Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 8 Av, 5784
Parsha Va-‘Ethannan – “I requested”: (Deuteronomy 3:23 – 7:11)
Second Portion: Deuteronomy 4:5 – 4:40

Good morning! As we begin this week, and head into one of the darkest nights on the Hebrew calendar, we are called to make requests.  What is it we are requesting of Hashem?  What is it we desire to cleave to? What do we need to abide in?

At sundown tonight, we begin Tisha B’Av – the 9^th of Av. We have spoke at length about the holiday – more is here 

As the custom is to not study Torah, I will not be posting Torah thoughts tomorrow, and will return the following day.

Tisha B’Av reminds us of the destruction of the two temples.  What have we lost over the past year? What are needing to leave behind and grieve so we can move forward?

Let’s dig into the Torah!

5Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, as the Lord, my God, commanded me, to do so in the midst of the land to which you are coming to possess.

6And you shall keep [them] and do [them], for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the eyes of the peoples, who will hear all these statutes and say, “Only this great nation is a wise and understanding people. “

7For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the Lord our God is at all times that we call upon Him?

8And which great nation is it that has just statutes and ordinances, as this entire Torah, which I set before you this day?

So let’s talk about “statutes” and “ordinances.”  What do these words mean?

A statute is a written law passed by a legislative body.  It comes from the word “standing” in Latin (status).

An ordinance is a piece of legislation enacted by a municipal authority, a decree

In my head, these statutes and ordinances are ways we can connect with Hashem.  We discussed earlier how Hashem is often alienated by us. The Torah gives us opportunities to check our standing with him.

I’ll confess – one of my struggles is going “beyond” the Torah to the decrees and ordinances by religious leaders that are beyond what the Torah says.  As we’ve read the Torah together (our third time through) – I still haven’t read too many passages that create significant concerns for me to follow.

The rabbis have added, and there are certainly things there that seem more of a challenge.

And I am reflecting on who we desire to connect with.  If I want to connect with a rabbi and a Jewish community? Those rabbinical traditions and statutes (halacha) are important.

And. We need to remember the Torah is our primary focus.  Let’s keep going:

9But beware and watch yourself very well, lest you forget the things that your eyes saw, and lest these things depart from your heart, all the days of your life, and you shall make them known to your children and to your children’s children,

10the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when the Lord said to me, “Assemble the people for Me, and I will let them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.

11And you approached and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire up to the midst of the heavens, with darkness, a cloud, and opaque darkness.

12The Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of the words, but saw no image, just a voice.

13And He told you His covenant, which He commanded you to do, the Ten Commandments, and He inscribed them on two stone tablets.

14And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances, so that you should do them in the land to which you are crossing, to possess.

Now there are some interesting pieces here. The key here is the last line – “you should do them in the land to which you are crossing, to possess.”

These were statutes for the promised land. Pure and simple.

We (who live outside of Israel) aren’t living in the promised land? Are we held to these statutes?

Well? If I desire to be in the promised land, living like I am in the promised land? Might be a way to bring me to that promised land.

I once heard a meme that said “dress for the job you want.”  I wonder if this is the same.

Yes, we don’t live in the promised land – so we don’t need to do these – AND –  we desire to connect with Hashem, and that drives us to want to.

Thoughts?  Let’s keep going:

15And you shall watch yourselves very well, for you did not see any image on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire.

16Lest you become corrupt and make for yourselves a graven image, the representation of any form, the likeness of male or female,

17the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the heaven,

18the likeness of anything that crawls on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters, beneath the earth.

19And lest you lift up your eyes to heaven, and see the sun, and the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, which the Lord your God assigned to all peoples under the entire heaven, and be drawn away to prostrate yourselves before them and worship them.

I wonder what life would be like, if we lived in a world without “chachkes” – the trinkets and baubles that have representations of Hashem’s creation.

Like Funko Pops.  What would life look like if these things didn’t exist? Just a curiosity. No judgment. Let’s keep going.

20But the Lord took you and brought you out of the iron crucible, out of Egypt, to be a people of His possession, as of this day.

A crucible. Egypt was not a punishment. We were not enslaved because we did something wrong. Moses is clear here.  “Bad” things are going to happen to us. Why?

“To be a people of HIS possession.”

Do we want to be Hashem’s people. This is the question.

For those not as connected to Judaism (or Christianity) – do we want to algin ourselves with the flow of the energy of the Universe?  If so, we must go through the crucible of life.

21And the Lord was angry with me because of you, and He swore that I would not cross the Jordan and that I would not come into the good land the Lord, your God, is giving you as an inheritance.

22For I will die in this land; I will not cross the Jordan. You, however, will cross, and you will possess this good land.

23Beware, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which He made with you, and make for yourselves a graven image, the likeness of anything, which the Lord your God has forbidden you.

24For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a zealous God.

Zealotry in our society is generally frowned upon.  Once again, let’s look at the definition:

Zealous means: showing great energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or objective.

The question has to be – what is Hashem zealous for? What does He show great energy and enthusiasm for? What does He pursue as a cause or objective?

What if? He is zealous for us? What if Hashem shows great energy and enthusiasm for us? What if our joy and happiness is his cause or objective in this passion?

I think about my relationships.

I am zealous for my children.

And sometimes they wish I weren’t.

It is the same with Hashem.

So as we are heading into the sadness of Tisha B’Av, can we believe we are worthy of someone feeling Zealous towards us? What would that feel like?

25When you beget children and children’s children, and you will be long established in the land, and you become corrupt and make a graven image, the likeness of anything, and do evil in the eyes of the Lord your God, to provoke Him to anger,

26I call as witness against you this very day the heaven and the earth, that you will speedily and utterly perish from the land to which you cross the Jordan, to possess; you will not prolong your days upon it, but will be utterly destroyed.

