Those who live in a religious neighborhood in Israel can enjoy the daily sight of many rabbis walking through the streets and speaking about the Torah. My neighbors here in Bet Shemesh are elderly Indian Jews whose daughter married a Briton who, in turn, is a great scholar who not only speaks about the Torah but actually prints out his interpretations and distributes them to everyone he meets on the street.
Rabbi Yehonasan Geffen also pressed a sheet of his “Dvar Torah – a word about the Torah” into my hand, and I would like to summarize his thoughts here.
This Shabbat we read the last portion of the Torah, Vezot Habracha, in which Moses blesses the tribes of Israel and then dies.
The Torah closes its annual cycle with a moving eulogy for Moshe Rabbeinu (we call him “Moses our Teacher”), which ends with praise for “the strong hand and the mighty power that Moses performed before the eyes of all Israel.” Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki (“Rashi”), an eleventh-century scholar, cites a Midrash (interpretation of religious texts) and explains that the expression “before the eyes of all Israel” refers to Moses’s decision to break the tablets of the law, which he had just received at Mount Sinai, in front of the entire Jewish people.
Why does the Torah single out this one act among all the great deeds of Moshe Rabbeinu as perhaps the greatest of all? Rabbi Ateret Mordechai offers a profound insight in answer to this question. Moses had made great efforts over many years to lead the Jewish people out of slavery in Egypt and bring them to the giving of the Torah, and he had just spent forty days without food or drink to receive the tablets for the Jewish people.
When he returned from the mountain and saw the people worshipping the Golden Calf, he recognized that they were not yet ready to receive the tablets and that he would have to destroy them. One can well imagine what a trial it must have been to abandon all the effort and energy he had invested in reaching that moment. He could certainly have told himself that while the people did not deserve the tablets right now, the situation might change soon and it would not be necessary to destroy them immediately. But Moses did not do this; he demonstrated great integrity and intellectual honesty by smashing the tablets – because it was the right course of action.
Very often in life we find ourselves in situations similar to that of Moshe Rabbeinu – we invest time or energy in something and then face the possibility that we have made a mistake and must start over, or that a new development has rendered our original position obsolete. In such cases, the temptation is great to remain stubborn and cling to our original plan against our better judgment. It is very difficult to admit that we were wrong or that we must start over after having put so much effort into something. And perhaps the most difficult aspect of this is tearing down what we have already built. By doing so, we show that we have made a mistake – it is extremely difficult for people to admit that their opinions, their lifestyle, or their attitudes are wrong. Indeed, one of the main factors preventing non-religious people from changing their lifestyle is that doing so would mean admitting that their entire life up to that point had been based on an error.
Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevitz cites an example from the Bible of how a person can be so entrenched in their habits that they are unable to change even under the greatest pressure. After the destruction of Jericho, Joshua placed a curse upon anyone who would rebuild the city. During the time of Ahab, a man named Chiel decided to defy the curse and rebuild Jericho. When he laid the first stone, his firstborn died, and as he continued building, his sons died one by one, until finally, when he had completed the city, his youngest son also died. How can a person be so foolish as to continue on a path that brings him grief?! Rav Shmuelevitz answers that he was so convinced of the righteousness of his actions that he could not admit he was wrong, and preferred to bury all his sons rather than acknowledge that he had made a mistake!
By contrast, the Talmud shows an example of the greatness that lies in admitting one’s errors. Rabbi Shimon HaAmsoni used to explain every instance of the word “et” in the Torah as lending a secondary meaning to the subject mentioned. For example, in the commandment to honor one’s parents, there is an “et” from which he derived the inclusion of older siblings, and consequently a person must honor their older siblings just as they honor their parents.
(Kabéd et-avícha ve-ét imécha – Honor your father and your mother)
However, when he came to the verse “Et Hashem Elokecha tira – Fear the Lord your God,” he could find no second recipient for the reverence we must feel toward God. He thereupon destroyed the book on which he had worked for many years. His students asked him: “What will become of all the cases in which you explained the word ‘et’?” He replied: “Just as I was rewarded for explaining them, so too will I now be rewarded for abandoning them.”
Later, Rabbi Akiva came and taught that the “et” in that verse teaches us that a person must fear God and also the biblical scholars. His theory was therefore not wrong after all.
The Alter of Kelm highlights the greatness of Rabbi Shimon, who did not hesitate to abandon the theory he had held throughout his entire life when he felt he could no longer justify it. Moreover, he taught his students an invaluable lesson – that abandoning his theory was just as great an act as all the research and explanation he had carried out throughout his life!
This lesson is closely connected to the day of Simchat Torah, with which “Vezot Habracha” coincides each year. We complete the Torah and then immediately begin again from the beginning, reading the first verses of the first weekly portion, Bereishit. This suggests that although we have read the entire Torah, we should not feel that there is no need to go through it again. We can learn it anew and gain new insights that sometimes even contradict our current understanding, and we should not be ashamed to admit when we have been wrong. This applies not only to our understanding of the Torah, but also to our approach to life – if we find that some aspect of our outlook on life does not fully align with the Bible, we must be willing to honestly examine how we can change it.
Rabbi Frand points out that this idea is also alluded to in the wedding ceremony. It is customary for the groom to break a glass during the ceremony, and most commentators explain that this serves as a reminder of the destruction of the Temple. Rabbi Frand notes, however, that there is one commentator who connects this custom to the breaking of the tablets of the law. Why must we be reminded of this event at a wedding? He answers that this perhaps serves to teach the new couple that, for their marriage to work, they must strive to follow the example of Moshe Rabbeinu in breaking the tablets.
For a marriage to work, both husband and wife must be willing to act with great honesty and acknowledge their mistakes, rather than insisting on their pride. Both must be willing to let go of their preconceived notions and prejudices and to pursue the truth. These are no simple requirements, but when we see that Moses was willing to break the most precious thing in the world because it was the right thing to do, then surely we too can be willing to make changes when it is clearly the will of God.
