If your son asks you tomorrow, saying, "What are the testimonies, the statutes, and the ordinances, which the Lord our God has commanded you?"

 You shall say to your son, "We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord took us out of Egypt with a strong hand. (Devarim 6:20-21)

 

If your son asks you tomorrow: Tomorrow [mahar] may [also] mean, "at a later time."

(Rashi ad loc)

 

If your son asks you tomorrow - This passage does not mention entering the Land; it relates to the time of exile when Israel is exiled from the Land. Then the son will ask, "Given that you have been exiled from the Land, What are the testimonies, the statutes, etc.?" To this the father replies that the blessed Lord removed us from the land of Egypt in order to bring us to the land He swore [would be given] to our fathers, and commanded us to keep these statutes to preserve us in life unto this day, we being prepared for the Land. For even today we are prepared in the hope that He will bring us to the goodly Land and thanks to keeping the testimonies we fear the Lord, that being the true good. And the nation is sustained in exile to let it become worthy of the desired goal, earned by our keeping the statutes as we had been commanded while dwelling in the wilderness without a tent or shelter.

(Meshekh Hokhma ad loc)

 

Shema Yisrael, Destruction and Redemption

Dalia Marx

If you ask Jews - whether they be men or women or define themselves as secular, religious, or traditional - what is the most Jewish sentence they can think of, it would be reasonable to assume that many of them will answer without hesitation: Shema Yisrael - Hear O Israel. Indeed, that short passage expresses faith in God, acknowledgment of God's uniqueness, and the concept of Israel's nationhood. However, beyond those lofty ideas expressed in the Shema, the verse also bears a deep emotional meaning. The words Shema Yisrael appear in a variety of liturgical settings (in a special unit of prayer in the morning and evening services, in the Birkot HaShahar, at the time the Torah scroll is taken from the Ark, at bedtime, during the deathbed confession, etc.) and they are written on the parchment inside mezuzot and tefillin.

The first mishnah of the first tractate (Berakhot) of the entire Mishnah opens with a question relating to the recitation of the Shema: "From what time do we read the Shema in the evening?" The Mishnah does not supply us with the text of the Shema nor with formulations of its accompanying benedictions; it does not even state that one must recite the Shema in the evening and in the morning. Rather, it begins with a seemingly technical question concerning the time of the Shema's recitation. Why does the tractate (and actually the entire Mishnah) begin with this "technicality"? Is it because everyone was already acquainted with the text of the Shema, or was it that the editors of the Mishnah wanted to lend authority to a practice that was insufficiently known and accepted? We lack the means to decide this question.

Shema Yisrael is the first liturgical text that infants are taught to recite, and it is supposed to be one's final utterance before falling asleep. When death approaches, Jews are expected recite a confession that concludes with Shema Yisrael. Throughout their history, Jews have met their martyrs' deaths with the words of the Shema on their lips. This practice began with Rabbi Akiva, whose soul escaped him as he pronounced the word ehad - "one" while being tortured by the Romans for teaching Torah in public (b. Berakhot 61b) and continued through to the victims of slaughter in Europe's death camps, who went to their deaths uttering the words Shema Yisrael. The six words of the verse sometimes constituted the only bit of prayer transmitted by the Spanish anusim (conversos) from parent to child for generations. While the Mishnah permits the Shema to be recited in any language (Sotah 7:1), it was still recited in Hebrew even in synagogues where most of the service took place in the local vernacular.

The first paragraph of the Shema appears in our parasha, parashat Va'et'hanan. One can only imagine Moses' mood in the beginning of the parasha as he recounts God's rejection of his pleas to be allowed entry to the Land of Israel. That same leader now stands before his people, charging them with a command that is very severe, both mentally and emotionally: And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your might (Devarim 6:5).¹

It is not clear when the People Israel first began reciting Shema Yisrael. Already in the Mishnah we find the recitation of the Shema in its full three paragraphs and with its accompanying benedictions appearing as part of the priestly rite of the Second Temple. After the morning's daily sacrifice was slaughtered, dismembered, and salted, but before the incense was burned, the priests would descend to the Hewn Chamber [Lishkat HaGazit]. Here is the description of what transpired there:

The superintendent said: "Utter one blessing," and they uttered a blessing.

