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

בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו

Discovering 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 heightened awareness towards the rectification of the sources of Tisha Bav, the day of the sin of the spies. Just as the 'seven weeks of comforting' lead up to 'the ten days of repentance', so too the 'three weeks of retribution' before these seven weeks are the deeper sources of this process of repentance and rectification. This matter also implies that the deeper sources of Tisha Bav at the end of the three weeks can be found at the 17th of Tamuz at the beginning of the three weeks. In other words, the sin of the spies, which is the source of the events that occurred on Tisha Bav is linked to the sin of the golden calf which is the source of the dire events that occurred on the 17th of Tamuz. Essentially the sin of the golden calf is due to the loss of faith that HaShem is with us. Therefore, the people searched for an intermediary between them and what they saw as the 'distant God', as they saw that Moshe Rabeinu, the messenger of God, was missing. Indeed, when we examine deeply the source of the sin of the spies in this parsha, we see the same process that occurred at the sin of the calf.

The beginning of this parsha describes the departure from Mount Sinai and also the departure of Moshe Rabeinu being the sole judicial power. In this sense, a vacuum is formed from the relative 'absence'/distance of Moshe Rabeinu and the Torah of Mount Sinai which he represents. It is in this relative 'absence', where God seemed more 'distant', that the sin of the spies took hold. In other words, it is this lack of faith, seeing God as distant and uninvolved with what transpires on earth, that paved the way for the sin of the spies, as we are told explicitly in this parsha, 'and on this matter you do not have faith in HaShem your God.'

One of the events in Hebron than transpired just before Tisha B'Av ten years ago was the expulsion of Jews from the Shuk/Marketplace in the midst of the Jewish community of Hebron. Every visitor in Hebron today can easily see this Marketplace with the following sign of protest "These buildings were constructed on land purchased by the Hebron Jewish community in 1807. This land was stolen by Arabs following the murder of 67 Hebron Jews in 1929. We demand justice, return our property to us!"

The fact that this expulsion and the expulsion from Gush Katif, which occurred just two years before, both occurred so close to Tisha Bav heightens our awareness to what may be the more internal sources of these expulsions: the lack of faith in God as being 'King over the whole land', as we just attributed to the sin of the spies which occurred on Tisha Bav. It is this lack of faith which brings people to think that God and His Torah do not have anything relevant to say about the settlement of the Land of Israel today. Nevertheless, it is the spirit of Hebron which instills us, as with Kaleb, with the great faith of the Holy Land. It is with this faith that we can enter the various bustling marketplaces of the Holy Land, on their earthliest level, and at the same time notice there the 'Hand of God'. Indeed, it is in the marketplace that we may conceive the unravelling redemption - 'there is no greater sign of the coming redemption than when the Land of Israel produces fruits in abundance (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 98a)'

May it be HaShem's Will that through this 'revelation of the marketplace' that we instill within ourselves outstanding faith in HaShem, by which we may correct the sin of the spies and bring redemption upon our Land of Providence.

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Real Stories from the Holy Land #228

'There was a friend of mine who I felt I had offended this last Purim. This Rosh HaShana I resolved to go ask forgiveness from her. Just as I was thinking these thoughts, this friend 'happened' to meet me on the street, and I apologized, and we made amends.'  

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