Boulder Aish Kodesh

In Parshat V’etchanan, Moshe continues his month-long speech to the Jewish people as his days leading the people near their end.  The speech takes many turns; jumping from topic to topic, form personal testimony to national interests, from law to theology to reprimand.  Moshe speaks the role of the suffering servant, knower of G-d’s mercy as well as G-d’s ‘stubbornness’, knower of law, knower of the Jewish people’s nature –their privileged status as well as their stubbornness and tendency toward idol worship, knower of the future and purveyor of history.

The reader may be lost in the many fluctuations in Moshe’s speech.  This the basic route of the part of his speech brought in this week’s Parsha, read with the subtext brought by the sages:

1. Moshe reports that he has begged Hashem (515 times, according to the numerical value of the word ve’etchanan) to be allowed to enter the land of Israel.  He reports that Hashem refused his request, but he will be allowed to see the land.
2. Moshe tells the people that listening to the mitzvot that he has taught them is necessary in order for them to live and to inherit the land.  They should not add to or subtract from that which he has taught them.
3. In an odd leap, he exhorts them to see what happened to those who worshipped ba’al pe’or (they are dead), while they, who are listening to him at that moment, are still alive.
4. He then tells them to see that he has taught them laws according to what G-d has commanded.  They must not only do it, but continue to learn it (Rashi).
5. What must they learn?  The Gemarra Shabbat 75a tells us that, at this point, Moshe is referring to learning astronomy for the sake of establishing a calendar.  This will deeply impress those who worship sun, moon, and stars, for one would think that the object of worship would have its own will, but the Jews, in learning the specifics of the celestial bodies, will show that they are actually predictable (Torah Temimah).
6. Moshe expresses the uniqueness of the Jewish people in the sense that a) Hashem is so close to them that they can pray about whatever they need to, and nothing interferes with that prayer (except, perhaps, his being allowed to enter the land of Israel) and b) their laws are totally just.
7. But, says Moshe, they must continue to remember (and, according to some, mention daily) their experience at Sinai where G-d spoke to them but G-d was not seen – neither male nor female, no image of an animal, or sun, moon, or planet.
8. A brief moment of history – Moshe reminds them that Hashem took them out of the crucible of Egypt to be their G-d.
9. Then a quick departure – ‘but g-d was angry with me because of your words (which words?  Rashi interprets as ‘matters’) and G-d vowed that I would nto cross the Jordan…’
10. Then a return to the topic at hand (that is, two hands ago) – Moshe tells them not to forget the covenant by making molten idols, for G-d is a jealous G-d.
11. Then a glance into the future – when you have children and grandchildren in the land, and you will make idols, I (says Moshe) invoke heaven and earth as witnesses that you will be cast out of the land into exile.  And from there, you will cry out to G-d and G-d will answer, for you will call out with all your heart.  For G-d is merciful – G-d will not forget the covenant He has with your ancestors.
12. And a philosophical question with a verifiable answer, meant to make the Jewish people aware of the impact of what they have experienced:  Has any nation ever heard G-d speak to them from within the fire and lived?  Or has G-d plucked one nation from within another nation with miracles and wonders, as G-d did in front of your eyes?  You have been shown that G-d is the ultimate power.  Moshe emphasizes: be clear that there is only one G-d, and it is Hashem, who took you out of Egypt.  Keep His laws.  End second aliyah.

This sort of back-and-forth continues throughout the Torah portion.  How are we to understand Moshe’s seemingly unorganized speech?  Is it because he did not have effective speechwriters, or is there an underlying sense of organization?

Upon looking deeper, we find a deep and moving lesson:  Moshe is telling the story of the Jewish people as a story of human beings interacting with the Divine.  That human beings, with all their faults and limitations, can have direct contact with the Divine is miraculous.  That human beings can affect the will of the Divine is even more miraculous.  The entire Parsha calls our attention to the paradox of human beings touching the Divine, and guides us toward a sense of our responsibilities within that relationship.

