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It’s worthwhile to take a brief look at what we probably know is the SECOND version of the Ten Commandments that the Torah gives us.
There are lots of attempts to explain WHY there are two versions, and, at some point, we may want to have an adult education class or some classes that look at those hypotheses. But, for now, let's look at a few differences in three of the Commandments. Maybe you think they’re just a matter of semantics, but I don’t think so. Even if you don’t believe that God directly dictated the Torah to Moshe, as Orthodox Jews do, it’s striking that some key words ARE DIFFERENT. So, let’s look at the FIRST WORD of the two versions of the FOURTH COMMANDMENT.
The second seems to be focused on ACTION - the prohibition is on forbidden work. The message may be that it’s not enough just to pray and to light candles but that we also have to refrain from anything that is considered by the Torah (and by God) to be work. Let’s look at the FIFTH COMMANDMENT- "honor thy father and mother" You might notice that the version in today’s parsha ADDS a phrase: “as the Lord God commanded you.” and it offers another reward - not just that your days will be LENGTHENED but also that “it may go well with you.” In other words, you won’t just live a LONGER life; you’ll live a BETTER life. You may remember that this is one of only two mitzvot that offers a reward for obedience. The TENTH COMMANDMENT in DEUTERONOMY is "DON’T COVET". Just look at the two differences. In a way, it’s similar to the variation we just saw in the fourth commandment. In EXODUS , we’re told "NOT TO COVET" In Va’ethannan, we’re told not only not to covet but also "NOT TO DESIRE". So, we can’t, according to EXODUS, actively take something from our neighbor that is not rightfully ours. But, in today’s parsha, the mitzvah includes not only COVETING BUT ALSO DESIRING. Again, not just actions but also THOUGHTS. Some sages say that God dictated BOTH sets of commandments miraculously at the same time, and, equally miraculously, that Moshe heard them both clearly and distinctly. Regardless of how you explain these two somewhat different sets of guidelines, there’s no question that the bar for us Jews is REALLY high.
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I understand that many colleges and universities give retiring faculty a chance to present their “last lecture” as part of their retirement year. Well, in this week’s parsha, Devarim, that’s what we’ve got - Moshe is giving his last lecture.
He is 36 days away, not from retirement, but from death. He is so worried about the future of the Israelites. if miracles didn’t keep us faithful, how can we be expected to follow God’s commandments when the miracles are no longer a part of our daily lives? So, Moses - who we remember told God that he was “slow of speech and slow of tongue” - has a lot to say. Virtually the entire Book of Deuteronomy is his farewell discourse to the people he has tried so hard to lead. The book actually has two common names, one derived from Hebrew and the other from Greek. The Hebrew, Sefer D’Varim, refers to its first words: Eleh ha-d’varim, “These are the words [that Moses addressed to all Israel]“. Derived from the Greek translation for Mishnah Torah, Deuteronomy means “second law“ and refers to the fact that Moses is repeating the Exodus/Numbers narrative. But we know that that is not quite the case. Moses doesn’t simply restate the Exodus narrative - he takes some liberties with this second telling, perhaps for good reasons. For example, he takes credit for the appointment of the magistrates, even though it was his father-in-law who suggested it to him. And when he rebukes the people for the lack of faith of the twelve scouts, he blames them for refusing to move forward to the promised land. But he doesn’t ever mention the negative account of giants that left the people so terrified or even the fact that it was HE who sent out the spies in the first place. In this second rendering Moses will simplify complexities and complications, resulting in a narrative in which Moses is God’s most faithful and obedient servant, and the people are the faithless bane of his existence. Nachmanides (Ramban) euphemistically remarked that Moses’ rendition of this twice- told tale was designed l’hosif bahen bi’ur, “to add clarity and explanation“ and to make sure that the entirety of the generation that would enter the Land heard it - just as the entirety of the Exodus generation experienced Sinai. We don’t know whether the Moses we see here is deliberately simplifying and changing some details, or whether this is truly how he remembers these events. We all know how fragile and tricky human memory can be. Sometimes we forget. And sometimes memories morph into something else. And sometimes we adjust our memories - without even realizing it - to fit what we need them to be. This may well be Moses’ emotional need as he nears the end of his life. The Moses of this parsha is aged and tired and worried. In HIS last lecture, the fate of the Jewish people is at stake, and he knows it. The parsha of Masei represents the culmination of the story of Israel’s sojourn in the desert after its escape from Egypt and the revelation of the Torah on Mount Sinai. The Jewish people are poised to enter the Holy Land and to adjust to a more “normal” national existence. Manna will no longer from heaven daily nor will there be miraculous traveling wells of water accompanying them.
