Parshas Va’eschanan
The word “Va’eschanan” comes from the word “chen” which means grace or favor. When we pray and ask G-d for favors, He will respond if we find favor, chen, in His eyes. The way to find favor in G-d’s eyes is not to come with demands, with an attitude of You owe me, but rather with the understanding that we deserve nothing and that we are beseeching Him like a beggar at the gate. Chazal tell us (Chagigah 13b) that Yechezkel was denied an audience with G-d because he believed that G-d was in his debt, whereas Moshe was given an audience because he believed G-d owed him nothing. Indeed when Moshe beseeched G-d to spare the people of Israel after the sin of the golden calf, he asked G-d to draw on the credit of Avraham, Yitzchak and Ya’akov (Shemos 32:13), not on his own credit, because he truly believed he had none. And so when Moshe asked G-d to show him His glory, G-d’s response was immediate, “even this thing which you asked I will do, for you have found favor in my eyes” (Shemos 33:17).
“Oh, G-d, L-rd, You have begun to show me Your greatness and power” (Devarim 3:24). The name Hashem, which stands for mercy, is written twice, but is read “Hashem Elokim.” Elokim stands for the rule of law. What Moshe is asking G-d is to give “mercy” the force of law, because without that man cannot survive.
“Please let me cross the Jordan and see the good land, the good mountain and the Levanon” (3:23). What made the land “good” for Moshe was that he could fulfill mitzvot that can only be performed in Israel, like the bringing of tithes, terumot to the kohen and ma’asrot to the levi, peah, leaving over crops for the poor, and the Biblical requirement to separate challah, etc. And what made Jerusalem the most coveted place in Israel for Moshe was that there were mitzvot that one could perform only in Jerusalem, such as eating portions of the sacrifices, the eating of maa’ser sheni and visiting the Temple three times a year. And the choicest place in Jerusalem was the Levanon, from the word “lavan,” white, which refers to the Temple which whitewashes the sins of Israel.
“But G-d turned Himself against me – “lema’anchem” – because of you and He would not listen to me and said to me enough! Do not speak to Me anymore about this” (3:26). In addition to meaning “because of you,” the word lema’anchem can also mean for your sake. Moshe is not blaming the people for his mistake in hitting the rock. He alone was accountable for that. What he means is that having led the people out of Egypt and witnessed them all die in the wilderness, he wanted to go down as the captain of the ship and not be the only one of that generation to enter the land. Another reason why it was for the people’s benefit that Moshe did not enter the land is that had Moshe been allowed to do so, he would have built the Temple. A Temple built by Moshe, the man of G-d (33:1), like the third Temple to be built by G-d Himself, could never be destroyed. Then, at the time of the Churban, G-d would have had to exact punishment from the people themselves rather than from the sticks and stones of the Temple. That is why Moshe’s not going into the land was “lema’anchem,” for the peoples’ benefit.
“Do not add to the word that I am commanding you and do not subtract from it” (4:2). Any human tampering with the divine Torah to, so to speak, improve it, or update it to modern sensibilities undermines the basic tenet of Judaism which is that the Torah is the word of G-d. As such, any attempt to change it reduces it to the human domain with all its vagaries. The prefix “ve” in between the Hebrew words “Lo tosifu ve’lo tigreu” means that adding leads to subtraction. After all, idolatry started with adding the sun and the moon as creations worthy of gratitude in addition to G-d and they ended up as items worthy of worship thereby subtracting from G-d’s exclusivity.
The nations will hear about these chukim and say “surely a wise and discerning people are this great nation.” It is the unexplainable chukim, like sha’atnez, that will earn the nations’ admiration of Israel, not the logical mishpatim. Adhering to a prohibition like sha’atnez which has kept the Jews alive, but makes as little sense to the layman as the chemical-formula of a life-saving medication, earns the respect of the nations because it is a secret formula that neither they nor us could ever have invented.
“I am Hashem your G-d who has taken you out of Egypt” (5:6). At revelation, G-d appeared to us like a wise scholar sitting and learning the Torah. At the Red Sea, when He defeated the Egyptians, he appeared to us as a valiant man of war.
The two apparitions are one and the same. It is the learning of the scholar in the beis midrash that empowers the man of war. Yoav the general of David was successful at war because of the Tehillim of King David.
