ר"ע תיתד תונויצל ינויערה גוחה ,םולשו זוע
But an eagle is merciful, as it is said: "He was like an eagle arousing its nest, hovering over its young, spreading its wings and taking them, carrying them on its pinions." (Deut.32, 11) The scripture uses this metaphor because all other birds place their young between their feet since they are afraid of another bird that flies above them, but the eagle fears none except man – apprehending that perhaps he may cast an arrow at it – since no bird can fly above it; therefore he places it (its young) upon its wings, saying, "Better that the arrow should pierce me than my young!" (Rashi, Exodus 19, 4)
"As an eagle arouses its nest" – He guided them with mercy and compassion like the eagle which is full of compassion towards its young and does not enter its nest suddenly – before it beats and flaps with its wings above its young, passing between tree and tree, between branch and branch, in order that its young may awake and have enough strength to receive it. (Rashi, Deut.32,11)
The Days of Repentance have passed. However, this year, the order of the weekly Torah portions presents us with yet another song of rebuke, which would be more suitable for the spirit of the Days of Repentance that are behind us than for the joyous mood of the approaching pilgrimage festival.
This week's rebuke points to the "vile and unwise people" (verse 6) who "would make sacrifices to demons" (verse 17). The last chapters of Deuteronomy contain Moshe's fare-well speech to the children of Israel. But are these verses addressing the listening Israelites who are about to cross the Jordan River into the Land of Israel? Apparently not.
For the song describes, in an amazing style, the history of our people to us, as we are in our own country, and does so by the mouth of the great leader who had never crossed and would never cross the Jordan River. The closing verse of our parasha reiterates and emphasizes: "...but you shall not enter there, into the land that I give to the Children of Israel." (verse 52)
If this is so, who are those "vile and unwise people" that are spoken of in this song? Our sages said:
"Great is this song, since it contains within it the present, the past and that which is to come." So is it possible that the song Ha'azinu relates to the present, to ourselves? Is it possible that we are that "vile and unwise people"?
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, in his Torah commentary (on "vile and unwise people"), wrote:
"They believe themselves to be a 'wise and understanding people' (Deut.4:6), and they are worthy to appear so in the eyes of the nations. However, they are not really wise. They did nor take to heart the truths that they were given."
In the eyes of the nations who witness on television the violent demonstrations at archaeological sites, the impression is created that the religious beliefs and the spiritual essence of the People of Israel expresses itself in the uncompromising struggle over bones and graves from hundreds and thousands of years ago. The devoted ones who dedicate their whole lives to the study of G-d's word and the keeping thereof, abandon the Yeshivot and, like first Israeli pioneers, stand on guard at digging sites. Not only to the eyes of the nations, but sometimes also in our own eyes, they are the apparent bearers of the banner of the Jewish faith. Thus, public opinion polls show that it's precisely these people who are the authentic representatives of religion in the eyes of the majority of Jews in Israel. These images do not reflect the values that would give our nation the image of a wise and understanding people. The phenomenon of the war of bones rather creates the image of a vile and unwise people.
However, if this war is derived from G-d's word, like in the case of "better to give your life than to transgress", then maybe the negative picture stems from hostile prejudice and anti-Semitism. But does it really?
When I was a child in second grade, in a secular state-school in the Diaspora, the pupils were largely Christian, with Jewish and secular minorities. Catholic friends gave me pictures of saints and told me to keep them in my Siddur (prayer book). I showed them to my parents and they explained to me that our religion does not believe in saints and forbids the making of images. Once, all the children of our class went to the funeral of a teacher. The coffin rested in the church where a most impressive ceremony took place in the presence of hundreds of congregants. To my question, why there were no such ceremonies in the synagogue, my parents responded that according to the Torah, death is a SOURCE OF IMPURITY, and a praying person must be pure. Judaism, they said, sanctifies LIFE, it separates life from death and from everything that is connected to it. As of today, in the Land of Israel, we all witness a growing wave of pictures and amulets, and of synagogues that are situated within cemeteries, of all places.
Is the Torah that my parents taught me not true? Are maybe precisely the ways of the Catholics the ways which we are commanded to adopt and to follow? Is it possible that the belief in images, in saints and in the HOLINESS OF THE DEAD and their bones is the belief that our forefathers handed down to us?
I cannot accept such an interpretation; it contradicts the values that I was raised with. I need the same rabbis that are witnessing the use of pictures, amulets and the gentile-like cult of at the cemeteries - a distortion and caricature of Jewish values -, and are defending these things.
The trouble is that the voice of those rabbis is hardly heard, if at all. The Jewish voice, as perceived by the nations and by our own people as well, is the voice of the believers in images and bones.
There are those who argue that the violation of the intactness of the bones goes against the belief in the resurrection of the dead. As if the resurrection of the dead is a task which is placed upon humans. As if there is no belief in the ability of the Holy One, blessed be He, to resurrect the dead whose bones were damaged, God forbid. And who is worried about the intactness of the bones of Moshe Rabbeinu, of blessed memory? And who worries about the intactness of the bones of the Shoah victims? As if all these don't have a part in the resurrection of the dead!
