Parshat Va'Etchanan: The Eternal Flame

At the beginning of this week’s parshah, Moshe recounts before the Jewish nation how he begged Hashem (God) to allow him to enter the land of Israel (previously, God decreed that Moshe was forbidden from entering, and Moshe was trying to rescind the decree). The following verse describes how Hashem answered him:

“…Do not continue to speak to Me further about this matter. Ascend to the top of the cliff…and see [the entire land of Israel] with your eyes, for you shall not cross this Jordan [river, to enter the land]” [Deuteronomy: 3: 26-27]

If you think about it, Hashem’s reply was rather taunting. Let’s use an example to bring forth our problem: Let’s say you were fasting for a day. Your friend, who wasn’t fasting, surely knew how badly you were thirsting for food. How would you react were he to hold up a piece of pie in your face and say “Hey buddy, I know you can’t eat this right now, but I’ll let you look at it for a while”? This would certainly force your mouth to salivate and increase your desire for food greatly, and the hardest part is that you wouldn’t even be able to satisfy that craving! There couldn’t be anything more annoying and irritating than that!

We all know that Moshe had reached the highest levels of Godliness one could ever reach in his lifetime. He literally put all his effort into serving God, and achieved as much as he was able. But there was only one thing lacking in his religious service: Israel. The spiritual energy flowing out of Israel is greater than anywhere in the world, and by just being there one can have the ability to intensify his divine service to the highest degree. Moshe of course knew this, and to lead the nation of Israel into this land was his ultimate life-long ambition. After imploring God to let him in, God stuck to his word and forbade Moshe from entering. But how could he “hold Israel up before Moshe’s face” and tell him “Listen you can’t come in, but I’ll allow to have a glimpse of what you’ll be missing out on”!? Was Hashem displaying cruelty before Moshe?

Rabbi Uziel Milevsky (an exceptional Torah scholar who passed away about 14 years ago) gives a beautiful answer to this question.

In order to solve our problem, we have to first understand a little bit more about Moshe. Almost everyone knows the famous children’s story about a boy who transformed anything he touched into solid gold. Like this boy, Moshe also possessed this gift, but slightly differently. Our Rabbis explain that Moshe represents the personification of endurance and eternality. Therefore, everything Moshe accomplished bears the quality of perpetuation and timelessness. Metaphorically speaking, everything Moshe “touched” turned infinite. For example, Moshe was the one who brought the Jews out of Egypt and established them as a nation. Consequently, the Jewish nation will always live on; despite all the pain and persecution we have experienced and may encounter in the future, we can never be erased. Furthermore, it was Moshe who brought the Torah down from heaven. Through him the world received the Torah, the blueprint of creation and the world’s guide for all eternity.

So why is it that Hashem “tortured” Moshe by showing him the land of Israel, knowing clearly that he would never be able to come inside?

Hashem, in his unfathomable wisdom, wanted every Jew to be endowed with the intrinsic desire and passion to enter the Promised Land. No matter how far removed a Jew may become, Hashem wanted to ensure that his yearning for the Holy land would never be extinguished, and that ultimately through this yearning, he would return to his Jewish roots. Since Moshe had the special gift of generating eternity, Hashem commanded him to see the entire land. By seeing Israel, Moshe’s longing for it undoubtedly deepened to the highest extent. It was this powerful and burning desire that Hashem wanted Moshe to cultivate for the land of Israel only in order to transfer it to the entire Jewish nation forever.

Recently, we underwent the fasts of Shiva Asar B’Tevet (the seventeenth of Tevet, one of the twelve Jewish months) and Tisha B’Av (the ninth of Av, another Jewish month), which commemorate the fall of Jerusalem and the burning of our Holy Temple respectively. Besides mourning over these tragic losses that occurred many years ago, these fasts are also meant for us to reflect on what we can do to rectify the destruction and how we can plant seeds for the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple. In the final prayer services of Tisha B’Av, we add in a special prayer for the rebuilding of Jerusalem (additional to the daily prayer we already recite for Jerusalem). Within that prayer, we recite: “…Hashem, with fire you consumed her (Jerusalem) and with fire you will rebuild her…” What does it mean to rebuild with fire? It is a common teaching of the sages that fire alludes to the aspect of desire and emotion. The true meaning of this prayer is that Jerusalem and the Temple will ultimately be rebuilt with the blazing fire for the land of Israel that we will ignite in our hearts.

May we all live to see the rejuvenation of Jerusalem and her Holy Temple, and may we merit to truly mean it with all our hearts when we implore Hashem everyday in our daily prayers “May you rebuild it (Jerusalem) soon in our days as an eternal structure”.


Good Shabbos,

NZL