July 23, 2009
The Book of Devarim, which we begin reading this week, is Moses’ farewell speech, which he addresses to the Israelites in the days before his death. He begins with an overview of the history of the wilderness years, how they came to the steppes of Moab, preparing to enter the land of Canaan. In the coming weeks, he will continue with a review and elaboration of the statutes and ordinances of the Torah, and the book will conclude with Moses’ final blessing and death.
But this first parsha takes the form of a rebuke, a warning not to repeat the errors of the previous generation, whose members had lost their opportunity to enter the land due to fear and lack of faith. It begins:
It was in the 40th year, on the first day of the 11th month that Moses addressed the Israelites in accordance with the instructions that the Lord had given him for them, after he had defeated Sihon, king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and King Og of Bashan, who dwelt in Ashtarot Edre’i.
Rashi, citing the Sifre, tells us Moses waited to rebuke the people until after they had conquered these two kings because it was only after Moses had gained a battlefield victory and shown them he could bring them into the land that they were willing to respect his words and accept his rebuke.
That certainly makes sense, but I really like the comment of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of British Mandatory Palestine, who based an important insight on a play on words on Heshbon, the name of Sihon’s city. Rav Kook wrote:
When people are asked why they are unwilling to settle in Eretz Yisrael right now, they have all types of heshbonot — calculations — as to why now is not the time. One says his heshbon is that his children need to finish school or college; another’s heshbon is that he has to vest his pension, and so on. If we look in the Torah, though, we will see that before the Jewish people entered Eretz Yisrael, they first killed the king of Heshbon. Once the king of Heshbon is killed, the decision to move to Eretz Yisrael becomes easy.
Obviously, it was of overriding importance to Rav Kook to encourage people to make aliya, but his insight — that it’s easy to find solid, practical reasons not to do things — applies to many of the choices we make.
I’m not advocating recklessness — of course it’s important to think about what you plan to do before you do it. Still, once you have decided that something you’re thinking about doing is good and right — pursuing additional Jewish or secular education, establishing a regular schedule of volunteer activities, traveling, spending time with family members from whom you have grown distant, or investing in a career change — you can’t let yourself be trapped by “the king of Heshbon.”
There are always reasons: The economy’s not so good right now; I’ll have more time after the kids are in school, or after they have grown up and moved out; if my mother needs surgery, I will have to be available to take care of her; it will be easier to make the trip after we replace the car next year.
There are always reasons — practical, prudent, logical reasons. There are always heshbonot that provide all the encouragement you need to do nothing.
But, as the poet John Greenleaf Whittier wrote:
“For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these: ‘It might have been.’”
Rabbi Joyce Newmark, a resident of Teaneck, is a former religious leader of congregations in Leonia and Lancaster, Pa.
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