Weekly Reading Insights:
Va'etchanan
5780
Weekly Reading Insights:
Va'etchanan | |
Overview
of the Torah Reading
To
be read on Shabbat Va'etchanan - 11 Menachem Av 5780 /August 1
Shabbat Nachamu*
Torah: Deut. 3:23-7:11
Haftorah: Isaiah 40:1-26 (1st
of the Seven Haftorahs of Consolation)
Pirkei
Avot: Chapter 3
Va'etchanan is the 2nd Reading out of 11 in Deuteronomy and it contains 7343 letters, in 1878 words, in 122 verses
Va’etchanan opens with G-d’s refusal to allow Moshe to enter the Land. Next, Moshe reminds the Jews how they were taken out of Egypt, given the 10 Commandments, taught Torah, and should not stray from G-d and His laws. Moshe invokes heaven and earth as witnesses in warning the Jews of the consequences of erred ways. Then, Moshe designates 3 of the locations of the cities of refuge for the unintentional murderer. Following this is the review of the giving of the 10 Commandments and the famous verses of “Shma” and “Ve’ahavta”. The Jews are again reminded to keep G-d’s mitzvos and avoid the consequences of sin, particularly idolatry and assimilation.
*So called because this haftorah begins with the
word "Nachamu" (Be comforted) and is the first of seven Haftarot
of Consolation.
The prophet comforts the people with the description of the era of Mashiach and the revalation of G-d's glory.
An
Essay from
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter, Director of Ascent
(for a free weekly email subscription, click here)
What follows is a small part of a talk the Lubavitcher
Rebbe gave on the night of Simchat Torah 1983. Simchat Torah is a special time.
It is after all the high holidays, twenty-one days of non-stop service to G-d
and immersion in Torah study and the commandments. And the Rebbe is talking to
a crowd of 10,000, thirsting to come even closer to G-d. So the Rebbe would choose
his words in a particular way.
One of the Torah's 613 commandments, given
by G-d to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai, is to say the Shema prayer every day.
(Devarim/Deuteronomy 6:4) "Hear, Israel, G-d is our Lord, G-d is One."
G-d's unity. It is not just about saying it. We are supposed to hear what our
mouth is saying - understand it in a deep way. We are actually commanded to say
the Shema twice, once in the morning and once in the evening, as the verse (6:7)
says, "When you lie down and when you get up." Not everyone knows that
meditation is an integral part of Judaism. To think about something in a focused
way that will eventually have an effect on your outward perception. One of the
tenants of Judaism is that G-d is the world and, in the world, but hidden. One
way we reveal G-d is by meditating on His presence behind the scenes. We find
one of these meditations in the Shema, from the ancient books (SMaK [1]
chapter 2). It is about the last two words of the Shema, "G-d is One".
The word for "one" in Hebrew is echad.
This teaching also
shows us what is so special about the Hebrew language, above and beyond all other
languages.
One of the explanations of the word echad is connected
to its three Hebrew letters, aleph, chet and daled and their
numerical values. Aleph = 1, chet = 8 and daled = 4. We are supposed to meditate
on this - that there are seven supernal firmaments (raki'im) that interface
between G-d and the world, and one earth. This is hinted at in the letter chet
(7+1=8). The four directions are hinted at in the letter daled. The firmaments,
earth and directions are all completely nullified* to and within G-d, hinted at
by the first letter, aleph who is the Aluf, "the Master" of all
reality. (*Nullified in this context means that the existence of the firmaments
and the earth are totally within and null to the ONE of G-d).
It comes
out that the two letters chet and daled refer to the world and the aleph refers
to G-d.
The difference between Hebrew and all the other worldly languages
is that with Hebrew, since it is the language that G-d used to create the world.
As the Torah teaches (explained in Tanya: HaYichud VehaEmuna, chapter 1) "and
G-d spoke….". In what language did He speak? In Hebrew. G-dliness is
revealed in the actual letters and language itself, which is not the case to anything
near the same degree in other languages.
From this we can understand the
advantage of Hebrew over any other language, like Aramaic for instance, which
was the vernacular in the time of the Talmud and very close in structure to Hebrew.
In Hebrew the word for "one" is echad (aleph-chet-daled) while
in Aramaic the word for "one" is chad, only the letter chet and
daled. In Hebrew it is clearly recognizable that the seven firmaments and the
earth and its four directions are null to the oneness of G-d. This is not the
case in Aramaic where the alef is not used and certainly in other languages using
other letters.
Even in Aramaic, chad (chet and daled) means "one"
- that even in Aramaic you can understand about G-d's oneness, nevertheless, G-d's
oneness and how it surpasses all of physical reality is not revealed within the
Aramaic letters at all to the same degree.
(Adapted from the Lubavitcher Rebbe's
talk on Simchat Torah, 1983)
[1] SMaK . Sefer HaMitzvot
HaKatan by Rabbi Yitzchak ben Yosef of Corveille (died 1280).
The
job of a Jew is to make unity in the world. This Shabbat we bring together the
most special holiday (yom tov) of the 15th of Av and the saddest day, the 9th
of Av. So a story about unity.
Lithuania was known as the headquarters
of the movement against Chassidim. Once a group of Jews from Lithuania came to
the Tzemach Tzedek (Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, 1789-1866, the third
Lubavitcher rebbe). The Tzemach Tzedek was known as a completely righteous person
and a genius in all parts of the Torah. When they entered, as a group, for a private
audience with the Rebbe they said to him, "We want to come closer to Chassidic
life, but we are finding obstacles and impediments. We have questions." The
Rebbe said, "Please ask."
This is what they said, "We saw
a respected chassid who was crying on Simchat Torah (the end of the high holidays
and arguably the happiest day of the year) and singing on the 9th of Av (the day
the holy Temples were destroyed and therefore the saddest day of the year).
The
holy Rebbe answered as follows; "When you are observing a person deeply involved
in Chassidic life, singing is not a sign of happiness and crying is not a sign
of sadness. On Simchat Torah when this person remembers the immense revelation
of light of the Torah on this day, and how the holy Torah makes him happy and
then this leads him to think about how distant he is from his full potential in
observing the Torah, this leads him, not to sadness, but to bitterness, discontent
with his personal situation and acts as a lever to change for the good.
On
the 9th of Av, at the time of the destruction, a person must never forget that
there is always something positive even in the saddest situation. This chassid
believes with total faith that just as the destruction happened, the final redemption
that was also prophesized will also happen. So he sings about the great happiness
that will come, the pleasure of the Divine when what was destroyed will be rebuilt.
(Rabbi
Yosef Yitzchak Scheersohn. Talks. 1943. Page 45)
Shabbat Shalom, Shaul
________________________________________
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For last year's essay by Rabbi
Leiter on this week's Reading, see the archive.
FROM THE SAGES OF KABBALAH ON KabbalaOnline.org
Specifically,
for an overview of the recommended articles in the columns:
Holy Zohar,
Holy Ari, Mystic Classics, Chasidic Masters, Contemporary Kabbalists, and
more,
click to Va'etchanan
one sample:
Mystical
Classics
Moses and the Leap Year
From Shenei Luchot HaBrit by Rabbi Isaiah Horowitz
Moses
had not consulted G-d regarding the acceptance of the Mixed Multitude. Alas, not
only did Moses fail to truly convert them but they also infected the Israelites
proper with their lack of faith during the episode of the Golden Calf.
Moses was forced to insert an extra year (the Jubilee year) after every 49 years to serve as a warning that Israel must not again err by accepting converts wholesale and being misled by them.
To continue, click here.
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