KMTT - the Torah Podcast
KMTT - Parshat HaShavua Devarim
KMTT - Parshat HaShavua Devarim, by Rav Shlomo Dov Rosen
This week's parasha, parasha de Varim, opens the book of the Varim, the book which is primarily the speeches of Moshe Rabinu in the last 30 days of his life. As such, Safa de Varim is distinct, completely different from the other four books of the Five Books of the Torah, in that it is primarily the words of a human being, Moshe Rabinu, speaking to the Jewish people in the last month of his life. Now this opens the deep question of the difference in the relationship between the fifth book and the previous four. Now we believe that every word of the Torah was dictated by God to Moshe Rabinu, perhaps the last few verses were dictated to Yoshua after Moshe Rabinu's death, but besides that the whole Torah was dictated from the mouth of God, quote unquote, to the ears of Moshe in Nivor. And yet, there's obviously something very human about the human speech in the Torah. Even if God edited the speeches made by human beings, quite naturally because not every speech and not every discussion that could have taken place, say between Avram Yitzrach and Yaakov, necessarily is included in the Torah, still the speech is made, those words said were the choice of human beings, there were the formulation of human beings and as such completely distinct from the parts of the Torah which are the word of God, as a form of prophecy coming down word for word. So although we believe that every word of the Torah was given as a dictation to Moshe Rabinu to turn it into the Torah and as such was edited by God, still the stories recounted in the Torah include formulations, words, speeches made by human beings and those speeches while edited by God and perhaps translated into other forms of speech or even other languages, say in the case of power of speech, presumably it was translated from Egyptian. They are still primarily human speech, they are still an expression of the human mind brought out in the Torah and as such they are different from the parts of the Torah which the overwhelming majority which is God's word unchanged by humanity. Now the fifth book of the Torah is primarily Moshe Rabinu's speeches to the Jewish people, to dictate it back to Moshe Rabinu to turn it into the Torah. This therefore means that with divine prophecy or divine spiritual help Rochakodesh, Moshe Rabinu gave out a speech but it was on some level his own words, that speech was later decided by God to become part of the Torah and was dictated back to Moshe Rabinu. So while divine inspiration comes in presumably at least two stages, the original development of Moshe Rabinu's speech and also later the precise, decisive dictation of each word to Moshe Rabinu, it could be he made many other speeches that were not included, yet still the speeches as speeches or human speeches said to particular audiences, the audiences changed throughout that last month, sometimes it was to the whole of the Jewish people, sometimes presumably only to smaller segments. They were speeches made by a human being who woke up in the morning in April breakfast and he was within his generation, within his subjective consciousness, speaking as a human being. Like for example, whenever Moshe Rabinu speaks earlier or from Avino for that matter, Jakob Rabinu, they all speak as human beings from a particular sense of consciousness which is human. Now we believe that the study of Torah is a way of coming to appreciate and know the divine, to be more specific, the divine wish, the divine command, we can't exactly say the divine personality but that's kind of what we're trying to say. Now one way of getting into that frame of mind is simply the amount of knowledge you can take in, how much Torah you have learned, how many mitzvot you have learned to analyze, however the deeper way which presumably is behind everything is through the accumulation of knowledge and learning, to try and feel for what is trying to be said between the lines, ultimately what God is trying to tell you. This comes out through particular halachot, this comes out through how God acts in the world, perhaps it comes out of science, perhaps it comes out of human psychology, and but it certainly comes out of the way God phrases things, expresses things, explains things to us and that of course is part of the incredible importance of the story parts of the Torah, the story parts of the Torah are not just stories in which God acts but stories that have been described to us by God, if we think about for a minute normal literary analysis, when you study literature you read a section and you try to enter into the mind of the narrator or author depending on your style of literary criticism, you try to understand the center of consciousness through the focalization, the appreciation of which you can come to through a deep analysis of the text, that is to say you read something, you try to understand not just what is being said but the psychological mindset of the speaker, let it be the narrator or the author. Now in the case of the Torah, on the one hand we have the idea of Dibra Torah Colossian Benel done that the Torah is expressed in human wording otherwise we might not be able to understand it at all, yet we also believe that it is God who is speaking, it is dictated word by word for word to Moshe Rabino as the message of Akhulosh Bakhal. So when a story is described we are not just receiving the historical information which might be comparatively not very important, in a deeper sense we are coming to an appreciation of God's quote unquote mind, the way God looks at a particular incident, what is being seen, is seen through what is being said, sometimes as we would like to see today by what is not being said, just as when somebody reads a letter I might write or a poem somebody might write, they look into the person's mind by looking between the lines and seeing how the person expressed themselves, clearly when you know that this is dictation from the word of God, analysis should send you in the direction of trying to appreciate the mindset quote unquote of God, or perhaps more correctly the mindset that God is expressing or clothing himself in, in order to express his word to us, what he wants us to understand of his quote unquote personality, whichever way it makes very little difference, our aim in learning Torah is not just to know the information, to hear the historical information, but rather to appreciate how things are expressed and the messages that are being given to us through that form of