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Shabbat Shalom: Parshat Devarim
Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22
By Shlomo Riskin
Efrat, Israel - This week we begin the fifth book of the Five Books of
Moses (Pentateuch), generally referred to by our Biblical Commentaries as
Mishneh Torah, or a second rendition of our Sacred Torah (See the Ramban’s
introduction to this Book). The fifteenth century philosopher and Biblical
commentator Don Isaac Abarbanel explains it as Moses commentary to the prior
three books of Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, which deal with our freedom
from Egyptian enslavement, the desert experience and the many laws which G-d
gave the Israelites during this momentous forty-year period.
Our Sages, however, have simply called this book Devarim, or Words, and
indeed it contains the farewell speech, which was Moses final legacy to the
Israelites. It is almost ironic that Moses - who, when he was attempting to
decline the position of leadership offered to him by G-d, described himself
as “not being a man of words” - now takes his
leave of this world and his vocation within it with the longest farewell
speech in history, his words encompassing thirty-four Biblical chapters.
Perhaps this was because he really did not wish to be retired at all!
The very appellation Devarim or Words for a Biblical book appears to deny
the validity of a popular children’s jingle, “Sticks and stones may
break my bones, but words (or names) can never harm me;” it rather
corroborates the Yiddish aphorism, “A slap goes away, but a word continues
to stay” (“a patsch dergeyt, a vort bashteyt”). Indeed, I would argue
that words play a crucial role in our tradition making a decisive
contribution in the three areas of establishing new realities, of cementing
obligations and relationships and of reaching out into eternity.
Let us begin with the simple Hebrew linguistic fact that davar can mean both
word and object – in no small measure because a spoken word often leads
the most impressive objects and activities. The Hebrew word dabar is a
leader, who has the ability to move people to the most positively creative
or negatively destructive acts by force of his rhetoric and oratory; witness
Winston Churchill on the one hand and Hitler on the other. Hence the last
chapter of our Ethics of the Ancestors (Mishnah Avot) opens with the
declaration: “By means of ten statements of words did the Almighty create
the world.” There are two separate Talmudic tractates, Nedarim
(Promises) and Shavuot (Oaths), which teach us how words can create
new realities and can alter one’s life to an amazing degree; an oath to
stop talking to a specific individual or not to eat meat products or to
exercise every morning can certainly dramatically change one’s daily
regimen.
Every parent can well understand the difference between calling a child a
good person or chiding a child for having committed an improper action,
between casting a child as stupid or constantly praising a child for his
every academic advancement. Parental words often become self- fulfilling
prophecies. And when our Sages teach us that “life and death reside in the
word“(or tongue), journalists reinforce that message every day that we
read a slanderous allegation about one of our supposed leaders.
Secondly, words establish or destroy relationships and obligations. Even if
the words “I love you” have unfortunately lost their significance in
most places of western culture, the verbal formula “You are sanctified
unto me with this ring in accordance with the laws of Moses and of Israel”
(in front of two valid witnesses) creates a marriage between two individuals
with all that such a relationship implies. The declaration of the Israelites
at Sinai “We shall do and we shall obey” conveniently obligated at least
that generation to uphold the Divine law, and many of our Sages maintain
that those words obligated their future descendants as well. And words such
as “forgive us for we have sinned” brings exoneration for sins against
G-d on Yom Kippur as well as during the year, and for sins against one’s
fellow human being when expressed directly and sincerely to the individual
we have wronged. Such words of admission of guilt may well recreate the
individual entirely.
And finally, words – and the ideas and ideals, which they embody – reach
out into eternity, because – unlike material structures and even Holy
Temples – they cannot be physically destroyed. The great pyramids of Egypt
have ceased influencing even today’s Egyptians, whereas the Ten Words of
our Decalogue continue to inspire the entire free world.
Maimonides teaches that the sanctity of Jerusalem is an eternal sanctity,
because it is the sanctity of the Divine Presence, and the Divine Presence
can never be destroyed (Laws of the Chosen House, 6, 16). Now Maimonides
certainly cannot mean that the Divine Persona cannot be destroyed, because
that famed philosopher insisted that the Divine has neither personal nor
physical presence (see his 13 articles of Faith). He can only mean
that the Divine words which will emanate from Jerusalem (devar HaShem Mi
Yerushalayim) can never be destroyed, the words which teach how we must
“turn our swords and plough-shares and our spears into pruning – hooks,
and not learn war any more” (Isaiah 2, Micha 4). And these swords are not
only eternal; they are the gateway of the free world into the future,
because without their being put into practice there will be no future world.
Shabbat Shalom
Shlomo Riskin
Chancellor Ohr Torah Stone
Chief Rabbi - Efrat Israel
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