From: Netvort@aol.com
Sent: Friday, July 20, 2007 3:51
AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort : parshas Devorim,
5767
Setting the Tone
By Rabbi Joshua (repetitiously known as The Hoffer) Hoffman
Parshas Devorim begins with a list of places where Moshe spoke to the people in
the months before he died. According to the midrash, as cited by Rashi, these
names did not, in a number of cases, actually refer to locations, but were,
rather, allusions to sinful acts done by the people over the course of their
years in the wilderness. Moshe mentioned them in this way in order to avoid
shaming the people by explicitly mentioning these sins. The manner in which
Moshe rebuked the people is, in fact, viewed, by the midrash, as a guide to the
proper way to deliver rebuke. Moshe then 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 and take possession of it.
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. However, Rabbi Shmuel Bornstein, in his Shem MiShemuel, points
out that whether they refer to the time when Yisro advised Moshe to appoint
these judges, or to the later incident of the 'misonenim,' or complainers,
(Bamidbar 10:1), the account is out of chronological order at this point in
parshas Devorim. Why, then, was it placed here? Last year, we presented and
elaborated upon the approach of Rav Yehudah Shaviv to this question in his
commentary MiSinai Ba. The interested reader is directed to last year's message
(available at Torahheights.com) for that perspective. I would now like to offer
a different approach to answering this question, as a follow-up to our remarks
on last week's Torah reading of parshas Masei.
We
noted last week that the laws of the cities of refuge were presented after a
listing of the boundaries of Eretz Yisroel and the cities apportioned to the
Levities as a means of emphasizing the need to prevent the development of a
militaristic atmosphere in the land after it was conquered from its earlier
inhabitants. As we pointed out, before the soldiers went out to war, they were
addressed by the kohein, who alluded to the mitzvoh of the daily recitation of
the Shema in his remarks. This was done, according to Rav Yehudah Leib Ginzburg,
in order to remind the soldiers, before they embarked on their war of conquest,
of the purpose behind these wars, so that they would not be influenced in a
negative way by the actions they would carry out during their battles. This was
necessary so that, once the land was conquered, the people would settle down to
a peaceful existence, which would serve as a framework for the accomplishment of
the nation's goal of becoming a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, and
ultimately influencing all of mankind to worship the One God. From this
perspective, we can better understand the reason that Moshe mentioned, at the
beginning of his remarks to the people before he died, the appointment of judges
that he had ordered at an earlier point in time.
Moshe's
addresses to the people before he died provided a perspective on the events that
had occurred since they left Egypt, and were meant to prepare them for their
life in Eretz Yisroel. The first thing he told them, after his initial words of
rebuke, was to prepare themselves to conquer the land and take possession of it.
Conquering the land involved waging war, and, as we have seen, the atmosphere
generated by war, has the potential of generating a militaristic, coarse
attitude to life in general. Therefore, Moshe made sure, at the very beginning
of his remarks, to remind the people that their life in the land had to be based
on the system of justice dictated by the Torah, as carried out by the judges
appointed to administer these laws.
Viewing Moshe's
mention of setting up a system of judges from the perspective of the military
conqueest of the land may have an additional, although related, dimension,
as well. Rabbi Yissochor Frand, in an address he recently delivered in Flatbush,
explained why people are so prone to become involved in machlokes, or
controversy. He said that the Hebrew word for victory, 'nitzachon,' comes
from the word netzach, or eternity. As descendants of primordial Adam, who was
originally meant to live forever, we all have a desire to atach ourselves to
eternity. By achieving some kind of victory, we feel that we have attained
eternity, to some extent. This desire for victory may, as well, find its
expression in military victory, if the military effort is not carried out with
the proper perspective. That penchant for victory may then, in turn, carry over
into everyday life as well, and, therefore, a system of justice is needed to
assure that everyone's rights are
protected.
From this viewpoint, we can perhaps understand the connection
between Moshe's initial rebuke of the people and his following remarks about the
conquest of the land and the setting up of a judicial system, as well. The
rabbis tell us that Yerusholayim was destroyed because people did not know how
to rebuke each other. Although there is a mitzvoh to rebuke someone for his
wrongdoings, often, the person delivering the rebuke views himself as superior
to the person he is rebuking, and actually thinks of the rebuke as a kind
of moral victory over his fellow. Moshe, however, rebuked the people out of his
love for them, as witness the profuse blessings he bestowed upon them
immediately after the rebuke. Perhaps, then, Moshe's rebuke is followed by his
mention of the conquest of the land and the setting up of a judicial system as a
means of preventing the natural penchant for the achievement of victory to
effect the manner in which the people pursued their wars of conquest and their
adjudication of legal rights. All of these efforts were meant, ultimately, to
guide the peope in becoming the nation that would represent God in this world.
Please
address all correspondence to the author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following
address - JoshHoff @ AOL.com.
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