They recited the Ten Commandments,

Shema, VeHaya Im Shamo'a, VaYomer

They blessed the people with three blessings: Emet Veyatziv and Avoda and Birkat Kohanim. (Mishnah Tamid 5:1)

According to this description, the priests would recite the Shema in the course of performing the holy service in the Temple. As is the case with every account of the Temple rite offered by the Sages, it is not clear whether our mishnah is a contemporaneous report or a reconstruction produced in Tannaitic times. Furthermore, it remains unclear whether the Jewish masses outside the Temple would also recite the Shema; there is reason to believe that they did.

It is interesting to note that alongside the Shema and its benedictions, the Ten Commandments were also recited in the Temple service; they also appear in our parasha. As we all know, the custom of reading the Ten Commandments in the framework of the Shema and its benedictions has not persisted. R. Shmuel bar Nahman and R. Matana offer an explanation of this in the Jerusalem Talmud:

In principle, the Ten Commandments should be read every day.

And why are they not read?

Because of the claims of the sectarians,

That they should not say: "Only these were given to Moses at Sinai." (J. Berakhot 9b; 1:3)

That is to say, it would be proper to read the Ten Commandments, but we don't do it because of the "grievance of the sectarians" [taromet haminim]. It has been claimed that the excision of the Ten Commandments was a polemical move made by the Sages against the early Christians who renounced the Torah's commandments, accepting only the Ten Commandments, which they understood as Divine laws.² The Sages wanted to show that the Ten Commandments lack any special status among the Mitzvot, and that the entire Torah is holy. That is why they removed the recitation of the Ten Commandments from the daily prayer, and that is also why RaMBaM ruled against the custom of standing when the Ten Commandments are read from the Torah.³

*  *  *

The Jewish calendar marches us through the maze of history over and over again. Each year we re-experience the saga of our people as it unfolded through the generations; it is as if we experience the events ourselves. Three weeks ago the cycle of destruction began with the 17^th of Tammuz, which marks the start of the Tlata DePoranuta - the three mournful weeks of Bein HaMitzarim during which we join the inhabitants of Jerusalem as they see the siege grow worse and dread the expected destruction of the Temple. According to Ashkenazic custom, no weddings are celebrated during these days; occasions of joy and cheerfulness are not held. "When Av arrives, we reduce our joy" (Mishnah Ta'anit 4:6). The mourning for the Temple's destruction reaches its climax on the 9^th of Av, the day tradition claims both the First and Second Temples were destroyed. But just as someone who sinks into mighty waters, touches bottom, kicks at it, and finds himself on the way back to the surface, so too in the afternoon Minha service of the 9^th of Av our mourning is slightly abated with words of consolation. During the weeks between the 9^th of Av and Rosh Hodesh Elul - the Shivata DeNehemta - prophecies of consolation and Tikkun (repair) are read each Shabbat.

 

Many of our people do not look forward to the building of the Third Temple. It may be asked what point there is to mourning the Temple's destruction when many of us think its service would be inappropriate for our times, or are even repelled by it. Throughout history there have been calls to abolish the fast day, but its meaning has never faded; the 9^th of Av is a day of mourning and grief for holiness destroyed and for a house of prayer torn down by a hateful hand. On this day I can imagine Titus strutting wildly into the Holy of Holies with his sword drawn; I am reminded of pictures of Germany's synagogues burning on the Pogrom Night (popularly known as Kristallnacht); I think of the synagogues that were burned and desecrated by our fellow Jews (yes indeed, even here in our rebuilt Jerusalem). I also think of the houses of worship of other nations destroyed by hate and zealotry. I hope that we will remember that the Lord is one, even if He has many names.

