Five Minutes to Tomorrow --Devarim

Five Minutes to Tomorrow

D’var Torah for Parashat Devarim: Deuteronomy 1:1--3:22
By Rabbi Boaz D. Heilman

In memory of Ruth Baiuk, keeper of memories of the Holocaust, builder of Israel

Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Torah, is comprised of orations or sermons given by Moses at the very end of the Israelites’ forty years of wanderings in the wilderness. The setting is the Plains of Moab on the eastern shore of the Jordan River, one month prior to the Israelites’ entry into the Promised Land, one month prior to Moses’s death, only days before a new beginning is undertaken. Moses addresses the Israelites at this point, reminding them of the special connection between them and God, and of the expectations God has of them throughout the generations.

Traditionally, the first portion of Deuteronomy (the Hebrew title of the book and its first parasha is Devarim--“words”--after the first significant word in the Hebrew text) is read on the Shabbat immediately preceding Tisha B’Av. The ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av is the day set apart as a commemoration of the major disasters of the Jewish people--principal among them being the destruction of the first and second Temples in Jerusalem. As such, this parasha acts as a yardstick, a moral standard by which the Jewish People have always appraised their existence. Our continuity is not a miracle; it is dependent on our own behavior. As long as we adhere to the terms of the Covenant between God and us, our survival is unquestioned. Moses’s teaching is like a living will, a charge given by a parent to his or her children. These are the moral and ethical lessons that the children hopefully will follow in order to ensure a good life--in this context signifying a meaningful and purposeful life.

Holding on to the constants of our religion--the values taught in the Torah and expounded by the Rabbis--is the key to the continuous existence of the Jewish People. In Devarim, Moses establishes a pattern of repeating and explaining the lessons of the past to each new generation. The principles contained in God’s Covenant may be constant and invariable, but it is each generation’s right and responsibility to interpret them appropriately.

The relationship between past and future is never an easy one. There is always tension between what we hold on to and what must change. Deuteronomy at times seems adamant and even fundamentalist--yet change and transformation are always possible. In later chapters, the book calls for a complete elimination of competing religions; simultaneously however, it also sets rules of warfare that are enlightened not only in context of older, more barbaric times, but also for today. Capital punishment may be the penalty for some acts (such as murder and rape--even showing disrespect to one’s parents!), yet its application is severely hampered by an ever-increasing legal complexity that will eventually lead to the abolition of death penalty as a legal consequence.

Deuteronomy thus acts as a bridge. In an immoral and possibly amoral world, it gives us the opportunity to change things, to bring goodness and even holiness into our lives. Deuteronomy charges us to live, but not a life that is without meaning and purpose. Through these final sermons, given shortly before his death, just days before the Israelites enter the Land of Israel, Moses teaches us to see ourselves through Heaven’s eternal eyes. We may be appalled by what we see at first, but as we learn to connect with the Divine force that exists both within and far beyond ourselves, we transcend our baser instincts. Deuteronomy reminds us of the horrors of the past from which our people emerged victorious. The process of studying its messages enables us to rise above the muck that often seems to surround us and to turn into the “mensch,” the amazing crown of creation that we were given the power to become.

It’s a most fitting bridge to a better tomorrow.

© 2010 by Boaz D. Heilman