"Torah Lights"
 
Video Insights on the Parsha
 
 by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin

Efrat, Israel-- "You are standing this day all of you before the Lord your G d, your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, even all of the men of Israel." [Deut. 29:9]

"Will the last Jew in America please turn off the lights," is a bittersweet joke.  The future existence, character and complexion of the Jewish people -not only in the Diaspora but even here in Israel - is a heady subject for the doomsayers.

I'd like to suggest that a Midrashic interpretation of the opening verse in this week's portion of Nitzavim/Vayelekh provides an answer to the 'school of doom and gloom.' We do have major problems, but we shouldn't forget that we have always had major problems.

Our portion opens with the words, "You are standing this day all of you before the Lord your G d, your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, even all of the men of Israel." [Deut. 29:9]

Rashi quotes the Midrash Tanhuma, which suggests that the verse answer an implicit problem generated by the multitude of grim warnings unloosed in last week's portion of Ki Tavo.

The Midrash describes how the Israelites are overwhelmed with the enormity of this second set of warnings (the first appeared in Ch. 26 of Leviticus). As described by Rashi, the 49 curses of Leviticus were bad enough, but this new litany of "one hundred less two" chastisements turns their "...faces green and they didn't understand how they would be able to stand up to so many chastisements."

According to the Midrash, Moses' opening words are a subtle response to the nation's expression of doom.  The declaration, "You are standing this day all of you before the Lord your G d...." comes to address their shattered state. Moses is telling the nation not to despair; after all, they are still standing, they are survivors, no minor achievement given the number of trials and sufferings they've been through ever since leaving Egypt and the long years of wandering in the desert. Therefore, they should not lose heart because of the plethora of curses and chastisements.

On the surface, this certainly sounds like a decent consolation, but Rav Yedidya Frankel, later chief rabbi of Tel Aviv, asks two poignant questions.

First of all, why is it any more reasonable for the Israelites to have "turned green" after this second set of chastisements when the first set of 49 couldn't be described as relatively 'cheerful.' Here is an example from Leviticus: "I will appoint terror over you, even consumption and fever, that shall make the eyes to fail, and the soul to languish, and you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it." [Lev. 26:16] (With friends like this, who needs enemies?)

What compounds the issue is that according to this Midrash, the Jewish people are responding to the actual number of chastisements -forty-nine from Leviticus plus another ninety-eight from Deuteronomy.  But the fact is that last week's portion goes out its way to point out the exact opposite idea: a specific number of curses is not the issue because just in case we try to comfort ourselves with the idea that the Torah's admonitions couldn't be totally exhaustive, the text adds a general chastisement that minces no words: "Also every sickness and every blow, and every plague that are not mentioned in this book of teaching, until you are wiped out..”  [b'Sefer haTorah], G d will bring about against you until He destroys you." [Deut. 28:61]

And in fact, the entire span of Jewish history bears out the horrible truth of this verse. Where in the chastisements are the gas chambers of Auschwitz mentioned?
Therefore, why should a second set of warnings (one hundred less two) make that much of a difference when this all-inclusive warning is already so much more terrifying?

Furthermore, asks Rav Frankel, why the expression, "one hundred less two," to refer to the chastisements in our portion when "fifty less one" is not how the Midrash refers to the chastisements in Parashat Behokotai. Since 49 is exactly half of 98, we might expect a reference that reflects this mathematical relationship, but instead the Midrashic term "one hundred less two," creates a certain dissonance, forcing us to pay closer attention.

According to Rav Y. Frankel, an understanding of the term "one hundred less two" answers both questions. Significant here is not the 98 chastisements, but the fact that it's "less two." If we go back to the initial set of chastisements in Parashat Behokotai, we discover that after the curses and the warnings are presented, the Torah then includes two promises: "Then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember, and I will remember the land." [Lev. 26:42] Two verses later, "And even this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, and I will not abhor them, to destroy them utterly in order to nullify my covenant with them...." [Lev. 26:44]

Rav Y. Frankel explains that when the Israelites turned "green with fear," prompting Moses to address them with the encouraging, supportive terms, "You are standing all of you this day before the Lord your G d..." we shouldn't think that the nature of the "fear" was the enormity of another 98 chastisements over the original 49, but rather that it was "less two," less the two consolations that were intrinsic to the chastisements in Leviticus.

