In the first four books of the Torah, Moses wrote what God told him to, but now, in Devarim (or Deuteronomy), he will recount the story of the Israelites from his perspective. He begins by naming several locations between Paran and Tophel, Lavan, Chatzerot, and Di Zahav, near Suph, each representing a significant guidepost for them. Moses continues with: “…it is an eleven-day journey from Horeb (Sinai) to Kadesh Barnea by the Mt. Seir Route.” The imagery in this one statement is rich with experience. It should have taken them just eleven days to reach their destination, so what happened? At Horeb, three to six million people had a unique encounter with the Creator of the universe. This should have left them drunk with joy and amazement, but his next words, “to Kadesh Barnea,” pointed to where they had made a terrible choice. From there, Moses sent out twelve scouts to bring back a report about the land that God was giving them. Ten of the twelve discouraged the people so badly that they rebelled against Moses and God. These same people who had that amazing experience with their GOD would now be forced to wander 40 years in the desert until that entire generation had died, except for two men, Joshua, a native-born Israelite and Caleb, a Ger (a stranger) who cried out, “Do not be afraid, God is with us!”
Many of us have had a spiritual moment which we can’t put into words. It was an epiphany, a moment when a spiritual lightning bolt pierced our hearts and the eyes of our souls were opened. Did that happen to those people standing at the base of Mt. Sinai? It appears from their behaviour that their experience at Horeb was all but forgotten. But isn’t that what happens to us every time our faith, our emunah, is challenged? Don’t we forget the God who promised to be with us every step of the way? In the process of learning how to trust Him, we find ourselves, time and again, drowning in a glass of water. So, what should we do in those moments when we falter? We can remind ourselves that because we know that God is with us, our life is an upward spiral during which we take two steps forward and only one step back.
The process of doing teshuvah begins with our acknowledgment of what we have done wrong. The scouts’ refusal to go in and take the land was like saying to God, “We don’t trust You,” but when they admitted their guilt, they completed step one. That’s good. But what about the next step? Instead of consulting God to see how to make restitution, they ran head-on into battle. Again, they refused to listen when Moses warned them not to go fight the enemy on their own… GOD wouldn’t be with them. When they were defeated, they cried out to GOD, but now He wouldn’t listen. How often in the history of our people has this happened to us? We refuse to heed God’s warnings, and then we cry out, “Where is God?” Instead of asking, “Where was God?” let’s ask, “Where are we?”
Then Moses jumps ahead forty years later, to the first day of the eleventh month, as they are preparing to enter the Promised Land. He tells the people that their GOD, YHVH, would keep His promise to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and assign to them all the land from the desert to the hill country of Lebanon, from the Sea to the Great River. There are people around the world, including Jews, even Orthodox Jews, chanting, “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free.” They refuse to see that God gave this land to the Israelites. Their demonstrations display their hatred of authority, love of chaos and destruction of property. But the God of Israel creates order out of chaos. To do so, Moses reminds the people that God had multiplied them until they were as numerous as the stars in the sky. He began by taking practical steps by choosing wise and experienced men to govern over groups of “thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens”. Then, Moses told the leaders of each tribe: “Hear out your fellow Israelites, and decide justly between one party and the other—be it a fellow Israelite or a Ger (a stranger). Do not be partial in judgment: hear out low and high alike. Fear neither party, for justice belongs to God.” The Torah teaches us a vital principle to live by: “Tzedek, tzedek tirdof, Justice, justice you must pursue”.
The most difficult thing for anyone to do is to tell the truth. We’re afraid that people will mock us, call us a “nay-sayer or a negative person,” or worse. We rarely even tell ourselves the truth. Our prophets were killed for speaking truth, but Moses, desperate for the second generation to learn from the mistakes of their parents, cried out, “ …you have no faith in your God יהוה who goes before you on your journeys—to scout the place where you are to encamp—in fire by night and cloud by day, to guide you on the route you are to follow. Not one of those involved, this evil generation, shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers — none except Caleb son of Yephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and his descendants will I give the land on which he set foot, because he remained loyal to יהוה. Joshua, son of Nun, who attends you, shall enter it. Imbue him with strength, for he shall allot it to Israel.” You and I can choose in whose footsteps we will follow: the ten spies who caused rebellion and death, or the two men, Joshua and Caleb, who chose life and loyalty. From this, we can also learn not to side with the majority, but with those who choose the truth of God instead of the lies of men.
