Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • Shalom. This Shabbat we begin the fifth book of the Five books of Moshe, the book of

  • Deuteronomy, called in Hebrew the book of Devarim, meaning 'words,' from the first

  • verse, 'these are the words that Moshe spoke…'

  • and this week's Torah portion is parashat Devarim, the

  • first Torah portion in sefer Devarim. This book is essentially different from the

  • previous four. It was spoken entirely by Moshe Rabbeinu, our teacher Moses, during the last

  • five weeks of his life, so it is entirely his voice.

  • The previous four books were informed by a different energy. At first, the direction

  • was from top to bottom, from heaven to earthHashem turned

  • towards His creations and spoke to them. Then, from the time that Israel's nationhood

  • was forged at Sinai, Hashem spoke through Moshe,

  • as exemplified by the many times we find the words, 'And Hashem spoke to Moshe saying…'

  • But now in the book of Devarim we encounter a new dynamic. 'These are the words that

  • Moshe spoke to all of Israel...' in this book

  • rather than Hashem speaking to man, the words flow forth

  • from below, from down here, from the innermost heart of Moshe RabbeinuThus the book of

  • Devarim signals a new concept in our understanding of the Torah. Until now the Creator was

  • speaking. Now, Moshe's words are adopted by Hashem, and are equated with eternal holiness

  • on the same level as the previous books of the

  • Torah! This is an example of man reaching a level of

  • partnership with G-d – the Torah including the words that flowed from man's soul. The

  • Torah which descended into the world in order to

  • uplift it and to reveal its Divine essence, effected

  • Moshe to the extent of purifying his entire being till everyone could see that his face

  • shoneit's not for naught that Moshe is etched into the

  • national consciousness as the person who reached the full potential of what a human being could

  • reachThe only human being who is described as

  • 'the man of G-d' (Ps. 90). Thus the book of Deuteronomy completes the Torah because

  • it represents human partnership with the Divine,

  • and is the living example of what dedication to

  • Torah can accomplish. So over the last five weeks of Moses' life,

  • beginning on the first day of the month of Shevat and

  • ending on the 6 th of Adar, the eve of his death, Moshe gave over this book. He explained

  • the entire Torah to each and every individual;

  • he said, 'I am close to my death, whoever heard a

  • verse, or a chapter, or a section, but forgot it, let him come to me now and I will go over

  • it again.' On the 6th of Adar he was informed

  • of his impending death and he commanded Yehoshua, and on the 7 th of Adar he blessed

  • Israel and passed into the Coming World. Our sages refer to this book as Mishneh Torah,

  • meaning a review of the Torah. But more specifically, it's an explanation of the

  • Torah. The word used in verse 5 for 'explain'is

  • 'be'er'…the very same word meaning a 'well' of water….Moshe opened the

  • well of knowledge and understanding for all future generationsHe

  • does indeed review some of the commandments, but the book is far from merely

  • being a review of the previous four. Devarim introduces many new commandments. And, Moshe

  • inspires and admonishes. He expresses dire warnings to his beloved Children of Israel

  • to be on their guard against idolatry and to stay

  • focused on Hashem's commandments, if they wish to stay in the Land. In general, the

  • book is completely focused on preparation for the

  • new life that the people of Israel will be living in their

  • land.

  • We need to open up our heart to the book of Devarim, from Moshe's heart to our own:

  • these are Moshe's last words to his people, all the

  • way to our generation, from the most selfless heart that

  • ever was, overflowing with the love of Hashem, His people, His Torah, and His Land.

  • This week's Torah portion is parashat Devarim, begins famously with words of rebukebut

  • this is not your average rebuke. Moshe has to chastise

  • his people, but he does it gently: his love for

  • the Children of Israel, even when they were wayward, knew no bounds. He doesn't want

  • to hurt them, so his words are veiled, encoded; it

  • could even be called a sweet rebuke. He has to remind

  • them now of their past sins, as part of their cleansing process, separating them from their

  • past mistakes, as a reality check, as part of the

  • preparation, the final stages for entering into the land.