Seeing the fear in their faces, Moses addresses them: You are standing here, aren't you, you've gone through it, you've made it, you have a future, the eternal promise. You are standing here this day is a confirmation that despite the long, disappointing trek in the desert and the many miserable days and awful nights, the plagues, and the grumblings, you have survived. All this time G d could have destroyed you, but the fact that He didn't should be a great comfort. You've made it. You exist. You are standing upright!

I believe that Rav Y. Frankel's interpretation resonates for our own times, (and it is no accident that Rav Frankel was the father-in -law of our present day chief rabbi, Rav Lau, whose own life reflects the great upheavals of the 20th century). Our generation also need to hear, You are standing here this day.

A strange thing has happened to the Jews in America. The most successful community in the history of the Diaspora has begun to tremble because of their success --a staggering rate of assimilation and intermarriage, the earlier 52% figure is now reaching 60%.  What will it be in 5 years, 20 years? The very openness of western society makes it inevitable that more and more highly educated Jews will not allow themselves to be defined by the expectations of others.  Try and tell a Harvard PhD in Chinese history that he can't date an Asian woman, or a neurologist in Atlanta that she can heal all races and religions, but only fall in love with Sidney, her cousin Molly's next-door neighbor's son.

Israel has also been struck by a mood of 'gloom and doom.' Newspapers print story after story about declining morale in the army, corrupt values in government, children of kibbutznikim seeking greener pastures in Greenwich, Connecticut. And even among those who keep the law and love the land, all too often they end up on different sides of the battlefield in the constant strife between the secular and the religious, endangering the very fabric of our society. Where are we heading? Is this the Jewry we imagined when the state was first established?

But I, for one, am not so pessimistic about our future.  In my travels across the length and breadth of the United States, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, I find a genuine hunger for Jewish values, tradition and learning. Yes, these may be the children of totally assimilated parents and even mixed-marriages, but the commitment and desire of their offspring is astonishingly vital. I recently attended a national convention of Hillel, rabbis serving college campuses, the hothouse of new ideas challenging Judaism. They report a student body that is productive, alive, and anxious to learn. Wherever someone has something genuine to say, young Jews are listening. Today's young Jews --once he or she starts on the path of education-- is better equipped to make serious strides in mastering the Great Books of the Jewish People.  Even reform Jews are returning to traditional practices, seeking more authentic expression of their Judaism.

Of course, our collective tragedy is that even after the Holocaust, the total number of Jews in the world continues to decrease. Yet I believe that those who choose to remain Jewish are all the more committed, much more serious than parents who took so much for granted. This minority of serious Jews makes all the difference in the world.  If Josephus is correct that at the time of the Second Temple there were 5 million Jews, then the natural birthrate of Jews should have easily reached 200 million by today. And even with all the deaths due to the rampant killings throughout our history, we should still be left with a 100 million Jews. But where are they? How did they disappear?

We have to conclude that throughout our history, Jews have always been leaving our faith, we have always lost Jews to the prevailing winds and the marauding swords. Sometimes the temptation is too strong, and sometimes the sacrifice needed to remain Jewish was too difficult to bear. This is our destiny. Whoever is a Jew today is the product of generations of the most serious Jews in our history, the survival of the most committed.

Even if we can only speak of 13 million Jews today, we must remember that a significant portion of this group seeks commitment.

Perhaps this is why the words "You stand this day before G-d..." resound so profoundly for us as well. We, the generation after Auschwitz and Treblinka, can also be told by G d: You are here, you are still standing. Despite everything that happened to you in the desert and in Egypt and in the death camps, G d's commitment to the Jewish people has not waned. You are alive, you are a people, and after two thousand years, you finally have your own Jewish state.  Doesn't this demonstrate that a lot more than 'gloom and doom' hovers over the Jewish people at this present moment in our history.

Ironically, despite our low numbers and increased assimilation, there has never been more reason for hope. But this doesn't mean we should be complacent about problems swallowing up the best Jewish souls of our times.

How many of you remember an American magazine called Life Magazine, circulation in the millions. An article from the 1950's featured the theme of the 'Vanishing American Jew.' In the meantime, Life Magazine has long since vanished, but the American Jew is still holding strong. We are still standing here today.