Devarim and Tisha b'Av

Devarim and Tisha b'Av

The parasha Devarim shows that life is not always easy. Sometimes it feels like it’s spinning out of control. What do we do? How do we deal with a force greater than gravity, one that at times seems to relentlessly push us down?

Here’s a story. About a week ago the neighbor backed his truck into my son’s convertible Saab. The Saab was parked. Sitting there innocently.  We were all so sad. The insurance company decided it was totaled.

    

Here’s another story. A friend of mine recently went to see the dentist. His tooth had been hurting for months. The news: Even a root canal…that last ditch effort…wouldn’t work. The tooth had to be completely removed. 

Here’s another story. A Jewish man was born in Germany in 1926. His parents sent him to a boarding school in England to save his life. The parents had money. The school held it in trust for the child. The child was soon orphaned but then grew up to receive a Rhodes scholarship. He was extremely successful. 

This is what happened with the car. The insurance company took it and gave my son a check. It was for three times the amount we paid for it. The car went away with all of its parts to help make more cars. 

This is what happened to my friend and his tooth: He is saving for an implant. An implant is at least possible.

This is what happened to the Jewish man upon his success. He took on a proper British name and even got a nose job. He completely refuted his religion. 

Here’s the lesson. Whatever the damage, we have a heightened insurance policy. In short, nothing is ever naturally totaled on the holy plane. And that means on this plane as well. If we buy into it, if we give up, then and only then is it totaled. And it can be more than a car or a tooth. It can be a precious friendship, a deep belief, our whole ancestry, our religion. 

What do I mean when I say totaled? Well, partnerships seem to get totaled. Hope does. Bicycles, skate-boards, the dinner left in the oven too long, vacations, retirement funds, our innocence, our time, our schools, our highways, our political system, our President, our health system, our health, our environment, our values, our family, our community, our world, our soul. We look around and think, forget it.  Like the Talking Heads we say to ourselves, how did I get here? And we move on, burning down the house.

This is the secret of Devarim though: Nothing ever gets totaled except through our loss of faith.

In Devarim, Moses reviews the past wanderings of the people. According to sages, his hope is that in so doing he will be allowed entry to the Promised Land.  And sure enough, after this review, Moses entreats God to allow him beyond this boundary. Here’s the catch though: Moses has been on earth so long that the Promised Land he is referring to is on earth.

  

There are other ways to see the Promised Land however. And there are other ways to see our Promised Lands, what we value, what we cherish. We can get this greater glimpse by opening our vision.  As Rabbi Kook says: (We can) raise ourselves higher, above the flesh, above falsehoods, hypocrisy. (We can) cling in truth to truth and the light grows stronger and life ascends to a higher state. When we open our vision we lift a world spinning downward out of control and propel it up.

Opening our vision takes work. It takes self-inspection as well as purification. The Arnon brook for example is mentioned often in this week’s parsha, always after a shock. It takes forward movement and continual turning. Move ahead, we always hear. As it says in Devarim…rav lechem, you’ve been circling this mountain long enough.

According to the Chasids though we have it harder than Moses.

With the destruction of the Holy Temple, the rabbis say that Godliness is in a state of "hiding" and miracles do not occur in a revealed manner as then. As a result, seeing Godliness and experiencing holiness takes much more effort. But it’s an effort we are responsible for.

Here’s a story: Rabbi Baruch of Mezibush once found his young son crying. "Why are you crying?" Rabbi Baruch asked."My friends and I were playing hide and seek,” the child sobbed. “When it was my turn to hide, I hid but after a long time in hiding I realized that they stopped looking for me! They forgot about me!"

Rabbi Baruch calmed the child and then said, "It’s almost Tisha b’Av. And this is exactly what God is crying about. He also hid from us as a result of our sins, but the purpose of His hiding is so that we shall search and seek Him. God promised that if we search we will find Him.” But, like the child, God cries because we forgot the reason for His hiding and many of us have stopped looking for Him.

This week, therefore, is a time to remember that God is not totaled. How do we remember? Through deep inner review, purification, action to help others, reaching out with loving kindness and compassion. Sometimes, to find God and feel good about ourselves we need to place aside our ego, our fears, our outer identity.  If we place aside our inner identity though, that’s when we sell out. And that’s when our soul collapses. Courage, faith, forgiveness, trust and humility are therefore necessary steps on the journey. What we want to remember is that we have done all of this before.  Because according to the kabbalists, we have. Even life is not totaled. Even death is not totaled.. So may we learn from our mistakes, and those of others and take a deep breath. May our tears be used to propel ourselves upwards this Tisha b’Av and then may we laugh and let go and really be who we know we are, clean, pure, direct, loving, loved, exuberant with joy and in the brilliant embrace of God. As the Talking Heads say: And there she was.