Musings On Parshat V’ethchanan

Following are some of the ideas, insights and interpretations that emerge from our weekly Chumash learning group at the Young Israel of Oceanside, Long Island. We cite sources when possible. Some of our interpretations may derive from ideas we may have seen elsewhere, possibly without attribution. Or we may simply have forgotten the source. For this we apologize. We invite your comments, observations and participation.

Overview

Moshe’s request to go to the Promised Land is rejected by Hashem; appeal to the Israelites not to forget what they learned at Mt. Sinai; graphic reminder of the Mt. Sinai experience; urgency to avoid  idolatry which leads to Exile; promise of repentance; Moshe establishes 3 Cities of Refuge East of Jordan River; ”And this is the Torah that Moshe set before the children of Israel”; Moshe begins his major, final discourse urging the Israelites  to recognize the special Covenant with Hashem made at Mt. Sinai; Decalogue (Ten Words /Commandments) repeated; First paragraph of Shema—Oneness of Hashem , Israel’s undivided loyalty to Him, need to repeatedly teach the children, Tefillin and Mezuzah reminders; consequences of forgetting Hashem; explaining the importance of the Exodus when children inquire; need to utterly destroy  idolatry; intermarriage with residents of Canaan prohibited.

On the Mitzvah of Honoring One’s Father and Mother

”Honor thy father and mother as the Lord your G-d has commanded you that thy days may be long and that it may go well with you on the land that the Lord thy G-d gives you.”  The Decalogue (Ten Words) as repeated by Moshe in this Parsha has some additions (underlined) that do not appear in the original Ten Commandments given on Mt. Sinai.

The Torah does not command us to love our parents since one cannot dictate emotions. We are commanded to behave in a way that honors our parents. Cabayd—the Hebrew word for Honor—is from the root word for heavy, suggesting that this particular commandment is among , if not the, “heaviest”, most important and most difficult one to observe. The conflict between child and parent seems inherent in the human condition to the point where Hashem promises family harmony (in Malachi 3:24) by interceding and sending the prophet Elijah to “reconcile the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children in their relationship with their fathers”.

The root word Cabayd  also refers to the liver, that body organ that the ancients believed was the source of heaviness, anger, and melancholy (and perhaps, in modern day parlance, conflict and depression). In modern psychological terms these may refer to Oedipus complex and Electra complex.

The added  phrase as the Lord your G-d has commanded you suggests that Hashem emphasized this commandment over and over again. Or perhaps “has commanded you” is a poetic way of indicating that the need for parental respect is intuitive and built into our DNA. Or perhaps this phrasing is meant to create an awareness of these unconscious conflicts and their effects on our behavior-- and to encourage us to work through them.

The additional phrase “and that it may go well with you” may mean that the quality of our emotional lives improves with the resolution of the parent-child conflict. This may also connect to the imminent entry of the Israelites to their homeland and the message that Society cannot exist and thrive without generational reconciliation.

This fifth commandment, listed among those that have to do with Man’s relationship with Hashem, makes the point that Hashem is a partner with parents in the creation of offspring. Also, respecting and honoring parents is one facet of respecting and honoring Hashem. That this commandment segues to the last five (between Man and Man)  suggests ,perhaps, that the behavior listed and  prohibited on the left hand side of the Decalogue (murder, theft, adultery) may be rooted in internal conflicts related to a failure of reconciliation  with one’s  parents.

Jonathan Elkoubi, one of the participants in our Chumash learning group, opines that the Decalogue also needed repeating because during the 40 year desert trek, every single commandment of the first tablet (if not both tablets) had been broken, one way or another, by the parents of the Israelites now awaiting entry into the Promised Land. These children of Israel to whom Moshe is speaking spent their youth wandering in the desert and wondering about the (poor) choices their parents made after having had the awesome Mt. Sinai experience. They (and we) now are being reminded that even if parental actions might justify loss of respect, we are obligated to act in a respectful way simply because they are our parents.

The  immediately preceding commandment relating to Shabbos has a word change from Zachor (to remember) to Shamor (to do, to follow)  and is applicable not just  to Shabbos but to all subsequent commandments in the Book of Devarim. Perhaps Hashem subtly is giving voice to the age-old parent statement to "do as I say (Shamor) and not as I do/did (Zachor)". Hashem, the Parent of all parents, may punish/lose respect for our parents, but that doesn't give us, the offspring, the right to do the same, ever.

