These Are The Words (Devarim)

Eilu Devarim - These are the words...starts the first verse of the fifth book of the Torah. Perhaps that is what I should title this project that I have chosen to create for myself. These are the words, for I am starting a commitment to myself to write a brief essay on the weekly parsha. The goal is threefold. I am making a commitment to have a writing schedule. I am making a commitment to review the parsha each week. I am making a commitment to find my own voice, to reignite the fire I once had for delving into sources and sifting through the holy word (after ten years of writing almost solely as the voice of JewishTreats.org).

Perhaps this is an auspicious week for my journey into unleashing my personal commentary, for it is specifically stated in Devarim that Moshe’s words contain “every detail that God commanded to them (Bnei Yisrael)” (Devarim 1:3). The presentation, now in the first person, presents the four-decade experience of the Israelites from Moshe’s perspective.

And now for some of that more personal commentary....

The parsha of Devarim is always read at the time of Tisha B’Av, when the Jewish people mourn the loss of the Holy Tempe (twice) because the tragic tone of the day was set when the nation cried out in response to the report of the scouts sent to the Land of Canaan. (For a full recount of this event, here’s the Jewish Treat I wrote: http://www.jewishtreats.org/2008/09/forty-years-and-forgiveness.html).

Reading through the narrative of the scouts as retold by Moshe in Devarim, I was particularly struck by the words Moshe states as part of the people’s outcry. “Our brothers have shattered our hopes...” (Devarim 1:28).

What struck me most about this verse was its possible connection to recent stories describing how young Jewish adults travelled across the world to visit Israel on Birthright trips and then left the trips to protest the State of Israel. Let’s not talk about the theft involved (whether that be legitimate or simply the spirit of the law) in their taking a free trip in order to leave and work against the very purpose of the trip. Let’s talk about the distorted vision of these young Jewish adults.

When the Israelite scouts returned from the Promised Land, their first words were: “We came to the land you sent us to; it does indeed flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. However, the people who inhabit the country are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large...” (Numbers 13:27-28).

HOWEVER. What a terrible, poisonous word and it is a word that seems to capture the current relativism of public opinion about Israel. At the birth of the State of Israel, the Jewish people were rejoicing. Through long, hard years - interspersed with tragic, bloody wars - the Jewish people built a successful, vibrant, diverse Democracy in a land once desolate and corrupt (Ottoman era). And instead of saying that we have been blessed with a land flowing with milk and honey, a new voice has emerged decrying the fact that we are no longer the underdogs in the story. We were no longer weak, and somehow that is bad.

As the volume of the outrage against Israel grows louder, particularly from our own people, one can only wonder at how similar this is to the story of the scouts. Joshua and Caleb were the minority voices trying to remind the people of the promises made to them by God and of the magnificence of the Promised Land. Their voices were drowned out by the fear, the self-doubt, the lack of faith of the rest of the nation.

We today need to remember that God’s promises still hold true. That we are still a unique nation. And we need to stay strong when the cries of our people are overwhelming. Remember the words, “Good is the land that Hashem our God is giving us” (Devarim 1:25).