  • He reminds his beloved people of real sins, yet he is so cautious not to embarrass them

  • or offend them.

  • The Torah portion begins, 'These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel on the

  • other side of the Jordan in the desert, in the plain

  • opposite the Red Sea, between Paran and Tofel and Lavan

  • and Hazeroth and Di Zahav.' Our sages teach that in this verse and the next, Moshe deftly

  • alludes to all the places where the previous generation, the generation of the desertthe

  • parents of his present audiencehe alludes to

  • all the places where they angered G-d during their desert

  • sojourn. Out of sensitivity for them he doesn't actually mention the sins they committed by

  • name, but only the alludes to the places. Rashi informs us of so much that is going

  • on here between the lines.

  • We read 'These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel on the other side of the

  • Jordan in the desert, in the plain opposite the Red

  • Sea, between Paran and Tofel and Lavan and Hazeroth

  • and Di Zahav. Our sages say that some of these names refer to places that don't even exist.

  • 'The words 'in the desert' – refer to what

  • they did in the desert, when they said, if only we died in this

  • desert; 'in arava' – he rebuked them for their having angered Him in the desert

  • by saying, “If only we had died by the hand of G-d' (Exod. 16:3).

  • In Arvot Moav; regarding the worship of

  • Baal Peor at Shittim in the plains of Moab, 'opposite suf' – He rebuked them regarding

  • their rebellion at the Red Sea; 'betweem paran

  • and tofel and lavan' – for speaking against the manna;

  • 'in chatzerot' concerning the insurrection of Korach, and for not taking the lesson of

  • Miriam to heart; and 'di zahav' – a reference

  • to the Golden Calf. But afterwards he blessed them. And he said

  • may Hashem the G-d of your fathers increase you a

  • thousand fold. In Ch. 2 and verse 7 we read, “For Hashem your G-d has blessed you in

  • all the work of your hand; He knows of your walking

  • through this great desert, these forty years that

  • Hashem your G-d has been with you, you have lacked nothing.”

  • We always read these words, about walking through the great desert, a frightening and

  • awful place, during this period before the ninth

  • of Av. This allusion to the great desert, also refers to

  • the great, frightening and awful desert of our lives in our own time, and reminds us

  • that even in the darkest times, such as right now, as we

  • reel from the destruction of the Temple, we are called

  • upon to rebuild it. The verse reminds us that you have lacked nothing. We can go through

  • a difficult period, like wandering through a

  • terrible desert for forty years, but G-d is with us and

  • we lack nothing.

  • But there is something about this rebuke of Moshe's that doesn't seem to make sense

  • this rebuke was for sins of the previous generation!

  • What does that have to do with these people, their children, who are preparing to enter

  • into the Landwe know that they were not held

  • responsible for the misdeeds of their fathersbut yet Moses rebuked the generation about to

  • enter the Land, assigning them however softly, some measure of responsibility for the past

  • as well, at the very least for them to learn

  • from and grow and to know the types of mistakes to

  • avoid in their new life in their land The major principle of Torah is always that

  • it's real and now; it's the story of our lives. How

  • fitting now to read of Moshe's rebuke of the next generation, reminding them of the

  • foibles of the previous generation, now that we are a

  • period of spiritual reevaluation, a time of realignment,

  • stock takingthe annual period of mourning for the Holy Temple, which really should not

  • be only about mourning but about asking ourselves,

  • why are we in this situationwhy is it continuing, and how we can turn it around.

  • And so too, just as Moshe rebuked the next generation, our sages state that every generation

  • in which the Holy Temple is not rebuilt, is reckoned

  • by Heaven as the generation in which it was destroyed. That includes ours. So in effect,

  • we too, are given responsibility for the past as well as

  • for our own generationit's all a cumulative process and effectAnd our generation has

  • equal responsibility as all others, to be the one

  • in which the Temple in rebuilt, and the fact is, if it

  • doesn't happen, it's as if we continue, aid, abet, cause the destruction….

