From: Netvort@aol.com
Sent: Friday, September 02, 2005
8:19 AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort : parshas
Re'eh, 5765
On
Location
By
Rabbi Joshua (geographically known as The Hoffer) Hoffman
This
week's parsha begins with the statement, "Behold I present before you today a
blessing and a curse. The blessing that you hearken to the commandments of the
Lord, your God, that I command you today. And the curse, if you do not listen to
the commandments of the Lord, your God, and you stray from the path that I
command you today to follow the gods of others, that you did not know" (Devorim
11:26-28). Rashi explains that the blessing and curse referred to in the opening
verses are the same blessing and curse that the Torah goes on to describe in the
following verses, and in greater detail in parshas Ki Savo, as a process to be
carried out after God brings the nation into the Holy Land. The blessing - or,
as Rashi explains, based on the Targum, those who bless - will be on Mt.
Gerizim, and the curse - or those who curse - will be on Mt. Eival. Rabbi Shlomo
Goren, in his Toras HaMikra, asks, if the process referred to in the opening
verses will not take place until after the people enter the land, as described
in the later verses and in parshas Ki Savo, why does the Torah say that the
blessing and curse are presented today?
Actually, a number of
commentaries explain the word ‘ha-yom’- today - as referring, not so much
to a point in time as to a certain mental attitude. Rabbi Eliyohu of Vilna, or
the Vilna Gaon, for example, explains it to mean that a person should not think
that his current behavior is determined by the way he acted in the past. Even if
a person has not, in the past, observed God’s commandments, the Gra says, he can
decide today to begin to observe them. Rabbi Moshe Sofer, known as the Chasam
Sofer, explains the word ‘today’ as an evocation of the teaching of the rabbis,
based on a verse in the first paragraph of the Shema, in parshas Vaeschanan,
that a person should always view the commandments as if they were given today,
thus giving him a sense of freshness and excitement when he fulfills them. A
person needs this sense in his actions, and if he does not experience it in his
observance of the mitzvos, then he may very well turn to other systems of
belief, namely idolatry, to find it. That is why, in fact, the Torah here says
that the curse will come if we do not hearken to the mitzvos, " and you stray
from the path that I command you today, to follow the gods of others." Still,
the simple reading of these verses is that the Torah is discussing something
that is happening that very day, while, according to Rashi, it is actually
describing a process that will happen later, after the nation enters the land.
What, then, does the Torah mean when it says ‘today’ in the opening verses of
parshas Re’eh?
Rabbi Goren answers that the covenant being
described here by the Torah is one by which the people become responsible for
each other. This principle underlying this covenant, is described by the rabbis
as 'all Jews are a surety, or responsible, one for the other.' Because of this
principle, when one Jew commits a sin, his fellow Jews share, in some sense, in
the responsibility for it. There are different opinions in the Talmud concerning
the different kinds of sins to which this principle applies, and also concerning
when the principle actually went into operation, as discussed in the Talmudic
tractates Sanhedrin, 27b and 43 b, and Sotah, 37b. Rabbi Goren writes that the
generally accepted approach is that this kind of responsibility began in respect
to open transgressions even before the Jews entered the land, but began for
hidden transgressions only after they entered. Thus, when the Torah tells us
that God is placing a blessing and a curse before the people ‘today,’ it is
referring to open, known transgressions, responsibility for which the people
accepted upon themselves even before they entered the land. Once they entered
the land and stood before the two mountains, they made a covenant accepting
responsibility for hidden sins, as well. Since responsibility for hidden sins
was taken on immediately, when the verses in our parsha were stated, says Rabbi
Goren, it is appropriate for the torah to write, "I place before you
today."
Based on this explanation of Rabbi Goren, we can
further understand why the covenant made in Eretz Yisroel itself would be made
at the location of the two mountains mentioned here. Rabbi Hillel Lieberman,
Hy"d, in his commentary Ahavas HaAretz, points out that these mountains
are located in the city of Shechem, and proceeds to mentions a number of events
that occurred in Shechem that warrant its choice as the location of this
covenant. One event that he does not mention in this regard, but which I believe
is the key to this city’s choice as the location of the covenant, is the sale of
Yosef to the passing merchants, generated by the dispute that his
brothers had with him. Through this sale, Yosef descended to Egypt, and,
eventually, his family followed him, paving the way for the nation’s exile.
Yosef was in Shechem because his father, Ya’akov, sent him there to look after
the welfare of his brothers, while his sale to Egypt bespoke a lack of
responsibility for his welfare, as exhibited by his brothers. It was only when
Yehudah told Ya'akov that he would act as a surety for his brother Binyomin that
Ya'akov allowed the brothers to take him down to Egypt in order to get food from
Pharaoh's second in command, who, unbeknownst to them, was actually Yosef
(Bereishis 43:9). This assumption of responsibility was in stark contrast to the
way in which the brothers had acted towards Yosef when they encountered him in
Shechem. Thus, a major theme behind the conflict between Yosef and his brothers
was the need for Jews to take responsibility for each other. This factor was
brought out very prominently in the city of Shechem, where the process of
Yosef’s descent to Egypt began.
The concept of mutual
responsibility that Jews must show for each other is based, according to the
medieval Talmudic authority Rabbi Yom Tom ben Avraham, known as Ritva, in his
commentary to Rosh Hashanah, on the notion that all of Israel form one
collective body. In other words, there is a concept of the corporate entity of
the Jewish people that makes them responsible for each other. The lack of mutual
responsibility shown by the brothers in Shechem is what caused the initial
descent of the nation into Egypt. The culmination of that exile would only come
when the nation accepted its full measure of mutual responsibility, at the
covenant which was entered into at Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Eival, which are located
in Shechem, where the process began.
Please address all correspondence to the
author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following address - JoshHoff @ AOL.com.
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