Moses told his people in Deut.2, “Indeed, your God יהוה has blessed you in all your undertakings. He has watched over your wanderings through this great wilderness; your God יהוה has been with you these past forty years: you have lacked nothing.” Isn’t it amazing to know that throughout our lives, God blesses us and provides all that we need. Then, why is it so hard to trust Him? It is like going from Sinai to Kadesh Barnea. It’s a process. First, He introduces Himself to us like He did at Sinai, then we enter Kadesh Barnea, a wilderness of fear and testing where, with every small step of faith that we dare to take, our trust in Him grows.
Moses painstakingly wrote this book for all future generations, including ours. He told us, “Do not add to or take away anything from this Torah” because there are serious consequences for doing that. וַיִּכְתֹּ֣ב מֹשֶׁ֗ה אֵ֚ת כׇּל־דִּבְרֵ֣י יְהֹוָ֔ה “Moses wrote down all of GOD’s words” ( Ex. 24:4). They do not include the added rules and regulations later written down by religious people and which supplant his Written Torah. It is a universalbook containing God’s moral code and teaching justice for all.
During the next two months, we will delve into the rest of this book, Devarim, until the coming High Holidays – Yom Teruah (Rosh Hashanah), Yom Kippur, Sukkoth, ending with Shemini Atzeret. Note that the Torah does not include the added day of Simchat Torah. Why do I mention this? These are God’s Moedim, Appointed Times, and the Haftarah portion in Isaiah 1 gives us God’s perspective on what we have done. He says, “My soul loathes your new moons and your appointed seasons (moedim); they are a burden to Me; I am weary of them. And when you lift your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; yes, when you pray at length, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood”. And this next line is what God wants from us; this is true religion: “Learn to do good; seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge for the orphan, and stand up for the widow.”
Look around the world today, do we see justice? Who can we trust? Who is to blame…God or us? We keep coming up with Band-Aid solutions instead of dealing with the root problem. When I was in school, one of my favourite subjects was Algebra. Every time I learned a new equation, I would write it in the back of my notebook and memorize it. Then, when we were tested, I simply had to apply the various elements to each equation. It was fun for me. This is how I see what we need to do with the Torah. God gave us His Ten Commandments; these are the algebraic equations that we need to apply to our lives. It may sound simplistic, but keeping them is a full-time job. They force us to make responsible choices, and yes, we will fail, but that’s when we can do teshuvah and make things right. God gave us the ability to think and to use His gift of Free Will to make good choices for our lives and those around us. The Torah is the key to unlocking the truth that will bring peace and justice to the world. So many are waiting for a saviour to come and fix things, but I think it needs to begin with us. We are so used to needing a Superman-type hero to save the day that we forget what the Torah tells us. Abraham negotiated with God about saving the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah…he said, If there are 50, 40, 30, even 10 righteous men, will you save it? And God said yes, if there are 10 righteous men, I will save it. Don’t we say that God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow? So, if you and I simply work on being righteous, will that not save our cities? And how do we do that? Like Isaiah said, “Learn to do good; seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge for the orphan, and stand up for the widow.”
Moses was addressing the “children” of the people who had witnessed the miracle of the Ten Plagues; theyhad walked out of Egypt with their animals and all the gifts that had been bestowed upon them from the Egyptians. They had left the land which had held them captive for so long and had stood at Mount Sinai listening to the voice of the GOD who had set them free. This second generation was now at the culmination of their journey, and Moses was desperate to help them continue without him. He reminded them that they were not to fear or be dismayed, because the GOD who freed them would always be with them. He told them: None other than your God יהוה, who goes before you, will fight for you, just as He did for you in Egypt before your very eyes, and in the wilderness, where you saw how your God יהוה carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way that you traveled until you came to this place.” This knowledge was not just for them; it’s for us to remember when we become discouraged and afraid.
Shabbat Shalom
Peggy Pardo