Parshat Va'Etchanan
by Rabbi Avi Billet
We are now past Tisha
B'Av, and our first Shabbos foray into the synagogue puts us in a position to
hear this message from Moshe: "Behold,
I have taught you statutes and ordinances, as the Lord, my God, commanded me,
to do so in the midst of the land to which you are coming to possess. And you shall
keep [them] and do [them], for this is your wisdom and your understanding in
the eyes of the nations, who will hear all these statutes and will say, 'This
great nation is only a wise and understanding people.'" (Devarim 4:5-6)
I try not to live with blinders on.
Which is why reading this triggers an exasperating throw of my hands skyward,
along with a look heavenward, and a cry (sometimes aloud, but more often silent
because no one is listening) of "Us? When will THIS happen?"
Did this happen a long time ago –
perhaps during the time of David or Solomon? Did this happen during the time of
the first or second Temples
It's great that the Kuzari was
written by Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi. Would it ever have been written by someone from
the "nations" described in the Torah?
The only "wisdom of this
nation" I hear bandied around is the accusation of the Jews being the
Illuminati, or that the Protocols are true. Of course both of these are
nonsense. But when the headlines "amongst the nations" (when true)
are about Jews who commit abominable deeds – especially Jews who are supposed
to know better on account of their Jewish education and upbringing – the Torah
(and I shudder to say this) seems to be out to lunch on reality.
Of course, the Torah is right. If
the Jewish people would only "keep them and do them" – the
commandments, that is – we would indeed be a wise and understanding people. A
model to all. After all, thievery, physical abuse, cover-ups, dishonesty,
slander, etc are all intolerable offenses which have no place in a world
governed by Torah ideals.
But even so, our Public Relations
would still need a lot of work. There are many cynical and skeptical people,
Jewish and not Jewish, who believe the Torah mandates the stoning of adulterers
(Vayikra 20) and the killing of minors (Devarim 21:20-21, 22:21-24), and the
most heinous of punishments not for the perpetrators, but for the victims of
sexual abuse (Devarim 22:29).
Anyone who makes these claims does
not understand the magnitude of Torah knowledge as they look at the verse in
its most simplistic translation, and have no concept of the Oral Torah, and
thousands of years of rabbinic discussions addressing what these cases mean, and whether the punishments described in the Torah were ever carried out en masse or were more fixated on demonstrating the gravity of the sin, while life itself was valued.
The Talmud (Makkot 7) claims that
courts did not exercise capital punishment. At worst, it was a very rare
occurrence. And the conditions leading to such were almost impossible to attain:
valid witnesses, proper warning, zero contradictions in testimony.
We live in a time when Sharia law,
which takes some of the Biblical laws literally (or at least as prescribed in
the Quran), and practices the worst kinds of corporal punishment, is on the
rise in the world, in practice and acceptance, even in some Western countries.
Halakha, on the other hand, which has so many varying
opinions and is a system which can help people live meaningful and fulfilling
lives following various schools of interpretation, isn't growing beyond very
small circles of Jews.
And it has become a major turnoff to
many Jews who do not observe. This is wisdom? This is understanding? What are
we doing wrong?
We are not as Jewishly educated as
we ought to be. Even our rabbis and educators, and certainly a large majority
of our flock do not have a mastery of Tanakh, Talmud and Halakhic literature.
We spend hundreds of thousands of
dollars on the education of every child in his/her lifetime, yet we (and our
children) can't read Hebrew, can't translate Hebrew, and have no patience to
tackle a new text. We review the same laws every year, and we still don't know
basic synagogue practice and basic holiday practice. Or what it means to live a
life of "hatznea leches" – living a modest existence in which we do
not call unnecessary attention to ourselves.
We preach about lashon hara, but we
don't know the difference between a to'eles (discussion with a purpose) and
what is pure besmirching and slander. Even as we wring our hands with dismay at
the chillul Hashem, we enjoy reading all the dirt in the press about Jewish
people who "look frum" who conduct themselves in ways that are
anything but…
We talk about people doing teshuvah,
but we are unaccepting of people we believe can't do teshuvah.
The Jewish criminals don't represent
us. But we are not doing a good enough job of representing ourselves through
living and modeling a Torah life that will cause others to say, "This is a
great nation, wise and understanding."
Let the recent mourning period of Av
serve as a reminder that we have a long way to go. May we find the strength to
live up to our mandate from the Torah, to truly be a model nation.
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