Mei HaShiloach: Parshat Ha'azinu

A view of the Heavens above the earth of the Judean Desert in Israel, (which if anyone asks, happens to be a part of the Jewish Homeland.) Somewhere in the distance (in what is now Jordan) is Har Nevo, the unknown resting place of Moses, who spoke the verse below in a place not far from the view in the picture.

The Mei HaShiloach

From Living Waters: The Mei Hashiloah
Translated by B. Edwards. Rowman Littlefield publishers

הַאֲזִינוּ הַשָּׁמַיִם וַאֲדַבֵּרָה וְתִשְׁמַע הָאָרֶץ אִמְרֵי-פִי

“Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak, and the earth shall hear the sayings of my mouth.” (Devarim, 32:1)
It is said in the Midrash (Sifrei Ha’azinu Piska 1), “Since Moshe Rabeynu was close to the heavens, he called on the heavens to listen. And Isaiah, who was close to the earth, called on the earth to listen (Which is evident from Isaiah's word order, placing the earth before the heavens, in chapter 8:9, “וְהַאֲזִינוּ כֹּל מֶרְחַקֵּי-אָרֶץ - give ear, all the expanses of the earth.”).” Why does Moshe call upon the Heavens first, and Isaiah call upon the earth first? Moshe Rabeynu is the mind and wisdom of all of Israel, and this is called, “the heavens.” Man's mind has the ability to receive even things which are as tough as sinews. Isaiah is the heart of all of Israel. The heart constantly cries out for salvation. It can only accept comfort. We see this in the very name Isaiah, Yeshayahu in Hebrew, which means God's salvation. So when Moshe Rabeynu said, “Give ear, O heavens,” he was invoking the great powers called the heavens, evoking the brain and its power to accept everything. Moshe continues his sentence with the words, “And I will speak.” When the Torah uses the word, “speech,” or “dibbur,” in Hebrew, the Torah is speaking about something difficult (and is therefore used here with, “heavens”). “And may the earth hear the sayings of my mouth,” for, “saying,” “amirah,” in Hebrew, always denotes softness. In other words, when you will call to the heart, called the earth, which is always thirsty for salvation, then you use the language of softness and comfort. The verses continue, “יַעֲרֹף כַּמָּטָר לִקְחִי - My doctrine shall drip as the rain,” (“dripping,” “עֲרֹף - arof,” in Hebrew, sounds just like the word for the back of the neck). When you or I resist coming close to the Torah, it will clutch us by the back of the neck, (our "stiff-necks") so to speak, and we will have to accept the yoke of the Torah against our stubborn wills. But then, immediately upon accepting it, “תִּזַּל כַּטַּל אִמְרָתִי - my saying will flow like the dew,” meaning that the words of Torah will then be with him in comfort and joy.

Reflections on the Mei HaShiloach.

This piece in the Mei HaShiloach brings up a number of issues. The first one that comes to mind is the resistence. A simple question is, "if the Torah is good and light, then why doesn't the whole world run to observe it's laws?" "Shveir zein a Yid! It is difficult to be a Jew!" What is the difficulty? Strap some leather boxes on your arms and spend a few more dollars on kosher meat. If it were only so easy. It is hard enough for a man to use his logic, so how are we to expect him to do something that makes no logical sense but is purely an expression of faith? Elsewhere in the Mei HaShiloach, in his commentary on Devarim 7:12, he writes:

... In the future the blessed G-d will reveal to each soul in Israel the understanding that no statute or law in the Torah, no matter how inscrutable, was without meaning. At present, all the difficulties that Israel suffers over the fulfillment of mitsvot are due to an inability to understand the depth of the good contained in the mitsvot. It appears to them that these statutes are without meaning, and therefore suffer from them. Yet when it becomes perfectly clear that everything was done in justice for the benefit of Israel and were not without meaning, then “our mouths will be filled with laughter,” (Psalms, 126:2) and we will be in a state of simcha.