Cabayd may also mean to treat with dignity, specifically as it relates to this new generation that has and is burying the older generation and is reminded to do this task in a respectful, dignified manner.

How does one Love Hashem?

In this week’s parsha we are introduced to the Shema, “Hear , O Israel! The Lord is our G-D, the Lord is one”. The final word ECHAD may also be translated as unique (in His extraordinariness) or alone (expressing opposition to polytheism).

The first verse of the first  paragraph of Shema, reads  ”You shall love the Lord your G-d with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might”.

What does it mean to love Hashem? How can we be expected to  experience this emotion toward an unseen and unrecognized entity? And how can we be commanded to feel something, when we have no control over our emotions?

Shadal defines love as a longing and yearning after. Rather than considering it as an independent commandment, he views this statement as an underlying principle for all commandments. Most commentaries disagree and consider the Loving of G-D an independent mitzvah.

Some maintain that love of G-D incorporates reverence and fear and expresses itself in a single- minded loyalty and obedience. The Midrash says loving G-D means doing his commandments out of Love.

Rambam opines that this Love arises from intellectual exercise. Through contemplation of the awesomeness of the  universe and its inhabitants one comes closer  to an understanding of--and a longing and Passion to know-- Him.(The Song Of Songs’ description of the love sick, obsessed lover is the allegorical expression of the Love between Man and G-D.) Furthermore, engaging other people in the  discussion and praise of Hashem in an attempt to attract them to His worship is, in Rambam’s, view part of the Mitzvah. Indeed, he cites a Midrash supporting the view that Abraham’s Love of Hashem encompassed his converting them and bringing them under the wings of the Divine Presence.

In his commentary on  the Torah, Rabbi Günter Plaut stresses  that a Mitzvah done in the right spirit is an act of loving G-D. We are commanded to do G-dly deeds to help us achieve this emotion.

The Sefat Emes understands the commandment as a bolstering of courage. We must remove the emotional blockades that prevent us from realizing the potential emotion of Love of Hashem that is buried within each of us.

Franz Rosensweig notes that in the human sphere the commandment to love can come only from the Lover who says to his beloved: “Love Me!” So, too, in the religious sphere Hashem the Lover pronounces to the Universe His love (of us) and wants  reciprocation:” Love me” (in return).

A Chasidic interpretation notes that we are commanded twice in Leviticus to love human beings. Only after we have learned to love people can we come to love G-D.

“V’aseesa hayshar v’hatov Beynai Hashem (You should do what is right and good in the sight of Hashem)” (6:18)

This positive commandment seems to be superfluous, since it is already implied in the previous statements about our responsibilities to follow the Torah, including the immediately preceding verse “Shamor tishmaroon es Mitzvos Hashem Elokechem v’aydosov vichukav asher ztevach.” (“You shall diligently keep the commandments of Hashem your Lord and His Testimonies and His Statutes that He has commanded you”.)

Nechama Leibowitz, in her Studies in Devarim, cites Rashi and Ramban, each of whom suggests that there is a new Mitzvah embedded in the statement namely, “Pshara (compromise) above and beyond the letter of the law”. The root word Pshara means to melt, dissolve; to cool, temper; to disengage, suggesting the calming down of emotions in order to arrive at a settlement.

Ramban further explains that the Torah includes this general commandment because it would be impossible to record every situation of human behavior. Furthermore, notes Ramban in his commentary on Parshat Kedoshim, it is possible for a person to be a fool within the realm of observing the Torah when he acts  only within the letter of the law but not within its spirit.

The phrase “Beynai Hashem” and the prefix “B” are of interest. This prefix generally is translated to mean in or within. An additional definition may be using or utilizing. Translated this way, the commandment would be for us to behave in a manner using “ayne hashem”, the eyes of Hashem. “Ayne hashem” means the  insight  and deeper understanding of one’s behavior to which Hashem alone is privy. When we are dealing with our fellow Man, we are urged to try to use or utilize the same mindset of understanding and forgiveness that we would like Hashem to use in judging and forgiving us.

Rabbi H. L. Berenholz