  • The Shabbat preceding Tisha B'Av is known as Shabbat Chazon, the Sabbath of Vision,

  • from the first verse in the haftarah prophetic

  • reading, 'the vision of Isaiah'…But this Shabbat is not

  • only the Sabbath of Vision; this Shabbat of parashat Devarim actually falls on Tisha B'av

  • itself, the powerful, evocative, emotional, difficult

  • and complex day of the destruction of both Holy

  • Temples and so many other tragedies. But Shabbat is a time of joy and peace and the public

  • display of mourning is forbidden. Shabbat overrides the fast itself and the outer character

  • of the ninth of Av is all but completely muted for

  • all practice and purpose. The fast itself, a 24 period

  • beginning the night before, is deferred to the next day, Sunday.

  • This combination of Shabbat and Tisha B'Av is a very special experiencewe somehow

  • enter into a vortex, a time warp, we transcend time

  • and unite with the higher root, which indeed is the

  • highest light of Shabbat, and the light of Hashem's love that reaches us on Shabbat

  • supersedes the public mourning of Tisha B'Av, so we

  • will fast on Sunday. Our relationship with Hashem as

  • manifest on Shabbat is described in the holy books as the level of 'banim'– of children.

  • The revelation of the level of 'children'

  • is that no matter what, we are all Hashem's children. Deut 14

  • tells usyou are children of Hashem your G-d.”

  • So what's amazing? We read in the haftarah in Isaiah, 'Hear, O heavens, and give ear,

  • O earth, for Hashem has spoken; Children I have raised

  • and exalted, yet they have rebelled against Me.'

  • Open up your heart in the deepest way….honestly now….this is a terrible rebukebut He

  • still calls us Children.

  • So the holy Sabbath is the level of banimand on this Shabbat, Tisha B'Av that falls out

  • on Shabbat, the Opter Rav taught that this is

  • the greatest, most powerful Shabbat of the entire year,

  • that in the midst of the darkness of these 'between the straits' days, the truth

  • that Israel are always called his children is revealed, and

  • on Shabbat there is no mourning, Shabbat is only the

  • greatest revelation of love. So on this Shabbat Chazon, of parahat Devarim, even though the

  • calendar says that it's actually Tisha B'Av we are focusing on that love.

  • The subtle beauty of Moshe's rebuke in this week's Torah reading is a counterpart to

  • the subtle beauty of this combination Shabbat of vision,

  • Shabbat of Tisha B'Av in which the mourning has

  • been not removed, but peeled backit's still therethe loss, the pain, the destruction

  • is still therebut the inner root of life, light

  • and healing has been revealed. The amazing Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev

  • famously taught, that on this Shabbat everyone receives a vision of the rebuilt Holy Temple,

  • the Third Temple. It's so within reach, he taught,

  • that it's impossible not to experience this vision. Maybe its subliminal, perhaps subconscious

  • but we all merit it.

  • But what does it mean exactly that every Jew receives this vision. So I've always understood

  • this to mean, that every person sees it according

  • to their level, that perhaps the idea is that each

  • individual sees the rebuilt Holy Temple according to his or her expectation or conception of

  • what exactly that will be, and how it will come

  • about. Or maybe according to each one's hopesor

  • each one's limitations. And even more importantly, that the vision is commensurate to how much

  • a person wants the Temple. That's all fine but there is an entirely additional level

  • of meaning to this beautiful tradition. That it's not

  • just a romantic notion, but a message relating to the entire

  • nation having this experience together.