The second issue is that of free will. What is Torah obsevance worth if a man does not freely choose to serve? Are we robots, just doing what we do because that is how God programmed us? So when the Rebbe of Isbitz says, "When you or I resist coming close to the Torah, it will clutch us by the back of the neck, (our "stiff-necks") so to speak, and we will have to accept the yoke of the Torah against our stubborn wills," it flys in the face of free will. .

This reminds me of the prophet Yona, who tried to escape the destiny that God had in store for him, but ended up learning that you cannot escape the plans that God has for you. The secret is the ability to see how it is allways good.

It seems as if God takes away our free choice at times, "grabbing us by the back of the neck with the Torah," in order to show us some meaning. We think it is impossible, or highly undesiralbe, and we resist. Then, for some reason, even against our wishes, we do a mitzvah. After doing it, God grants us a greater level of understanding. The idea of a doctrine grabbing me by the back of the neck is an unpleasant one. Would I want a communist doctrine to "grab me by the back of the neck," in the form of the KGB? Or have a born again christian "grab me by the back of the neck," and dunk me in the river in the name of his god? Well, frankly, no. But "its ways are ways of pleasentness," and either you believe it or you dont, either you have seen how the Torah , every mitzvah of the Torah, is a path of pleasentness, or you have not.. As a man of faith, as a man of fear and love, I welcome such a grab. Sure I have doubts, this is the world of doubt, and as the grandson of the Radziner Rebbe said, "the only one who knows for certain is God Himself in Revealed Glory," but we are in the world of concealment where it is only natural to have doubts. So I will inevitably try to get away from the Torah at times even if it is against the interests of my soul. So it is reassuring that, "My Doctrine (The Torah,) shall drip as the rain, " , or "Grab me by my neck," and jump start me on a pleasant path. GSGY and Gemar Tov!! sdf

Choose Life! Seforno on Love

“Today I call the heavens and earth as witnesses concerning you, I have placed before you the life and the death, the blessing and the curse. And you shall choose life, in order that you and your progeny after you may live.” (Devarim, 30:19)

The Seforno tells us that the life is everlasting life. And you shall chose life in order to live a life in which you express you love for God. God is telling us, when you choose life you are not doing it in order to get some kind of reward from your good behavior. Rather I ask you to choose it because it is real, true life, as opposed to fleeting, “here today, gone tomorrow,” existence. How do I know that any action expresses eternal life? I know that your actions endure forever when they express your love for God, actions with show an appreciation for God’s goodness and greatness.

This is more or less directly translated from the Seforno. What am I going to do for God? If my father asks me to get him a glass of water, and I do so, it may not be simple obedience, but a way I express my love for my father. If a man does for others purely out of a sense of duty, he will most likely end up hating his actions. But if he does for others out of love, he will come to love his service.

Who wrote the Book of Love? Well, Maimonides, of course. In the Sefer Ahava (the Book of Love), he provides the laws of Tsitsit, Tefillin, Reading the Shema, the Recitation of the Torah in the Synagogue, the Amida prayer. What is love? Love is when I am so connected to another person that I will go out of my way to do things for that person. I will be not just thinking about him or her, but doing things to show how I care. Love is a mode of operation where you say, “If it is important to you, then, my love, it is important to me.” So God tells us to do crazy things. Run out into the desert without shoes. Where will the water come from, where will the food come from? The desert is a dangerous place, better stay by the flesh pots of Egypt! No! We are in love, and that means we will do some crazy things. We will write verses on parchment made from animal skins, and fold them up and put them into boxes and strap the boxes onto our arms and heads while we stand and speak to the Hidden of all Hiddens. We will stand and cry and move our lips like a drunken woman. Why? Because we are in Love! Because if it is important to You, God, it is important to me.

What, then, does it mean that these actions last for ever? When you show your love, the one who you love will remember it, and feel your love. God remembers every tefillin, every Tefillah, every good word and thought, even if it never saw the light of day. And it all increases the love in heaven and earth.