Thanks, Jonathan, for sharing that teaching...i had come across it also and it is only one of a few examples of how this parsha speaks so perfectly to the message of the holidays. Here is another that i wanted to share with everyone... I can never look at a parsha without looking at what comes before and after, so bear with me while I start by taking a glance backward. This week we are reading two parshiot which are usually combined on the Shabbat immediately preceding Rosh Hashanah. As in the rest of Deuteronomy, we encounter a restatement of laws and commitments, reward and punishment in the words of Moses. This oration takes place on the last day of his life. In the concluding verse of last week’s parsha, Ki Tavo, we read “therefore faithfully observe all the terms of this covenant, that you may succeed in all that you undertake.” According to Friedman in his Commentary on the Torah, the verb translated as “to succeed”, haskil, actually might also be translated as “to bring about understanding.” This is the same Hebrew verb used to connote the knowledge associated with the forbidden fruit in Breishit (Gen. 3:6) and the word does not appear again in the chumash until the current citation (Deut. 29:8.) In addition to reminding us of the unity of torah by bringing us back to the beginning, another insight is possible. In our crude beginnings in the Garden, stolen access to divine understanding was not something we could appropriately use. Now, generations later, looking back over the array of their own miraculous history, it is that very comprehension that is needed for the Israelites to appreciate their unique role in the world. Now it is possible for them to apply that powerful knowledge, divine in origin, once forbidden, to Moses’ sacred purpose: seeing their past and future in perspective and understanding the commandments of the covenant and the implications of their relationship with Hashem. We lost access to the tree of life as a consequence of accessing the tree of knowledge; now we need to use that knowledge as a path back to a meaningful life. (“Choose life…”)
Consequently, these sections should not be viewed as a tedious reiteration of previous material, but the invitation to a eureka moment for the Israelites. Previously Moses says, “…to this day the Eternal has not given you a mind to understand or eyes to see…” (Deut. 29:3). Now that is changing, and we are challenged to expand our insight as the beloved teacher prepares us for his departure from the mortal world. The stakes are high, so too the responsibilities. Since we were all there as part of the covenant, our own apprehension and excitement should be no less, and should open our hearts and minds to the beautiful possibilities of the approaching holidays.
Thanks, Jonathan, for sharing that teaching...i had come across it also and it is only one of a few examples of how this parsha speaks so perfectly to the message of the holidays. Here is another that i wanted to share with everyone...
ReplyDeleteI can never look at a parsha without looking at what comes before and after, so bear with me while I start by taking a glance backward. This week we are reading two parshiot which are usually combined on the Shabbat immediately preceding Rosh Hashanah. As in the rest of Deuteronomy, we encounter a restatement of laws and commitments, reward and punishment in the words of Moses. This oration takes place on the last day of his life. In the concluding verse of last week’s parsha, Ki Tavo, we read “therefore faithfully observe all the terms of this covenant, that you may succeed in all that you undertake.” According to Friedman in his Commentary on the Torah, the verb translated as “to succeed”, haskil, actually might also be translated as “to bring about understanding.” This is the same Hebrew verb used to connote the knowledge associated with the forbidden fruit in Breishit (Gen. 3:6) and the word does not appear again in the chumash until the current citation (Deut. 29:8.) In addition to reminding us of the unity of torah by bringing us back to the beginning, another insight is possible. In our crude beginnings in the Garden, stolen access to divine understanding was not something we could appropriately use. Now, generations later, looking back over the array of their own miraculous history, it is that very comprehension that is needed for the Israelites to appreciate their unique role in the world. Now it is possible for them to apply that powerful knowledge, divine in origin, once forbidden, to Moses’ sacred purpose: seeing their past and future in perspective and understanding the commandments of the covenant and the implications of their relationship with Hashem. We lost access to the tree of life as a consequence of accessing the tree of knowledge; now we need to use that knowledge as a path back to a meaningful life. (“Choose life…”)
Consequently, these sections should not be viewed as a tedious reiteration of previous material, but the invitation to a eureka moment for the Israelites. Previously Moses says, “…to this day the Eternal has not given you a mind to understand or eyes to see…” (Deut. 29:3). Now that is changing, and we are challenged to expand our insight as the beloved teacher prepares us for his departure from the mortal world. The stakes are high, so too the responsibilities. Since we were all there as part of the covenant, our own apprehension and excitement should be no less, and should open our hearts and minds to the beautiful possibilities of the approaching holidays.
I look forward to studying with all of you.
Deborah
What a fantastic comment, Deborah, and yashar koach on a beautiful job leading today. Shabbat Shalom.
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