Reading parashat Va'Et'hanan - which includes the Ten Commandments and Shema Yisrael - immediately before the 9th of Av creates an important and meaningful combination. Many nations had temples grander and more impressive than our two temples in Jerusalem. When the enemy invaded and those fabulous buildings destroyed, the people who built them were demoted to historical anecdotes; once their spiritual, cultural, social, and economic centers were demolished, those people never found anything else to unite them. It was not so with the People Israel. Despite the confusion, the fear, and the hopelessness that accompanied the destruction of the Second Temple and the fall of the center in Jerusalem, a group of intrepid and determined spiritual leaders took the helm and established a new center in Yavneh. Those rabbis, led by Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai, offered their stunned compatriots the possibility of new hope and new meaning to their being Jews.

The sacrificial rite carried out by the priests in the Temple was replaced by words of prayer and emphasis upon intention. Judaism had brought monotheism into the world, and monotheism's purest and most touching expression can be found in our parasha. Indeed, the People Israel presented the world with absolute ethical obligations, symbolized by the demands made by the Ten Commandments.

Judaism, as we know it, was formed after the destruction, and it brought another tremendous new idea to the world - the house of prayer. In contrast to the Temple, the synagogue no longer involves an almost completely passive audience of on-lookers who watch the priests at work. Each and every one of us can stand in prayer to the Creator at any location and without need for mediation. The democratization of prayer is doubtlessly one of Israel's most important gifts to humanity!

We began with Moses' call to his fellow Israelites in the wilderness: Shema Yisrael. The paragraphs of the Shema are bracketed by benedictions established by our rabbis, and Jews continue to pour new meaning into them. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus tells us that it is impossible to step twice into the same river; it is similarly impossible to recite the same Shema twice. At each recitation, we, the utterances of our mouths and the speech of our hearts pour new insights into the words of the Shema, illuminating them with surprising lights. As then, so too today we can draw consolation from the words of Shema Yisrael, and, to no less an extent, we can be encouraged by them and draw from them the strength to continue in the path of our ancestors who did not allow the People Israel to sink into oblivion. The Shema can embolden us to learn from the courage of our fathers and mothers and to apply it to our own existence.

1. The Sages interpreted the verses seeming repetitions as three distinct commandments: with all your heart - with both your inclinations, with the good inclination and with the evil inclination; and with all your soul - even if He takes your soul [i.e., kills you]; and with all your might - with all your wealth, another opinion, whatever measure [treatment] He metes out to you (Mishnah Berakhot 9:5). See also Sifrei Va'et'hanan 32.

2. E.E. Urbach, HaZaL: Emunot Ve'de'ot, Jerusalem: 5736, pp. 317-318.

3. Teshuvot HaRaMBaM, Y. Blau edition, Jerusalem:5720 II:263, pp. 495-499.

Dalia Marx is the author of B'Eit Ishan Ve'A'ira: al Tefillot shebein Yom uvein Layla. She is an Assistant Professor at Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem.

 

The Danger of "Idolatry" is Greater for Torah Scholars

...he especially warns Torah scholars who deal with laws and statutes, only be on your guard and guard yourself well. This makes it clear that the Torah scholar is more likely than other people to fall into the corruption of idolatry. So it was in reality: As Perek Helek tells us, Yoravam, Ahav and Menashe were great Torah scholars, and they were the first to bring idolatrous offerings and made all Israel sin. The author of Lamentations says, Lord, see my destitution, for the enemy has grown great (28:59), and we later explained (28:59) in the name of the midrash that the evil inclination has increased hold over Torah scholars, since the Torah scholar can apply his intelligence to find ways to permit things, twisting the words of the living God to conform with his own view, confusing people into thinking that it is a commandment.