expression, the most incredible way, almost remarkable to appreciate this, is when you have two accounts of the same incident, one in the words of the divine and the other in human expression. Now we just mentioned a few minutes ago that Safed Varim is primarily the speeches of Moshe Rabinov in the cases when he describes what they have seen, what the people had seen in that previous generation, there are certainly the speeches of Moshe Rabinov, perhaps with the divine spiritual help, but still his speeches, that he has particular reasons for expressing things, the historical information in one way or another, which are connected to his audience and the aims of his speech and what he is trying to teach them, how he is trying to give them Moshe, comparing this speech to God's dictation of the same event should give us two different angles on the same historical circumstance, this is very important because we have no other angles, we didn't see it with our own eyes, if we want to understand what God left out, one way to do it is to compare how a human being relates the same event as God dictated earlier, God related in dictation, a remarkable particular, very particular case we have in our Sedra, which we would like to get into now, the discussion of the war between the Jewish people and Cykhon and Og, rather the two wars, that took place the generation of entering the land, just before they entered the land, they had these wars just before Moshe Rabinov died, in effect these are the wars, these are the current events that proceeded only by a very small amount of time, the speech of Dvarim, why did Moshe Rabinov open the speech with Dvarim with current events, presumably in order to contextualize his speech, to remind the people of the incredible successes that he had just seen before they come into the land, to remind the people that there is no reason they should not trust in God, God's incredible power at giving them these powerful armies, these powerful peoples that stood up against them after they called the peace, let's start comparing and we know this incredible things, the original discussion of the event took place at the end of Pasha Khukat, the two wars were discussed, hardly discussed, just mentioned, at the very end of the parasha, Pezekh Kavalev, Pasuk Kavalev, from there until the end of the chapter, Pasuk Lamedhe, barely 15th Sukhim, of which a good part of it has nothing whatsoever to do with the war, but trying to make it clear to us who we're talking about, which is basically important only in order to understand who not to fight in the future, as you compare this end of Pasha running through of events to the next Pasha Pasha Dbalak, the difference is phenomenal, in Pasha Dbalak, as we read only in the last few weeks, an incredibly long discussion, that can forth between a human being and Akodosh Bok, when people sending the human being to come in curse of people, going on and on in his precise prophecy itself, going on for pages, is not edited in the slightest, with every particular of his speech with his donkey back and forth, and yet, only the previous chapter speaks about incredible wars that change the face of that part of the Middle East, and it's given barely 15th Sukhim, not even. If we break up those, that chapter, we notice, for example, that only seven verses describe the wars precisely, and say that more or less the verses 23 to 25, 32 to 35. The first two Sukhim, speak about the call to peace, five Sukhim, the middle are a clarification of exactly who the enemy was, only one Pashaq tells us of the settling of the land which seems to be rather important, so I understand appreciation of historical sociology, and as we said, only about seven Sukhim could be understood in any way as actually describing the wars. Now, before we actually take a look at this Sukhim, maybe let's compare this to the second and third chapters of our Sedra, Pashaq de Bali. Chapter 2, Pashaq 24 to chapter 3, Pashaq 11, there's a 24 verses, at least 14 are in questionably descriptions of the wars, for your interest would be chapter 2, Pashaq 31 to 36, chapter 3, Pashaq 1 to 8. The exact same instant is spread out at incredible length with an incredible amount of information which we wouldn't even notice that we're talking about the same war. We wouldn't even see the same event taking place in the Pashaq. If we take a particular look at one Pashaq, this idea is noticed very, very clearly. At the end of the peace in Pashaq Khukad, we see the war against AUG, but if you look at this, you're going to look at it and look at it. If you look at it, you're going to see it. If you look at it, you're going to look at it. If you look at it, you're going to see it. If you look at it, you're going to see it. If you look at it, you're going to see it. If you look at it, you're going to see it. If you look at it, you're going to see it. If you look at it, you're going to see it. If you look at it, you're going to see it. If you look at it, you're going to see it. If you look at it, you're going to see it. If you look at it, you're going to see it. 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If what we are supposed to really analyze and take out of our learning of the Torah is the way God looks at the world, or the way God wants us to look at the world, then the way God formulates, particularly events, descriptions of events, in his dictation to Moshebina is incredibly important. A war deserves one and a half verses, not to be afraid exactly who the enemy was, in order to know not to fight them again or to know exactly what the war brought you to, what point, as we see later in the description of Yfthak, that's very important. But exactly how many cities they conquered, that's all very physical. That's not very important at all. It'll be better if there were no wars at all. We remember that Khazal tell us that if the Jews, people wouldn't have sent them a right then, they wouldn't have had to fight at all. The whole thing is incredibly beautiful. In fact, they were not good. The world shouldn't run like this. The war itself is necessary. We have to thank God for what he gave us. We ourselves should not take that much interest in what goes on, in the fact that 60 cities were conquered, so many people were taken. Quite the opposite. God wants to teach us, that in comparison to the story of Balak and Belam, the story of the war is very unimportant. We have to know it happened. We have to appreciate what power God gives us. We have to learn to trust God. But the war itself, the exact account of what happened