Boulder Aish Kodesh

Moshe’s goal, it seems, is to sum up his experience with the Jewish people until this moment in hopes of showing them their greatness, their patterns, and their flaws.  In urging them to courageously cross the Jordan into Israel and to begin the conquest of the land, he must tread the narrow bridge of making them well aware of the specifics of their tendency to sabotage their own mission while at the same time not discouraging them.  They must know that they have a deep flaw, but this awareness must be contained within a deep hope that they can overcome all challenges with G-d’s help.

Moshe’s narrative about their journey does not run chronologically.  He does not begin with the Exodus from Egypt.  He begins his narrative with the description of a moment that does not stand out as an essential point in their time line: the appointing of members of the people to act as judges for 1000’s, 100’s, 50’s, and 10’s.  Why does he choose this moment above the parting of the sea, the leaving of Egypt, and the war with Amalek?

This is the moment when the Jews are given the opportunity to take responsibility, and to begin judging themselves.  It is the first step toward a deeper empowerment of the Jewish people

Why is responsibility the beginning of Moshe’s narrative?  Because Moshe knows he will not be guiding them into the land.  He knows that he can only lead them to the brink of Israel, but he cannot push them across.  And if he could, it would not be of real value.  He does not want to have to hold their hands every step – ‘shall I bear them like a nursemaid holds a suckling child?’  A deeply ingrained sense of justice is essential to the success of their sustained inhabitation of the land of Israel.

Therefore, the beginning of their story - their birth, so to speak - is the moment when they begin to take responsibility for governing themselves.  And immediately after telling them about their birth into responsibility, he shows them what they did with that power of choice:  the episode of the spies.

At that moment, the Jewish people were presented with two reports on the state of the land of Israel – that of Yehoshua and Kalev, and that of the rest of the spies.  Here, as opposed to in Bamidbar, Moshe repeats only one of those reports – ‘they said that the land that Hashem our G-d wants to give us is good!  But you did not want to go up.’  Moshe focuses our attention on a decision made by the Jewish people; they chose to respect one report and not the other.  He is indicating to them that maturity and responsibility are defined by the capacity to make healthy decisions.

This moment is deeply resonant with the moment of choice given to Eve and Adam.  Eve and Adam were told not to eat, and were told what the consequences would be if they did eat.  They were then faced with a choice whether to live by G-d’s word without first gaining experience.  Just as the Jewish people felt they needed to see the land of Israel to decide whether they wanted to live there, Eve and Adam decided to investigate the results of eating from the Tree rather than take G-d’s word.

But, as the Gemarra Pesachim 68a says, Hashem uses the same tool to strike and to heal.  The very result of the fall from Eden, and the very result of indiscretion of the spies, would be used to bring healing.

Eve and Adam opened up the doors of distinction between good and bad, as Ramban and Kli Yakar comment.  The fixing of their sin, therefore, is to choose the good in every situation, as R’ Tzaddok explains in many places.  They created choice by eating, and they must use choice in a positive way in order to undo the damage caused by creating choice.

Similarly, the Jews’ buy-in to the spies’ report brought great calamity into the world, and that calamity brought with it its own fixing.  As is written in the Gemarra Ta’anit 29a, Hashem says to the Jewish people, ‘You cry tonight unnecessary tears?  I will set in place for all of your generations a reason to cry.’  That night was the 9^th of Av.  Thus the 9^th of Av - the day of the destruction of both Temples, plus countless tragedies throughout Jewish history – was born.

But, as mentioned, G-d strikes and heals with the same tool.  In Kohelet 3:4, we read, ‘there is a time to cry and a time to laugh.’  Rashi tells us there, plainly, the time to cry is on the 9^th of Av.  This is a day when our crying can bring healing to the damage we caused by crying for no reason.   The 9^th of Av is the punishment, and the 9^th of Av is the fixing.

What is the difference between the tears of that first 9^th of Av, when the Jews cried for no reason, and subsequent 9ths of Av, when we are encouraged to cry?  Those first tears were tears of resistance, like a child throwing a tantrum because he does not want to go to bed.  The tears we shed now, on the 9^th of Av, are tears at our frustrated effort to reclaim the depths of relationship that have been lost.