• | Print |
•  Email

Parshat Devarim
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron

בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו

Uniting with the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land 

אלה הדברים אשר דבר משה אל כל ישראל

"Comfort HaShem our God the mourners of Zion and the mourners of Jerusalem...” These days are days of tightened awareness towards the rectification of the sources of Tisha Bav, the day of the sin of the spies. It is when we take the events that occurred on Tisha Bav seriously, and mourn upon them, that the channels of rectifying the sources of these events become open before us. This week's parsha ties the sin of the spies, at least on the People's part, to their lack of faith that HaShem is with them in conquering the Holy Land. A general concept taught by the Rabbis is that everything goes according to its source. Thus, if we examine a clear correlation between the fore-mentioned lack of faith in Providence and the Destruction of our two Temples on this day, the connection is clear: just as one denies God's Providence and Presence in regard to the Holy Land, so too, and in turn (mida keneged mida), God detracts His Presence from us, this Presence being most pronounced in our Holy Temple.

Just as the sin of the spies can be broken into two primary components, the tale-bearing of the spies given more emphasis in the book Bamidbar versus the lack of faith of the People to such an extent that they believed 'HaShem hates us' as emphasized in Dvarim, so too these components are clearly echoed in the sins that caused the Destruction of the First and Second Temple. In regard to tale-bearing our Sages teach us 'anyone who tale-bears causes sins in correlation to three sins: idolatry, incest, and murder'... (Afterwards proved by proof-texts -see Erchin 15b). Thus, specifically these three sins, we are taught in the Talmud, are the sources of the Destruction of the First Temple. In regard to the second component, the belief that 'God hates us', our Sages in the Sifri teach that such a claim actually stems from the People's hate of God. If we examine further, we find that the only explicit prohibition against hatred in the Torah is to hate one's fellow Jew, which is exactly the sin that is the source for the Destruction of the Second Temple. Further explained, to hate one's fellow Jew is tantamount to hating God, for one ultimately hates the Godly spark inherent in that person (see 'one who blows the cheek of his fellow-Jew it is as if he blows the' cheek' of the Holy Presence' Sanhedrin 58b and more).

In mourning the Destruction lies the morning of Redemption. In addition to Tisha Bav and other fasts during the year, halacha also mandates other laws of mourning upon the Destruction, such as tearing one's garments as a sign of mourning upon sighting the Temple Mount in its destroyed state, in addition to the tearing upon sighting the cities of Judah and Jerusalem in destruction. In regard to the cities of Judah and Jerusalem, many poskim note that today one need not tear on sighting them, since Jewish sovereignty is present in these locations. However, upon the Temple Mount many opinions hold that one should still tear one's garment, since here the mourning is upon the absence of the Temple. Despite this differentiation between the Temple and the cities of Judah in regard to displaying mourning, in regard to rectifying the source of this mourning it follows from our beginning analysis that it is through rectifying the source of Tisha Bav - the sin of the spies, i.e rectifying our faith in regard to the Holy Land in general, that ultimately the source of the Destruction of the Temple will be rectified, leading to its Rebuilding.

In the past we have shown how Hebron is reminiscent of the entirety of the Land of Israel, how it is coined by the general term for the Land of Israel, 'Zion', and more. Therefore, it follows that through connection to Hebron, i.e connection to the Land of Israel at its source, we rectify the sin of the spies, just as Kaleb did in Hebron, and thereby bring about the rectification of this sin's aftermath, the Destruction of the Temple. This is Hebron, the uniting force that ties our People to our Holy Land, to the Holy Presence, to our Holy Temple. 

Real Stories from the Holy Land #129

"Once I heard a story which depicts how careful a parent/teacher must be to not falsely accuse their child/student or deal too harshly with them even if in truth guilty. Just moments after hearing this story I, by mistake, accused a student of reading unrelated material in class. In turns out this student had been studying a text we had just learned in the class. I realized my mistake and subsequently asked forgiveness from this student publicly." R.G 

Sources: Rambam Evel 9, 10, Yoreh Deah 340, 38 (with Hazon Obadia and Igrot Moshe O"H vol. 4, 70, 11) Shaar Hapsukim Shmuel II, Yalkut Shmoni 445

Comments, questions, and/or stories,email  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.