Doomed to Failure

By Rabbi Joshua (inexorably known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

In the beginning of parshas Ha'azinu, Moshe critcizes the Jewish people for not following God's commandments properly. He says to them, "Is it to God that you repay this, base and unwise nation? Is he not your Father, your Acquirer? He made you and established you (Devarim 32:6). The double expression here,'base and unwise,' seems to contain a superfluity What is added, after saying that the nation is base, that it is unwise? Rav Moshe Sternbuch, in his Ta'am Va Da'as, says that the wiord 'base,' or naval, refers to a lack of recognition that the Torah is straight, and develops good character traits in people. The word 'unwise' refes to a lack of recognition of the reward that comes for observing the Toorah. I would like to a offer a different explanation, based on the general theme of our parsha as well as on a verse in parshas Shelach, dealing with the group of people who tried to enter Eretz Yisroel after the divine decree that, due to the sin of the spies, only the new generation would be allowed to enter.

The general theme of parshas Ha'azinu is the good that God did for the Israelites throughout their history, and the ingratitude of the nation for what He did. The Ramban says that, actually, the parsha contains within it the entire scope of Jewish history, past, present and future, including what will happen at the end of days. In this context, we can understand the word 'naval' not only in the generic sense of 'base,' but. more specifically, as 'ungrateful.' This is based on the name of the villain in the twenty-fifth chapter of Shmuel, book one, Naval the Carmelite. Naval would not give David's men provisions, even though though they had protected his shepherds from marauders for an entire season. .The Radak there cites, with approval, the explanation of his father, who said that Naval was not the actual name of this person, but a nickname given to him by others due to his nefarious nature. Since the specific fault of Naval that emerges fromc this chapter in Shmuel is that of ingratitude. apparently, according to the Radak and his father, the term 'naval' refers to ingratitude. This is, in fact, the specific failing of the Jewish nation, as brought out by Moshe in parshas Ha'azinu. The Mechilta to Yisro says that this is the reason why God begins the decalogue by saying, I am the Lord your GodWho took you out of the land of Egypt, "to show that our commitment at sinai was rooted in gratitude for our redemption from Egypt. This, then, is the first aspect of the failing of the peole, as expressed by Moshe.

The second aspect of Moshe's criticism of the people is that , by not observing the laws of the Torah, they were acting unwisely. The Rashba, Rav Yosef Albo, and many others point out that even though , in regard to individuals, we sometimes find that the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper, in terms of the nation as a whole, prosperity and suffering are always a function of their fealty to the Torah. This was what Moshe was teaching them through his survey of Jewish history. To breach the laws of the Torah, he was saying, is unwise simply in terms of the self-interst of the nation, for, in the long run, the will lose by acting in this way.

Moshe's double- message to the Jewish nation in our verse mirrors what he told the ma'apilim, the group of people who made their way up a montain in an attempt to enter Eretz Yisroel after God decreed, due tt he sin of the spies, thatthey could not. Moshe told them, "Why is it that you transgress the word of the Lord, and it will not be successful?"(Bamidbar, 12:41). The late Rabbi David Hollander, who was, for decades, the rabbi of a large congregation in the Bronx, was once invited by my teacher, Rav Ahron Soloveichik, to speak to his semicha students in Chicago, because one or two among them seemed to have a tendency toward halachic compromise that they planned to carry into their jobs as rabbis of congregations. Rabbi Hollander cited these words of Moshe to the ma'apilim, and told them that Moshe was telling them two things. First, he said that it is simply wrong to transgress God's word, because of our commitment at Sinai to follow Him. secondly, he said, they will not be successful in their endeavor, in any case. The everlasting truth of God's word, as emphasized in parshas Ha'azinu, needs to be the driving force behind the behavior of the nation throughout its history.

We here at Netvort International wish a kesivah vechasimah tovah, a wonderful, healthy New Year, to our entire multifarious and variegated readership.