Art by Sefira Lightstone
A WEEKLY TORAH THOUGHT FROM RABBI MORDY
This week’s Parsha (Vaetchanan) falls out after Tisha B’Av which we observed on Tuesday. Tisha B’Av is the saddest day on the Jewish calendar and the day on which the first and second Temples in Jerusalem were destroyed. There were many other unfortunate events that occurred on that day; I won’t enumerate them because that time is now behind us! What does that mean? What does it mean that it is “behind us,” when we continue to observe it with the same difficulty and sadness as the year before? And what does “Vaetchanan” have to do with this all?
The Parsha contains some interesting observations from Moses as he continues his farewell speech to his beloved Jewish people. Most notably, it includes the Shema, probably the best known Jewish prayer. But besides the Shema, it contains Moses’s retelling of the historic events that the Jewish people experienced – their liberation from Egypt, the giving of the Torah – and then foretelling how they would stray away from G-d’s path and make mistakes along the way. And of course, again, the Shema. So what does this all mean? For one, Moses clearly hit it spot on in telling us of the difficulties that the Jewish people will face in the future. But good times and challenging ones are combined in this Parsha to teach us that through them all, we Jews say the Shema, the reminder of God’s Oneness; His ways are indeed mysterious but He is always with us, supporting us in our mission to be “a light unto the nations.”
In sickness and in health, as the marriage vows go, so too our relationship with G-d will have its highs and lows, but the Shema must remain the constant. We have just experienced Tisha B’Av (an exceptionally painful one this year), yet the upcoming Shabbat is called “Shabbat Nachamu,” the Shabbat of comfort, when we affirm our trust in G-d to bless us with revealed good. May it be very soon that He fulfill His promise to bless the entire world with ONLY revealed good! Good Shabbos!