Feature Tidbit

Low Profile vs. Hard Sell

Personal: Summer '69, afternoon of Shabbat Nachamu, after Mincha, I had to pinch-hit a Dvar Torah during Seuda Shlishit, on very short notice. I opened a Chumash to the beginning of Eikev, which we had just read at Mincha, and a pasuk jumped off the page and smacked me between the eyes. It was D'varim 8:1:

"All the commandments which I command you this day, you shall take care to do, so that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the Land which G-d has sworn to your forefathers."

This pasuk said to me that G-d's purpose of giving the Torah to the People of Israel is so that they shall live by it IN ERETZ YISRAEL. This is the idea that I conveyed to my charges on the summer-in-Israel tour. But this was the idea that I paid careful personal attention to, as well. It took me 12 long years to actualize the message, but that's another story. The impact of the pasuk was immediate, strong, and long-lasting, even everlasting - This is THE place for a Torah life. I grew up in a Zionist home and environment, but only from that moment in summer '69, was I sure (as sure as one can be) that my future was in Israel. And Baruch HaShem, I'm here.

There is more. I started noticing other p'sukim that make the same point. Many other p'sukim. This is no small issue, the point is repeated and emphasized over and over again.

And then I noticed that the point was not made strongly and repeatedly until the Book of D'varim. Earlier in the Chumash, there were many mitzvot commanded, but without the sharp focus on the Israel-connection.

What emerged was this: G-d took us out of Egypt to give us the Torah and to bring us to Eretz Yisrael, to live happily ever after. That was the Plan. It didn't (and still hasn't) worked out so smoothly. He gave us the Torah and we received it in such a way that it remains ours throughout all our generations. Our hold on Eretz Yisrael is weaker, and we have had our ups and downs. The first "down" was the generation of the Wilderness. For that generation, focusing on the Eretz Yisrael connection was a strong reproach, but it needed to be contained. To overly stress the Torah in Eretz Yisrael combination might have been counter-productive. Especially because there is another side of the coin. Torah must be kept, followed, lived by, any and every place in the world. Keep bringing up Eretz Yisrael and the people will receive a message that will depress and discourage them. Why should they keep mitzvot if they are not in E. Yisrael.

But the generation of the Book of D'varim (so to speak) is the one that was soon to cross the Jordan River into Eretz Yisrael. They need the other message. They should not be able to say: We can live a full, complete Jewish life in the Midbar. Or in Egypt. Or in Teaneck. They need the constant reminder that Torah is most properly lived in E. Yisrael.

Similarly, throughout Jewish History. There have been times when Aliya was unfeasible to practically impossible. Those are the times to allow Israel to be a hope for the future and concentrate on Torah values and mitzvot for day-to-day Jewish life. And then there are times (like today) that the emphasis of D'varim on Israel is practical and well-placed.

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