Shul in Boston, from 1907-1911, and later as rabbi of the
Adas Yisroel shul in New York, 1911-1935, writes, in his Toras Gavriel to
parshas Devorim, that one of the reasons we read parshas Devorim on Shabbos
Chazon is because of its reference to the appointment of worthy judges. Rav
Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, who came to Boston many years after Rav Velvele left,
made a similar connection between the section in parshas Devorim relating to the
appointment of judges, and the destruction of the Temple. As recorded by Rabbi
Tzvi Shachter in his Nefesh Horav, he used to instruct the Torah reader in the
Maimonides shul in Boston to read parshas Devorim at mincha of the Shabbos
preceding Shabbos Chazon, until shelishi, instead of until sheni, as marked in
the regular prayer books, in order to incorporate the entire section regarding
the appointment of judges in that reading. Rav Soloveitchik noted that this had
been the practice in Brisk, as well. This practice, and the connection between
the need for justice as a means of uniting the Jewish people and the advent of
the final redemption, should serve as a motivation for us to engage in
self-introspection and repentance as we approach the coming fast day of Tisha
B'Av.
Please address all correspondence to the author (Rabbi
Hoffman) with the following address - JoshHoff @ AOL.com.
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