Boulder Aish Kodesh

The book of Bamidbar is the most chaotic of all the books of the Torah.  It is a long series of disasters – complainers asking for meat, Miriam and Aharon complaining about Moshe, Moshe complaining about his task, Miriam dying, Aharon dying, Bil’am, Balak, the spies, Korach, etc. And then comes the book of Devarim, which has almost no action at all.  Rather, it is a speech by Moshe, a recap of his experience with his people over the last 40+ years. He tells them what he has seen that they should know, their flaws and strengths, their task.

In a sense, the book of Devarim is the user’s manual for the book of Bamidbar – given after the fact. They have been through the experiences. Now they are ready to hear why what happened happened. They are so ready to listen.

It seems that the Jewish people, now, are at the end of Bamidbar. We have also seen a list of calamities as long as that of Bamidbar – inquisitions and holocausts, pogroms and assimilation, false Messiahs and missed opportunities. Are we there yet?

I believe the Jewish people are so ready to listen, if the right speaker would step forward. If someone could help us understand ourselves, our work, our challenges. If someone could explain how exactly the Torah is meant to apply today, what Hashem wants and expects from us now.

But is there one voice that all of Israel would listen to? Moshe earned the right after several attempted revolutions. He survived all the challenges, and by the end, the Jews trusted him to tell their story to them. But who could do that now? Who loves the Jewish people enough now – all of them, not just the ones that wear the right kippah – to tell it over? There are few, if any.

On the 9^th of Av, we read Eichah – Lamentations. According to our tradition, the book was written by Jeremiah – but why? The obvious reason is for the loss of the Temple. But the Talmud also says that he wrote it as a eulogy for the King Yoshia-hu. In fact, the Midrash Eichah (1:37) tells us that the loss of a tzaddik is twice as impacting as the loss of the Temple. Why? Because the Temple is a building, ultimately: some go, some don’t. Some believe, some don’t. Kind of like a shul. But the tzaddik can bring us all together. The tzaddik loves all Jews, believes in them, speaks the language of all of them. You don’t have to pay membership dues to a tzaddik.

So we mourn now not just for the loss of the Temple, but for the Jewish people who are like orphans, with no one who can lead all of us, bring us all together like Moshe did, speak a language we all relate to and understand.

Looking forward to the day when the calamity ends and comprehension begins.