  • People automatically tend to associate this month of Av with churbanthat word means

  • destruction. The destruction of the Holy Temple. We've always emphasized that we should

  • remember that the full name of this month, Menachem Av, means 'the consoling Father;'

  • Av is father. Because everything ultimately will

  • be revealed as a manifestation of G-d's love for His

  • children and is part of the ultimate good. But let's go even further. Open up your

  • heart in the deepest way. Av also means foundation, the

  • basis, the root or prototype of something. So on one

  • level, this month of Av is truly the foundation of suffering and destruction.

  • But everything in this world has a root. The root, the foundation of building, is destructionSo

  • the month of Av, the month of tragedies and destructionis not only Av, as 'father,'

  • but 'av' as the root, basis of somethingthis month

  • of destruction contains the root of building. Every building in the world has its roots

  • in churban. Just as creation was preceded by the null

  • and void, just as a tree sprouts forth from a rotted seed, just as the resurrection follows

  • the disintegration of the body, just as Israel's

  • establishment as a nation was preceded by the

  • Egyptian exile, mashiach's soul was first revealed at Sodom, there are many more examples

  • of this concept in the Torah

  • So why is it that at the beginning of Devarim, which is the book of those who will inherit

  • the land, which is Moshe's last will and testament

  • to all future generations, he begins his speech with

  • a review of the sins, the backslidings and failures as well as the journeys, of the previous

  • generation, the generation of the desert, on their way to the land. But why speak about

  • the past? Why not just get right in to commanding these

  • concerning their future? All of these incidents that

  • are alluded to here in these opening verses, were the foibles of the previous generation.

  • Just last week at the conclusion of the book of Numbers,

  • all the journeys of the children of Israel were

  • enumerated. It's getting on time to go into the Land. Can't we be finished and get on?

  • But the answer is, the generation of Israel

  • that now enters the Land to live their lives, rises

  • directly out of all the crises and failings of the previous generation. And so it is with

  • every generationwhen it is our generation's

  • turn to live, we grow out of the experiences, disappointments and failures, and victories,

  • large and small, of the previous generations.

  • This is the lesson for our time. Destruction leads to building; destruction is for the

  • sake of building. So open up your heart in the deepest

  • way. Everybody loves to connect the rebuilding of

  • the Holy Temple to the coming of messiah. This despite the fact that there is no reason

  • or requirement to wait for messiah to rebuild

  • the Temple. We are commanded to do this just as we

  • are commanded to keep the rest of the Torah, and we should be careful not to use the coming

  • of the messiah as an excuse. But yet everybody

  • knows that the Jerusalem Talmud states, 'on the

  • ninth of Av the mashiach is born,…', and so too, in each generation, the aspect of

  • moshiach is born, comes into the world, on the ninth of

  • Av. But what does this really mean? Let's try to

  • explain this statement in a non-mystical vein. Contrary to popular belief, mashiach is not

  • a mystical figure, but a regular human being.

  • Never resort to mystifying something and thus avoid

  • a simple explanation, especially when the explanation involves you. For example, never

  • resort to thinking that the Temple will descend from

  • Heaven, since you are the one who has to build it. So

  • what does it mean that the moshiach is born on the ninth of Av. Is this literal?

  • Where is this soul, and why that day?

  • Is moshiach born from the pain of the Jewish

  • people? No. But as we have cited, destruction gives

  • way to building. Moshiach is 'born' from the resolve, from the impetus of the collective

  • repentance of the Jewish people. The cycle of Av is all about sincere repentancein

  • fact, it's the beginning of the period of preparation for

  • the High Holy Days, and as we have learned, repentance motivated by love has the power

  • to transform rebellious sins into acts of merit. The

  • messiah is just a person, a great person, but his unparalleled capacity for empathy,

  • wisdom, and an understanding that encompasses the collective

  • human consciousness, is the legacy of King David. King David was also a composite soul,

  • himself granted 70 years of life as a gift outright

  • from Adam, whose soul contained the souls of all humanity, who cared enough about the