(The NeTziV's Ha'Amek Davar on Devarim 4:14)

 

Midrashei Tzafon

From the pen of our member, Ronen Ahituv

For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the Lord our God is at all times that we call upon Him? And which great nation is it that has just statutes and ordinances, as this entire Torah, which I set before you this day?(4:7-8)

Since it says God so near to it, could it be that even a wicked Israelite calls upon God and is answered? We learn from the verse just statutes and ordinances that the Holy One, blessed be He, is only close to the righteous.

And since it says, statutes and ordinances, could it be that one should not call out to the Holy One, blessed be He, but rather perform commandments? But we learn otherwise from the verse, in all our callings to Him.

So you learn that one should always perform commandments and one should always call out to the Holy One, blessed be He. What is this like? Like a road that passes between two paths, one of fire and one of snow. Deviate to one side - and be burned with fire; deviate to the other - and be burned with snow. What should a person do? Walk in the middle and not deviate to either side.

The two verses express two complementary aspects of religious experience. The first verse deals with religiosity, with the experience of closeness to God expressed by prayer. The second verse deals with the observance of the commandments as a system of good and right laws. The drasha points to the need for both aspects and for balance between them. The drasha's conclusion is borrowed from Tosefta Haggiga 2:2, which speaks of the carefulness and balance required of those who enter the Pardes [mystical knowledge]. It seems that that care also involves self-criticism and maintenance of balance - and so, the drasha does not remove the quotation from its original context.

 

 

 

We need your support in order that the voice of a religious Zionism committed to peace and justice will continue to be heard through the uninterrupted distribution of Shabbat Shalom

in hundreds of synagogues, on the Internet and via email in both Hebrew and English.

In Israel, checks payable to Oz VeShalom may be sent to Oz VeShalom-P.O.B. 4433, Jerusalem 91043.

US and British tax-exempt contributions to Oz VeShalom may be made through:

New Israel Fund, POB 91588, Washington, DC 20090-1588, USA

New Israel Fund of Great Britain, 26 Enford Street, London W1H 2DD, Great Britain

Please note that the NIF is no longer accepting donations under $100

PEF will also channel donations and provide a tax-exemption. Donations should be sent to P.E.F. Israel Endowment Funds, Inc., 317 Madison Ave., Suite 607, New York, New York 10017 USA

All contributions to either the NIF or PEF should be marked as donor-advised to Oz ve'Shalom, the Shabbat Shalom project. For Donations to NIF, please mention that Oz veShalom is registered as no. 5708.

If you wish to subscribe to the email English editions of Shabbat Shalom, to print copies of it for distribution in your synagogue, to inquire regarding the dedication of an edition in someone's honor or memory, to find out how to make tax-exempt donations, or to suggest additional helpful ideas, please call +972-52-3920206 or at ozshalom@netvision.net.il

If you enjoy Shabbat Shalom, please consider contributing towards its publication and distribution.

• Hebrew edition distributed in Israel $700
• English edition distributed via email $ 100

Issues may be dedicated in honor of an event, person, simcha, etc. Requests must be made 3-4 weeks in advance to appear in the Hebrew, 10 days in advance to appear in the English email.

 

About us

Oz Veshalom-Netivot Shalom is a movement dedicated to the advancement of a civil society in Israel. It is committed to promoting the ideals of tolerance, pluralism, and justice, concepts that have always been central to Jewish tradition and law.

Oz Veshalom-Netivot Shalom shares a deep attachment to the land of Israel and it no less views peace as a central religious value. It believes that Jews have both the religious and the national obligation to support the pursuit of peace. It maintains that Jewish law clearly requires us to create a fair and just society, and that co-existence between Jews and Arabs is not an option but an imperative.

4,500 copies of a 4-page peace oriented commentary on the weekly Torah reading are written and published by Oz VeShalom/Netivot Shalom and they are distributed to over 350 synagogues in Israel and are sent overseas via email. Our web site is www.netivot-shalom.org.il.

Shabbat Shalom is available on our website: www.netivot-shalom.org.il