So this is interesting, isn’t it? Moses predicts what will happen. We are going into the promised land, AND -we are going to worship idols. We are going to get off track. This plan isn’t going to work. It’s a temporary solution.

Interesting.

27And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will remain few in number among the nations to where the Lord will lead you.

28And there you will worship gods, man’s handiwork, wood and stone, which neither see, hear, eat, nor smell.

29And from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him, if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

30When you are distressed, and all these things happen upon you in the end of days, then you will return to the Lord your God and obey Him.

And? We will be scattered. And we will be few in number. And we will seek. We will desire to go back to the “old ways” of the Torah.  How will Hashem respond?

31For the Lord your God is a merciful God; He will not let you loose or destroy you; neither will He forget the covenant of your fathers, which He swore to them.

Hashem is merciful. He will receive us. He will honor us.

32For ask now regarding the early days that were before you, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and from one end of the heavens to the other end of the heavens, whether there was anything like this great thing, or was the likes of it heard?

33Did ever a people hear God’s voice speaking out of the midst of the fire as you have heard, and live?

34Or has any god performed miracles to come and take him a nation from the midst of a[nother] nation, with trials, with signs, and with wonders, and with war and with a strong hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great awesome deeds, as all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

35You have been shown, in order to know that the Lord He is God; there is none else besides Him.

36From the heavens, He let you hear His voice to instruct you, and upon the earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire,

37and because He loved your forefathers and chose their seed after them, and He brought you out of Egypt before Him with His great strength,

38to drive out from before you nations greater and stronger than you, to bring you and give you their land for an inheritance, as this day.

39And you shall know this day and consider it in your heart, that the Lord He is God in heaven above, and upon the earth below; there is none else.

40And you shall observe His statutes and His commandments, which I command you this day, that it may be well with you and your children after you, and that you may prolong your days upon the earth which the Lord your God gives you forever.

Wow. We are the only peoples who experienced Hashem in person. Our people heard His voice. And so, at any time we come back to observing His statutes and commandments? He will receive us.  We can, in every moment. Begin again.

These are my thoughts. What are yours?

Here are my thoughts from two years ago:

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 11 Av, 5782

Good morning! As we come out of the darkness of Tisha B’Av it’s time to fully set our eyes to light. The moon is working its way towards fullness. We are past the dark time in the calendar- remembering that dark does not equal bad. It just means a lack of light. It’s a cycle. We should not be afraid of darkness, merely see our connection to light gives us freedom to navigate the darkness. To not live in fear.

Today we have a double portion to navigate. This weeks Parsha is Va-‘Ethannan. I means “I requested.”

I wonder. Purely wonder. If all of those things we requested over the past three weeks are going to be navigated with in the course of this upcoming week. Let’s pay attention and wonder together.

In the Chumash I am reading, this is how the parsha is introduced “Moses prayed 515 times to enter the land of Israel, to no avail. But prayer is not always about receiving an answer. Sometimes, it is enough merely to acknowledge you are in God’s hands.”

Consider that. Even making a request to Hashem means there is an acknowledgment of Him.

We have a lot to navigate this morning. We will do the first portion (that we missed yesterday) and half of todays portion.

Tomorrow we will do the other half of todays portion and then the third reading. So let’s dig in:

The portion begins with Moses pleading with God to enter the promised land. He’s relaying the story to the children of Israel.

He tells them “God became angry with me because of you, and He did not listen to me.”

Moses basically says God told him to stop with the requests. He’s given His answer. Moses won’t enter the land. However God does allow Moses to see the land.

God tells Moses to command Joshua – and strengthen him and encourage him. Because he will cross over before the people. He will bring them to inherit the land which Moses will see.

Moses tells the people “unlike me, you were forgiven by God and He allowed you to enter the land.”

Moses implores Israel to listen to both the suprarational commands (that don’t make sense) and the rational ones; why? So they may live. He tells them to “come and posses the land God is giving you.”

He closes the first reading/portion telling Israel not to add anything to the Torah. Nor take anything away from it.

Moses starts the second reading for today with a reminder that Moses taught these commands to the children of Israel. He told them these are commands (mitzvahs/good deeds) to observe within the land you are going to enter and possess.

He implored them to study the Torah and do the mitzvahs so they’d be preserved. This is the key to wisdom and understanding in the eyes of the nations who will hear these mitzvahs and say “only this great nation is a wise and understanding people.”

We need to remember. The goal here isn’t to be “better” than others. The goal is to model wisdom. But more importantly (maybe?) Understanding.

We are called to understand. Not just the mitzvahs. But one another. That is a high mitzvah indeed. To understand another is a high calling.

The idea is the nations will see that when we call to Hashem, He answers us.

Moses tells the people to be careful. To remember. To “keep track of yourself well.” We are called to remember the things our eyes saw at Sinai. To not let these things depart from our heart all the days of our life. We are to inform our children and our children’s children about the day we stood before God at Horeb.

What did we see? We saw God speak. We saw fire on the mountain. we heard God speak from the cloud.

God told us His covenant. He told us the Ten Commandments. God commanded Moses to teach the oral Torah as well – this is where we start to understand the suprarational commands and the rational commands.

We are called to remember we did not see any image at Horeb. Only a voice. Why? So that we wouldn’t make a statue for ourselves – or an image of any form. We should not worship images of anything. We should not bow down to those images.

God brought us out of the “iron melting pot” from Egypt (slavery) so that we would become His “heritage nation.”

Moses reminds us once again not to make a statue – an image of anything.

He repeats this a lot. It makes me wonder about Christianity and the cross. Or statues of Jesus. How does this reconcile with the Torah?

Let’s stop there for today. What are your thoughts?