  • future of his progeny and was willing to take a chance

  • on David to fix his mistakes, that he agreed for

  • his diminished lifespan of a thousand years to be further diminished to 930 years so that

  • David could live. The companion concept to this

  • idea of the soul of the messiah coming into the world

  • on Tisha B'Av, is the teaching of our sages, that Moshiach's soul is a composite of us

  • allthat his soul contains a little bit of goodness,

  • an aspect, a spark, of every single one of us. And when

  • that all comes together, when everybody is really committed to shining forth their part,

  • when everybody has their vision of the Holy Temple,

  • he steps up to the plate, into the light, perhaps as

  • much of a surprise to him as it is to everyone, but he's sick and tired and isn't going

  • to take it anymore, and he will lead the whole world

  • from ultimate destruction to ultimate building. But it

  • is up to us to start the work.

  • There is so much evil in the world, so much pain and suffering, exploitation and affliction.

  • The Holy Temple is the promise of a better world.

  • That's why we mourn. - Mourning is not about that the Temple was destroyed in the past,

  • but about that it has not been built in my generation,

  • so I am the problem. The entire process of redemption, everything we are looking forward

  • to, a better world, peace, blessing, life, it's

  • all waiting for us to make happen. This is what Tisha B'Av

  • is really all about because this is what the Temple is really all about. The power of mashiach

  • is right here among us, but will we have the

  • strength and resolve to birth it? The hardest thing in

  • the world is to take responsibility. It's so much easier when it's mystical, beyond

  • my control; when it all G-d's fault. Like what do you

  • want from me, I'm waiting for mashiachOpen your

  • heart. We are the vision of the rebuilt Temple. Who better than we, in our generation, in

  • our time. The cycle of destruction to building

  • has played itself out in our generation, and we, more

  • than 50 years after the liberation of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, are the seers. We have

  • the ability to see the rebuilt Holy Temple and

  • to transform the destruction of Tisha B'Av and the

  • disgrace of the Temple Mount, into the vessel for the restoration of the Divine Presence.

  • Destruction to rebuilding. If we want to see Moshiach, then what are we waiting for? What's

  • your vision for the next fifty years? Do we want to have Tisha B'Av every year? Isn't

  • this mourning getting old? We need no permission

  • to end the cycle of mourning and to facilitate

  • G-d's promise, in the words of the prophet Isaiah, thatthe Holy Temple will be firmly

  • established as the head of the mountains, and it will

  • be exalted above the hills, and all the nations will stream

  • to it. Many peoples will go and say, 'come, let us go up to the Mountain of Hashem, to

  • the Temple of the G-d of Jacob, and He will teach

  • us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths. For

  • out of Zion shall go forth Torah, and the word of G-d from Jerusalem.' We don't

  • need permission in writing, we already have itand

  • for all of us that are waiting for G-d to shine

  • forth miraculously, surprise, He already did…G-d is waiting for us.  What if G-d also has

  • a vision of the rebuilt Holy Temple, and we

  • are the vision? It was on the night of Tisha B'Av, generations

  • before the destruction of Jerusalem, that the spies convinced all of Israel to give

  • up on the Israel project even before they started;

  • this was the root cause of the destruction of the First and Second Temples. And that

  • pessimism, that negative outlook, is the root cause of all our problems today as well.

  • This Shabbat, the Shabbat of vision, the Shabbat of Tisha B'Av, as we hear Moses words of

  • rebuke, and recall the rebuke of our sages, and the call to our generation to rebuild

  • the Holy Temple and take responsibilityMay we be

  • blessed with the vision of the Holy Temple that we

  • will build in our time. May we be blessed with a vision of a better world, a world of

  • peace, a world of hope. A world of Hashem's light.

  • May we merit to the consolation, to the joy of

  • Jerusalem. May we merit to rebuild the Holy Temple.

Shalom. This Shabbat we begin the fifth book of the Five books of Moshe, the book of

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it