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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