Thought for D'varim 5770

We begin a new humash, and on a unique note.  The book of D’varim/Deuteronomy is the farewell speech of our master and leader, Moshe rabbenu.  We stand on the eastern approaches to the land of Israel.  The tribes of Reuven and Gad (and part of Menashe) have already laid claim to the Bashan, in last week’s reading.  I would add a personal note here.  Last week, while reading Matot-Masei, I was in the Golan Heights at Midreshet Hagolan in Hispin.  What could be more right than reading how the tribes arranged to settle the Bashan, while standing in the same area or somewhere close to it?  Truly Hashem has blessed us.  The Golan has remains of ancient synagogues and their communities, and today modern synagogues and their communities dot the Heights from north to south.

In this week’s reading we may gain some more clarity regarding the land requested (in last week’s reading, as mentioned above) by Reuven and Gad.  In D’varim 3:8 we see that the land discussed extended from Nahal Arnon to the Hermon mountain range.  Nahal Arnon is apparently near Aman, and empties into the Dead Sea.  The Hermon, we know, is the mountain range at the north end of the Golan Heights.  In the next verse the Torah tells us that the people of Tzidon (Sidon, on the Lebanese coast) call the Hermon by the name Siryon, and the Emorites call it Snir.  We see in Psalms (29), as well, the alternate name Siryon.

Why concern ourselves with alternate names for a place?  Why does the Torah mention this?

Rashi points out here a notion that comes up quite often in the Torah.  L’hagid shevah shel Eretz Yisrael.  To point out the praises of the Land of Israel.  Many times in the Torah, we find our sages reading a verse or passage as emphasizing the ‘praises of the Land of Israel.’  It isn’t enough to emphasize the technical or halachic importance of Eretz Yisrael, although that is often done.  It isn’t enough to emphasize the importance of living in Israel, though that is often done by our sages.  One must sing the praises of the Land of Israel.  Like we sing the praises of the bride in front of her groom.  Rav YD Halevi Soloveitchik says the mission of the spies was comparable to the need to see the bride before the wedding.  We need to tell the praises of the Land, and fall in love with it.  In the exile, we need to long for the Land of Israel, as Rabbi Yehuda Halevi famously did, even though he’d never yet been in Eretz Yisrael.  ‘My heart is in the East, and I am at the end of the West.’

Even while standing on the border, about to enter the Land, Moshe rabbenu reminds us of the great place the Land of Israel occupies in our national, historical, and religious life.  Indeed his very mission at the ‘burning bush’ began with a charge to take us out of Egypt to the Land of Israel.  It all begins and culminates in Eretz Yisrael.  How much we have lost sight of this in our exile; to which we have become so well adjusted.

Even though Moshe has more prosaic things to tell us and deal with here, he cannot leave the poetry - the praise of the Land of Israel - completely out of it.  Let this be a lesson for us.  As we focus on the myriad religious, social, political issues involved in furthering Jewish society in the Land of Israel; let us be sure that we have many moments where we simply gaze upon her with a glad eye and a loving heart.

Written with love in Yerushalayim, the holy city, may we quickly see her completely rebuilt and renewed.

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