is not important. When people break their heads over historical analysis, sometimes we have to ask ourselves the question, is there a reason why you have to break your head so hard? Perhaps that was the most important thing for the Torah to teach us. Now, why does Moshe Rabaino tell it to us? Moshe Rabaino is trying to get the people to internalize the greatness of God, that he will go in front of them, he will conquer the land for them, that they should trust in him, that they shouldn't sin, that they should believe. So what they themselves saw was being hammered into them with effort for them to understand that God will be with them. But for us reading the Torah, what we're trying to get most of the time is how God looks at the issue. Akodesh Bahu describes the wars by dictation to Moshe Rabaino with no flashing bullets. More than that. Sociologically speaking, the urbanization of nomadic people should be incredibly important. A people who would be walking around in the desert for 40 years and living in tents, although perhaps about 19 years in one place, but still living in tents, any day could have gotten up and moved. When they take over cities and live in them, that's a very important piece of information. Sociologically speaking, that's perhaps one of the most important things that's appearing in the Torah. And yet the whole piece of information is actually originally given in Pashat Rookat, in Bamid Bar, in half of Pasuk. The war against Sichon is told to us in this manner. Like we said before in the case of Og, also in the case of Sichon, the Jewish people smoked the whole area, took the land from here to there, no description of the cities, no description of the booty. The Jewish people took all these cities, and the Jewish people dwelt in the cities of them. That is the whole description of the urbanization of the Jewish people. One clause, half a sentence. Why? Akhosh Bakh wants to teach us how to serve him. He wants to teach us how to live. He wants us to appreciate how, quote unquote, he looks at the issues of humanity. The urbanization of the people itself, not the good or bad that it brings them to, not the incredible Averot, which they fell into at the end of Pashat Balak, that Pinchas's action took them out. The urbanization itself is of little value, a very little meaning. Such little value that it brings to such incredible Averot is the Averot which we take interest in. We want to understand how we fell, but the actual issue of urbanization is not particularly positive. It's not particularly important. People can just as well stay intense. The development of social structures themselves, besides the good they produce, they appear in the Torah for half a possible, but not much more. It doesn't have that much importance in the divine center of consciousness. However, in Pashat Vareen, Moshe Rabbein was speaking. He is speaking to the Jewish people, giving them a feeling of the power of God. Then he describes it all and through comparing, as we have seen, through comparing what appears in Pashat Vareen to what appears previously at the end of Pashat Rokad, we appreciate the fundamental difference between the account of a human being, teaching other human beings to believe, and what God ultimately wants us to understand. What God ultimately wants to teach us is this is not important. It's important on some level for you to know these things happen. This is not something to dwell. A war is not important. It's important for the safety that comes from it. It's important for the knowing, the human knowledge of that power of God, and that you should trust on him, in him, and you should know that when you keep the Mitzvat Hashem will save you, it is not important in itself. It holds no value whatsoever. More space is given to a description of who the enemy was, than to the war itself, or any of the particular wars themselves. And when you compare this to the next Pashat Balak, this difference is phenomenal. Remember, it reminds us of an idea that the royal bag says that the reason why the Pashat and the Siyim are so incredibly long is for us to understand that the Torah does not have any problem in giving us long accounts, and when he gives us short accounts like Mitzvat Philean being said so incredibly succinct, "Mana, we ought to understand from that, that it's not because Akhodesh Boho could not give it more space, but because there was a reason why it should be said in short hand. We might not always understand why things are said in short hand, but God has no problem to make the Torah much longer if he wants to. That's an interesting idea of the royal bag, about the covenant and the scene. I think it's important to bring that into our context as well. Akhodesh Boho could have given us a long description of the wars. Moshr Abedu himself gave a long description of the wars. Akhodesh Boho could have given us a long description of the urbanization of the Jewish people, which has been very interesting historically. The aims of the Torah is not to teach us history, while it does so. That is not the aim. The aim is to teach us how to live and how to look at the world. And just as any author gives over of his center of consciousness, his focalized approach on the world, seen through his own eyes, Sir Kudush Boho in the dictation of the Torah gives over what he wants us to understand of the way he quote unquote looks at what goes on in the world. And this idea, we should not see only in the Torah, in the stories of the Torah. We should look for that in Halacha, we should look for that in learning of Gomorrah, we should look for that everywhere. The focalization of the divine, the quote unquote center of consciousness, of the mind, quote unquote, of God. If you want to understand the purpose of the Torah, understand that it's Hochma Sharmala brought into our existence as the Magish says, in voracious. If you want to understand, as the Nefshachim says in the fourth part of Nefshachim, how the Torah comes from above, coming into each world, expressing itself and translating itself into our world, we have to understand that the Torah is a dictation from God, expressing how he looks at the world through, so to say, his eyes, his mind. The message of the Torah is not only the words, it is the reading in between the lines of understanding what was left out, that Akhoshpoch wants us to understand the issues and the stories that he teaches us, as a subject matter of a particular nature, not just historical information, but messages of how we should look at such events in our own lives. [BLANK_AUDIO]