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VA'ETCHANAN 5762-2002
"Loving
the Land of Israel"
Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald
This
week's Torah portion, parashat Va'etchanan, is an extremely
rich parasha. The parasha opens with Moshe's plea to G-d
to allow him to enter the land of Israel. Unfortunately,
the plea is rejected. This is followed by a warning concerning
the religious practices of the ancients who inhabit Canaan.
The parasha most notably contains a repetition of the
Aseret Hadibrot, the decalogue or the Ten Commandments,
and includes the famous Shema prayer as well. It concludes
with a description of what awaits the Jewish people when
they enter the land of Israel and are tempted by the decadent
practices of the native inhabitants.
Parashat
Va'etchanan, is always read on the Shabbat that follows
the fast of Tisha B'Av, the fast that commemorates the
destruction of the ancient temples in Jerusalem. Because
of that, the uplifting Haftarah from the fortieth chapter
of Isaiah is read. This chapter begins with the words,
"Nah'chah'mu nah'chah'mu ah'mee," "Comfort
thee, comfort thee, My people," says G-d, and therefore,
the Shabbat that follows Tisha B'Av is known as Shabbat
Nah'chah'mu, the Sabbath of comfort.
While
the fast of Tisha B'Av is now behind us, and we have thankfully
entered the period of Shiv'ah D'n'chem'tah, the
seven weeks in which we read Isaiah's messages of comfort,
allow me to share with you a striking insight regarding
the fast of Tisha B'Av that I found in the commentary
on the Artscroll Kinot. For those who are unfamiliar,
Kinot are a collection of poems written mostly during
the middle ages, bewailing the destruction of the Temples
and the hardships endured by our people throughout the
ages. These poems are read after the Book of Eichah (Lamentations)
is chanted on the night of Tisha B'Av. A larger selection
of Kinot is recited during the morning of Tisha B'Av,
following the shacharit, morning services.
After
reading two dozen Kinot on Tisha B'Av morning lamenting
the destruction of the temple, a Kinah, known as "Mee
yee'tayn rosh'ee mayim," Would that my head were
water, is read. It is the first kinah recited on Tisha
B'Av that is not related to the destruction of the temples.
In fact, it is a poem that recalls the calamity that befell
the Jewish communities of the Rhineland Germany--Worms,
Speyer and Mainz (Mayence) in the year 1096, during the
First Crusade. Although this destruction occurred over
1,000 years after the sacking of the second temple, this
kinah is included in the Tisha B'Av ritual to indicate
that Tisha B'Av is the universal day of mourning and that
all Jewish tragedies can be traced back to the destruction
of our temple and the sin of the scouts recorded in the
Bible.
The
Artscroll commentary strikingly points out the universality
of Tisha B'Av as the national day of mourning:
When the Jewish people became aware of the awesome devastation
that befell our nation at the hands of the murderous Nazis
in World War II, many sought to establish a new day of
national mourning to commemorate Churban Europa. The contemporary
Torah leaders were consulted. Among the responses was
that of the Brisker Rav, R' Yitzchak Zev Soloveitchik,
who said that the reply to this question lies in the kinnah
before us. Why didn't the great Rabbis and Sages of that
generation--among them the greatest of the Rishonim, including
Rashi--establish a new day of national mourning to commemorate
that new tragedy? The author of this kinnah addresses
this question and offers this insight:
Please take to your hearts to compose a bitter eulogy,/
because their massacre is deservant of mourning and rolling
in dust/ as was the burning of the House of our God. Its
Hall and Its Palace. / However, we cannot add a (new)
day (of mourning) over ruin and conflagration,/ nor may
we mourn any earlier--only later./ Instead, today (on
Tisha B'Av), I will arouse my sorrowful wailing, / and
I will eulogize and wail and weep with a bitter soul,
/ and my groans are heavy from morning until evening.
Thus, the essential purpose of this kinnah is to drive
home this lesson: There are really no new tragedies befalling
Israel. All of our woes stem from one tragic source--the
Destruction of the Temple on Tisha B'Av. To establish
a new day of mourning would detract from the significance
of Tisha B'Av and obscure its lesson and message. (See
Rashi to II Chronicles 35:25.)
This kinnah also answers another major question. Why does
the exile continue? Why does G-d visit fresh calamities
upon His people? Where have we gone astray?
One of the main reasons for the continuation of our exile
is because Jews are often quite content and comfortable
in their adopted, alien homelands and have all but lost
their desire to return to the poverty and hardships of
Eretz Yisrael. Slowly the Jew ceases to identify with
his true home, the Holy Land, and begins to feel intense
pride in his citizenship in his new country.
The destruction of the Jewish community of Worms in the
German Rhineland was the work of the crusaders. How ironic!
The crusaders were willing to leave everything behind--homes,
families, occupations--in order to conquer the Holy Land
they called Palestine, while the Jews themselves were
filled with no such zeal to regain their own homeland!
In heaven, this irony did not go unnoticed, but aroused
a terrible denunciation against the Jewish people, and
especially against the Jews of Worms and her neighboring
communities.
The classic work on Jewish history, Seder HaDorot,
by R' Yechiel Halperin, records the following observation
in his entry for the year 5380 (1620):
The author of the commentary Sefer Meirat Eynayim (SMA)
on the Shulchan Aruch explained why the Jewish
community of Worms suffered far more persecution, pogroms
and evil decrees than other congregations. That kehillah
was founded by Jewish exiles who made their way to Germany
following the Destruction of the First Temple. After seventy
years of exile, many Jews returned from Babylon to Eretz
Yisrael and Jerusalem, but none returned from Worms. The
community in Jerusalem wrote to the kehillah in Worms
and urged them to join their new settlement in Jerusalem...but
the complacent Jews of Worms dismissed this invitation
out of hand. Instead, they responded, ‘You stay where
you are in the great Jerusalem, and we will continue to
stay where we are in our little Jerusalem!' This arrogant
response was due to the prosperity and prestige the Jews
of Worms enjoyed in the eyes of the local gentiles and
their princes.
The success of Worms was its undoing! The prosperity of
the Jew in exile is nothing more than a Divine test to
see whether it will cause the Jew to forget his homeland
and his heritage. Worms and the Rhineland failed and suffered
bitterly. In our own times, the vast majority of the German
kehillah failed, because, as Meshech Chochmah (Bechukotai)
observes, ‘They began to call Berlin, Jerusalem!'
(The Artscroll Kinos pp 272-273)
A
similar challenge faces the Jewish people today. Will
we rise to the occasion and acknowledge the special gift
of G-d--that we today have witnessed the return of the
land of Israel to Jewish hands, or will we ignore this
special gift, and continue to compose elegies for the
losses that we have sustained?
May
we respond with passion and with alacrity, and merit to
behold the redemption of our people in the very near future.
May
you be blessed.
Copyright
2006 National Jewish Outreach
Program www.njop.org
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