One Hundred Words on the Parshah
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One Hundred Words on the Parshah
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“Enough circling the mountain (referring to Har Seir, the home of descendants of Esav), now turn north.”
As a rule, Rav Shach did not approve of demonstrations. He would say that the damage is definite while the benefit is doubtful. He felt that there is both a physical and spiritual danger for the demonstrators. He also believed that demonstrating enflames the hatred of chareidim on the part of the average Israeli. Rav Shach would point to the medrash (Devarim Raba 1:19) on this verse, “If you see Esav trying to fight with you, don’t stand up against him, rather hide (צפונה) from him. … If you see that he is confronting you, flee to the Torah, which is called צפונה.”
Rav Shach would point out that there are two messages in this medrash. First of all, don’t stand against Esav, rather hide. And second of all, our response to threats (either physical or spiritual) should be to increase our Torah learning. The amount of light that we bring into the world will cause much darkness to dissipate.
משה רבינו is celebrating victory. “We wiped out עוג and his nation and none were saved.”
Contrast this with פרשת לך לך where עוג was called the פליט, the one who was saved from the מבול. This shows the greatness of משה רבינו and the Jew’s war with עוג and his people. Even this giant, who survived the מבול in which everyone else was killed, was able to be destroyed by them to the point that this time nobody was left.
Moshe tells bnei Yisrael, I broke them (the luchos) in front of your eyes (literally, “to your eyes”).
The eyes that beheld the molten image that the Jews made were now not able to see insights in the Torah. As we see from the verse in Tehillim (119:18), גל עיני ואביטה נפלאות מתורתך – “Uncover my eyes so that I will see wonders in the Torah.” Our eyes need to be uncovered from whatever is blocking them from gaining insights in Torah. Chazal state specifically that after the breaking of the luchos it became much more difficult to understand תורה שבעל פה.
ואשברם לעיניכם – I broke them to your eyes – this will affect your eyes as they relate to learning Torah.
“All that ה' asks of you is to fear him…”
The גמרא comments that the above verses make fearing ה' sound easy which, in fact, it is not. The גמרא goes on to say, however, that from משה רבינו‘s perspective it was, indeed, easy.
The Tchebener Rov quotes the ב"ח as noting that in על המחיה, we petition ה' to eat of its fruits and be satiated with its goodness, because fruits that grow in ארץ ישראל derive קדושה from the land. That leads to יראת שמים. The Rov continues that since משה רבינו was so great in יראת שמים, he did not need to eat the fruit of the land to be imbued with the קדושה leading to this יראה. Why, then, was he so anxious to enter the land? In order, as חז"ל say, to observe the מצוות תלויות בארץ.
"Hashem’s actions are appropriate because all of His ways are just. He is a trustworthy God…."
This posuk is said at צדוק הדיו (recognizing Hashem’s justice) at a Jewish funeral. Why was this posuk included at the beginning of Moshe Rabbeinu’s Shira?
Rabbi Yechiel Michal Gordon, in a eulogy for the Jewish residents of Kovno who were murdered in the Holocaust, answered as follows: Chazal teach us that Shiras Ha’azinu includes all of the world’s future happenings. As such it includes the Holocaust. Therefore, Moshe Rabbeinu started with this Pasuk to be matzdik the din of this event that was so cataclysmic and difficult to understand.
“And all these curses will come upon you and they will reach you”
The words “and they will reach you” imply the possibility of curses coming upon one but not actually affecting him. For example a person may be forced, through the curse of extreme poverty, to live in a very dangerous neighborhood. Yet, he is never attacked or harmed in any way. At the in-between stage, of a curse being pronounced by ה but before the damage actually occurs, a person can still do תשובה and avoid the effect. The manifestation of the curse which has not yet wreaked devastation serves as a strong warning giving the person time to repent.
"When you see an object that your fellow Jew lost, you are not permitted to look the other way."
The terminology ‘לא תוכל’ literally means you will not be capable of turning away.
Sooner or later, you will face a circumstance in which you will have lost an item, so be understanding about your fellow’s wish to find his missing object. We can also apply this when a fellow Jew has “lost” his heritage. Have compassion on him and help him reclaim it.
“…I will go in the way that my heart sees fit… then Hashem’s anger will be ignited….”
The word the פסוק uses for “will be ignited” is “יעשן”, derived from the root “עשן” – “smoke”. The events of 9/11/01 fell out during Parshas Netzavim. In a speech after the catastrophic event, R’ Don Segal shlita applied the פסוק in Tehillim (104:32), יגע בהרים ויעשנו – “He will touch the mountains and they will go up in smoke,” to the “mountainous” edifices of the Twin Towers going up in smoke. Previously, five months before 9/11, at the levaya of R’ Avigdor Miller zatzal, R’ Simcha Bunim Cohen shlita, R’ Miller’s grandson-in-law, related that, in the months leading up to his פטירה, R’ Miller would frequently and worriedly comment, “I hope that Hashem does not destroy Manhattan, the seat of so many עבירות.”
Perhaps the events of 9/11 were a fulfillment of the igniting (lit. “smoking”) of Hashem’s anger mentioned in our פסוק in Parshas Netzavim.
“If your brother entices you… saying, “Let us go and serve other gods… from the gods of the nations that surround you, those near to you and those far from you…” (Devarim 13:7-8)
The Talmud comments that we can know the nature of the distant gods from our knowledge of the nearby gods. Just as we know that the nearby gods are patently false, so too are the more “exotic” gods from far away.
There is an old saying, “Never meet your heroes, because they are sure to disappoint you.” Sometimes we fantasize about “far away” possibilities but when we eventually come in contact with that possibility we realize that it really had no substance.
The take away is to think twice about our far-fetched interests.
“And it shall be that when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself two copies of this Torah in a book…. And it shall be with him and he shall read from it all the days of his life so that he will learn to fear Hashem His God….”
Rav Shimon Schwab points out that the king was chosen by the word of God and he was undoubtedly already a God fearing person. Why then is he being required to constantly read the Torah in order to learn to fear God, as if he is not a God fearing person already?
Rav Schwab answers that the concern here is that, even though he is already a God fearing person, there is a danger that the wealth, honor, and power associated with his new position will “go to his head” and his fear of God will diminish. It is therefore necessary for him to study the Torah anew, from his new perspective, in order to learn to fear God in his changed circumstances.
When a person finds himself in new circumstances, it may be necessary for him to relearn how to be a God fearing person in those circumstances.
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All learning should be a zechus for a refuah shelaimah for Yosef Ezriel Ben Chaya Michal