But this parsha deals with the issues of borders of Israel instead and the related problems - and to the methods of the division of the land amongst its inhabitants. All of this is pretty mundane stuff compared to the heady experiences of the desert – miracles, plagues, rewards and punishments, Moshe’s masked radiant countenance and the thrill of building and servicing the mishakan. The parsha even tells us that there will be murders and murderers in the Land of Israel and that cities of refuge must be built to house them and protect them from avenging enemies. From the Midrash it may be implied that there were no such murderous occurrences during Israel’s sojourn in the desert. In short, the rarified atmosphere and purely spiritual existence of Israel in the Sinai desert is now over. The challenges of creating an ordered, just and Torah society under natural national and human conditions are now the order of the day. It will take four centuries, until the times of Shmuel, David and Shlomo for these challenges to be successfully met. The transition from the supernatural to the mundane is much harder to accomplish successfully than is the transition from the ordinary to the spiritual. To help this transition occur, memory of past events is vital. The newness of the experience of the Land of Israel will be seen in perspective by remembering the previous experiences of Egypt and the desert. Faith and confidence will dominate Jewish life when the Jews recall the history of their existence and their survival and triumph over daunting odds that were present against them. Rashi indicates that the listing of the thirty-eight encampments of Israel during their trek through the Sinai desert is to remind the Jews of their past difficulties and struggles and how they nevertheless prevailed. Part of the difficulty that Israel faces today in attempting to build a “normal” state and nation is that the early founders of secular Zionism not only denigrated the experiences of the Jewish exile but attempted to erase them from the memory of the “new” Jew they wished to create. Thus, the problems that challenge and disturb us today here in Israel – boundaries and demographics, value systems and the creation of a kinder, gentler Israel – are compounded by the lack of memory that could help us make reference to previous generations’ wisdom and strengths. The truth is that we have all been here, in one way or another, and common sense would dictate that we therefore remember what happened then. But, amnesia is the greatest Jewish malady of our day. All of the problems and difficulties that we face are in reality byproducts of that amnesia. Masei teaches us that we should remember where we have been so that we have a sense of faith and confidence in where we want to now go. In this week’s Torah portion, we will soon read of the five daughters of Zelophechad, whose actions changed Jewish history. You may remember that they petitioned for the right to inherit their father’s land. They had no brothers who would be next in line, so they asked to be allowed the right to Zelophehad’s estate.
Parsha Pinchas tells us that they petitioned in front of Moshe, Eleazar the priest, the chieftains, and the whole assembly. Given how little power women had in those days, that act had to take great courage, and, no doubt, a belief in the rightness of their action. Many scholars argue that Moshe had to refer this question directly to God because he wasn’t sure how to respond. This was such a unique claim that it left Moshe uncertain how to adjudicate the case. Others claim, however, that Moshe DID KNOW what the correct response was, but that he only appeared to be consulting God so that he would have the ultimate Judge backing him up. Whatever the reason, these brave women won their case. And they know how to argue - they use the patriarchal values of the time, and turn them to their favor. “Let not our father’s name be lost,” they plead. And they remind Moshe that their father was NOT one of the rebels who followed Moshe. In fact, Rabbi Kushner’s commentary notes this fact and makes the point that Moshe may have recused himself so as not to appear biased by the daughters’ appeal to his own history. We know how stingy the Torah can sometimes be with language. And we know that this stinginess is especially true when it comes to women in the Torah. We know, for example, that Sarah died, but the focus of Chayyei Sarah is really ABRAHAM’S response to her death. How about Dinah? Her actions set her brothers off on a murderous rampage, and yet we don’t have a clue about what happened to her after that. In the Torah, women are often invisible or briefly mentioned or used to move the plot along with little sense of their own role in that plot. So, the fact that the daughters of Zelophechad get center stage here is especially noteworthy. They make a speech. They are persuasive. They speak before MEN. They are Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. So, what does this tell us? To me, it tells us that even God has to be willing to adapt to changing circumstances. The lawmakers of that time did not imagine that this circumstance would come up. They probably pictured every family having sons who could and would inherit. But here was a case that was exceptional. A case that demanded a new policy. And that policy resulted in a landmark decision that changed our history. But beyond that one decision about property and inheritance, this episode makes an even larger point. The story of the daughters of Zelophechad reminds us, as the Torah does so often, that even the weakest among us should have a voice. And not just a voice. But a voice that can transform an entire people |
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