From: Netvort@aol.com
Sent: Friday, July 30, 2004 3:14 AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort : parshas Vaeschanan, 5764



                                                  Don't Give Up

                  By Rabbi Joshua (continuingly known as The Hoffer) Hofffman


Moshe, continuing his series of farewell addresses to the nation, tells them that they are not allowed to add to or subtract from the commandments of God's Torah: "You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor shall you subtract from it, to observe the commandments of the Lord, your God, that I command you. Your eyes have seen what the Lord did with Ba'al Peor, for every man that followed Ba'al Peor - the Lord, your God, destroyed him from your midst. But you who cling to the Lord, your God, - you are all alive today" (Devorim 4:2-4). The reference to following Ba'al Peor, an idol which many members of the nation had been enticed into worshipping at Shittim, seems to be incongruous here. The prohibition of adding to or subtracting from the mitzvos forbids changing the details of a particular mitzvoh, or changing the total number of mitzvos by adding a new one or subtracting one that is included.  What does the worship of Ba'al Peor have to do with the requirement to maintain the integrity of God's Torah by not changing its contents?

 Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim of Lunshitz, in his commentary Keli Yakar, explains that when the people worshipped Ba'al Peor, they thought that they were actually performing a mitzvoh. The manner in which Ba'al Peor was worshipped was that people would relieve themselves in front of it. Those Israelites who worshipped it felt that it is only forbidden to worship idols if it is done in an honorable way. However, to relieve oneself in front of an idol really disgraces it, and therefore should be permissible, or even commendable. The halacha, however, is that the regular manner of worship of an idol is forbidden, even if that worship takes the form of a disgraceful act. The prohibition of adding to or subtracting from the mitzvos teaches us this principle. We are forbidden to shape the halacha based on our understanding of the reason behind a mitzvoh, as those who worshipped Ba'al Peor did. Those who clung to God, says Moshe, and did not worship Ba'al Peor, are all alive today, in contrast to those who did worship Ba'al Peor. I would like to offer a different explanation, that also relates to the reading of parshas Vaeschanan on Shabbos Nachamu, the Shabbos following Tisha B'Av.


The Torah tells us, at the end of parshas Balak, that Moshe told the leaders of the people to take their swords and kill those people who worshipped Ba'al Peor. It also mentions that a plague broke out at that time which killed twenty-four thousand people. Rabbi Isaac Bernstein made a calculation that there were eighty-eight thousand judges, and each one killed two idol worshipers. Thus, in all, the judges killed 176,000 Jews, and 24,000 died in the plague. The sum total of Jewish deaths at Shittim, then, was 200,000, or one third of the 600,000 males over the age of twenty. In the words of Menachem Begin, who was describing the devastation that the Holocaust brought to the Jewish nation, we were tertiated - one-third of our nation died. When such catastrophes occur, the reactions vary. Some people lose their faith in God, and some are strengthened in their belief. Many believe that somehow God forsook His covenant with us, and thus changes need to be made in it. After the Holocaust in World War Two, one Canadian-Jewish philosopher, Emil Fackenheim, said that there is now a 614th commandment, to make sure not to hand the enemy a posthumous victory by allowing the Jewish nation to fade away. On the other hand, a prominent rabbi proclaimed that by allowing the Holocaust to happen, God abandoned His covenant with us, and the mitzvos are no longer binding on us. However we continue to observe them out of loyalty to Him, even though we really are not obligated to do so. Both of these reactions are rooted in the notion that our covenant with God is subject to change depending on historical circumstances. However, the Ramban tells us that one of the fundamental beliefs of Judaism is that the Torah will never change. Rav Mordechai Gifter, in his Pirkei Torah, cites the remarks of the Rambam in his Laws of the Foundations of the Torah (Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah 9:1),  that this principle is implicit in the prohibition of adding to or subtracting from the Torah.

As we noted in Netvort to parshas Vaeschanan, 5762 ( available at Torahheights.com), Rabbi Yosef Dov HaLevi Soloveitchik, pointed out that the Rambam, in his Laws of Prayer, writes that the widespread custom is to read Vaeschanan on the Shabbos after Tisha B'Av. He does not mention that parshas Devorim should be read on the Shabbos preceding Tisha B'Av. The main goal, thus, is the reading of parshas Vaeschanan after Tisha B'Av, and the reading of Devorim on the previous Shabbos comes as a natural result. Rabbi Soloveitchik explained that it is important to read Vaeschanan on Shabbos Nachamu because the parsha contains elements of nechama, or consolation, and we need to emphasize nechamah so that our nation can continue, with a sense of confidence, its spiritual work after the mourning period that ended with Tisha B'Av. The entire process of mourning on Tisha B'Av, Rabbi Soloveitchik said, can only be carried out because it ends with a note of consolation, as reflected in the prayer 'nacheim' - comfort - that we include in the mincha service that day. I believe that the message implicit in the mention of the worship of Ba'al Peor in connection with the prohibition of adding to or subtracting from the mitzvos of the Torah is one of nechama, assuring us that our covenant with God continues despite any catastrophe that may befall us, and that the Torah He gave us will never change no matter what suffering we may go through. Perhaps this also explains why we read of the revelation at Mt. Sinai and the giving of the Ten Commandments on this Shabbos. The midrash tells us that all of the mitzvos are actually contained in the Aseres HaDibros, commonly translated as the Ten Commandments, so that the revelation at Sinai and the giving of the Aseres HaDibros constituted the creation of our covenant with God. Reading this section on Shabbos Nachamu, then, constitutes a renewal of that covenant, in the face of the exile and suffering that we commemorated on Tisha B'av. May God comfort His nation, and bring us the final redemption swiftly in our days.  
       


Please address all correspondence to the author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following address - JoshHoff @ AOL.com.

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