Perhaps the Jews have taken G-d’s hand in their lives for granted.  ‘Go and ask’, he tells them, ‘whether an entire nation has heard the voice of G-d from within the fire and survived.’  Has G-d every come to pluck one nation from within another, with miracles and wonders, like he took you out of Egypt?’  These are moments unprecedented in the history of humanity.  These moments need to be preserved and remembered: ‘be careful, lest you forget what you saw – and tell your children about it! – when you stood before Hashem at Horev…(Devarim 4:9-10)’

But in telling them how essential it is to remember that precious moment, he commands them to be exceptionally clear about what they saw: there was no image.  The memory is a positive memory of an Absence, indescribable, free of the specifics that lend to categorization.  It must remain the memory of an event that transcended all categories, for that moment of transcendence will be an eternal source of inspiration.

For that moment to be kept alive in its formlessness, we must have practices that take us back to its brink.  While Moshe lays out a system of laws that cannot be added to or taken away from, he also demands that we continue to study.  Rashi interprets the Devarim 4:6, which reads ‘and you shall guard, and you shall due’ as commandment to learn as well as to do.  How is the guarding like learning?  It guards the openness of the laws as channels to the will of the Divine.  It keeps them from being clogged by habit.  It keeps humans in constant contact with the Divine.  It is this guarding that has kept the Torah as a living entity to this very day.

The Parsha also contains the first paragraph of the Shema.  When uttering the Shema – ‘Hear!’ – we are forced again to encounter the Divine Unity that transcends our perception.  We therefore close our eyes, lest we be distracted by the illusion of multiplicity we might see in the world.

The Shema continues with a series of laws of encounter with the infinite – to love with all of our hearts, souls, and might.  Is it possible for a human to do something with all of his heart, soul, and might?  We are commanded to be constantly moving toward that reality.  ‘And you shall teach them to your children’ – the perpetual teaching keeps that infinite moment alive.  Each child or student brings new questions and sensibilities that enhance the Torah’s expression in the world.  ‘You shall bind them for a sign upon your hand’ – with mezuzah, we are constantly placing these infinite words in our finite realities – body, time, and space -  and they call to us from there toward the Divine.

The Jews are fully aware of the paradox of human encounter with the Divine.  After G-d has spoken to them at Sinai, the Jews make a request of Moshe:  ‘G-d has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from within the fire.  On this day, we have seen that a person can survive being spoken to by G-d.  Now, why should we die, being consumed by this great fire?  If we continue to hear the voice of G-d, we will die (dev. 5:22).’  They were well aware of sitting in the middle of a paradox- they had already heard the voice of G-d and lived, but were now afraid of death.  These are the twin realities of the human encounter with the Divine.

A clear answer is given to them: ‘They have spoken wisely.  Tell them to go back to their tents.  But you [Moshe] stay here with me.’  Gemarra Beitzah 5b reads the return to the tent as permission to re-engage in marital relations after three days of separation.  You may return to your humanity after brushes with the Divine.  It is expected.

‘But Moshe remains with me.’  Moshe is the ‘man of G-d’ (Psalm 90:1).  He represents the limits of the human experience of the Divine.  He alone was capable of not eating or drinking for 40 days in order to bring down the Torah.  His level of openness to Divine inspiration and prophecy was unprecedented and has gone unmatched. The entire 5^th book of the Torah was spoken by Moshe extemporaneously.  He had achieved a level of synthesis with the Divine whereby his words were G-d’s words.  The gap between the human and the divine was brought to its narrowest point.

Moshe, as our leader, demonstrates to us how we, as finite beings,  are expected to expected to encounter the Infinite: by maintaining our finitude within the relationship.  As the Midrash says, he had prayed 515 times to enter the land of Israel, and was denied.  One does not serve the Divine by ceasing to be human.  It is by being quite human that we serve G-d most.  To this end, the Parsha repeats a certain phrase many times:  ‘Behold, I have taught you laws and statutes, as Hashem my G-d commanded me, to perform them within the land’ (Dev. 4:5); ‘that they will learn to fear Me all of their days that they live upon the land (Dev. 4:10); ‘and G-d commanded me at that time to teach you laws and statues, to do them in the land (Dev. 4:14) etc.

Our challenge is to maintain our hold on our finite worlds while opening to the infinite.  These laws are pipelines to the Infinite, but they are performed within the finite.

For this reason, Moshe constantly intersperses his own narrative within the narrative of the people:  this is the story, he tells us, of humans reaching toward the Divine.  This relationship is the crucible of transformation whereby the finite takes its essential place within the theater if the Infinite.