The ones who fight the war of the bones at digging sites are implicitly declaring that the Jews whose bones are destroyed are not meant to be resurrected by the Resucitator of the dead. And all this happens under the protection of the rabbis who support these things, and also under the protection of the rabbis who do not denounce them as distorting and perverting the Torah and its values.
Moshe Rabbeinu warned us before his death: "vile and unwise people ... who would make sacrifices to demons" instead of serving Hashem.
However, Moshe also predicted that following the days of lack of reason, there would come the days "when Hashem will have judged His people and He shall relent regarding His servants" (verse 36). So before us is the time when we will take to heart the truths that we were given, according to the words of S.R.Hirsch; the time when we will serve Hashem and not images and bones, and we will all be "surely joyous".
(Dr. Lazer is a member of the committee for honoring the righteous of the nations of the world, at Yad Vashem.)
"And there is no wrong" so that the people should not become evil, rather they should be righteous. And so he says: "God has made man simple, but they sought many intrigues." (Eccl.7:29).
"Just and righteous is He" for He acts with righteousness with everything in the world. (Sifrei Ha'azinu Ch.307)
All this is obvious and clear, for God is a God of truth. It is this idea which is embodied in the statement of Moshe Rabbeinu, may Peace be upon him (Deut.32:4), "The Rock – His work is whole; for all of His ways are just. He is a God of faithfulness, without wrong..." Since the Holy One Blessed be He desires justice, ignoring the bad would be as much of an injustice as ignoring the good. If He desires justice, then, He must deal with each man according to his ways and according to the fruits of his acts, with the most minute discrimination, for good or for bad. This is what underlies the statement of our Sages of blessed memory that the verse "He is a God of faithfulness, without wrong; He is righteous and just" has application to the righteous and to the wicked. For this is His attribute. He judges everything. He punishes every sin. There is no escaping. To those who might ask at this point, "Seeing that whatever the case may be, everything must be subjected to judgment, what function does the attribute of mercy perform?" the answer is that the attribute of mercy is certainly the mainstay of the world; for the world could not exist at all without it. Nevertheless the attribute of justice is not affected. For on the basis of justice alone it would be dictated that the sinner be punished immediately upon sinning, without the least delay; that the punishment itself be a wrathful one, as befits one who rebels against the word of the Creator, blessed be His Name; and that there be no correction whatsoever for the sin. For in truth, how can a man straighten what has been made crooked after the commission of the sin? If a man killed his neighbor; if he committed adultery – how can he correct this? Can he remove the accomplished fact from actuality?
It is the attribute of mercy which causes the reverse of the three things we have mentioned. That is, it provides that the sinner be given time, and not be wiped out as soon as he sins; that the punishment itself not involve utter destruction; and that the gift of repentance be given to sinners with absolute lovingkindness, so that the rooting out of the will which prompted the deed be considered a rooting out of the deed itself.
(The Path of the Just, ch.4, The Manner of Acquiring Watchfulness)Rabbi Mani opened his discourse with the text, "All my bones shall say: Lord, who is like You!" (Ps.35:10). This verse was said in allusion to nothing else than the lulav. The rib of the lulav resembles the spine of a man; the myrtle resembles the eye; the willow resembles the mouth, and the etrog resembles the heart. David said: There are none among all the limbs greater than these, for they outweigh in importance the whole body. This explains, "All my bones shall say."
(Lev.Rabba ch.30)
"Fruit of the tree": twice in the tradition, "where there is fruit of the tree", "fruit of the citrus tree" (Lev.23:40), hinting to what is written (Gen. Rabba 15:8): "The tree from which Adam ate was an etrog tree."
(Baal HaTurim Gen.1:29)
"A righteous person will bloom like a palm tree". For on Succot we are occupied with revealing His kingship to all there is in the world, even to the seventy gentile nations, since this is the secret of the seventy young bulls that we are offering as a sacrifice for them on Succot. And this is what we say after the waving of the lulav and the hakafot.
(Likutei Moharan ch.33)
"As the dove atones for iniquities, so Israel atone for the other nations, since the seventy bullocks which they offer on Succot are only for the sake of the seventy nations, so that the world should not be made desolate through them; and so it says, 'In return for my love they are my adversaries; but I am all prayer' (Ps.59:4)"
(Midrash Song of Songs Rabba, 1)
"Seventy young bulls. The bulls of the festival are seventy, except for [Shemini Atzeret], corresponding to the seventy nations, to atone for them, so that the rains would fall in THE WHOLE WORLD; for on this festival it is decided concerning the water."
(Rashi on T.B. Succah, 55b)
Rabbi Yehoshua from Sichnin says in the name of Rabbi Levy: Great is peace, that the blessings end with 'peace' (Shalom); at the reading of the Shema (Hear, O Israel): 'spread over us the shelter (Succah) of Your peace', in the [Amida-] prayer: '...Who makes peace', in the priestly blessings: '...and establish peace for you'.
These are just blessings, and whence in the sacrifices? The teaching says: 'This is the law of the Mincha (afternoon) elevation-offering ... and the peace-offering'. This is just in this world, whence, then, in the World to Come? The teaching says: 'Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river...' (Is.66:12). The rabbis say: Great is peace, for when the anointed king will come, he will begin by nothing else but peace, as it is said: 'How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that brings good tidings, that announces peace...' (Is.52:7).
(Yalkut Shimoni)
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