Story has it that a community learned of an impending cataclysmic flood that would threaten their existence. The priest assembled his flock and asked that all to pray and repent for their sins. The minister urged his people to dispose of all their worldly goods and make haste for the highest hill in the parish. The Rabbi summoned his congregation and announced to them: “We have to learn to live under water.”
Subjected to unending traumas and turbulence, defying all rationality, Jews refused to accept what appeared to be inevitable defeat.
The Jew has always learned to accommodate and to live within his society - always withTorah values.
It is true that our lives are based upon how we live as a Jew, in the fullest sense. Too often our Judaic way of life is ceremoniously an outward performance and lacks an inner and deeper impression upon our psyche.
We are free to use our lives any way we wish. But how we live determines how we are loved. How we treat others determines how they treat us. We can use time and spend it any way we wish but eventually we have to account for the way we spend it. Life is, indeed, in our hands and we are responsible for it.
This week’s Sedrah, Ekev, reviews the most devastating experience that took place during the time B’nai Yisroel were traveling through the desert. I am referring to the episode of when Moshe, after seeing the horrendous sin of the golden calf, broke the Luchot that he had in his hands. Interestingly enough, a short time later, Moshe was instructed by G-D to hew out a second set of Luchos.
As we read this episode it is important to note the difference in the language and in the actions by Moshe as directed by Hashem between the first set of Luchos and the second set.
The first time the Torah states:
“And Hashem gave me the two stone Tablets Inscribed with the finger of Hashem.”
When the second set of Luchot were given, after the Jewish People were forgiven for the sin of the golden calf it states:
אמר ה׳ אלי פסל לך שני לוחות אבנים כראשנים
We immediately see the difference between the first set and the second set. The first set of Luchot, G-D did the inscribing and the second set of Luchot , Moshe did the writing onto the Tablets.
One, then, comes to the conclusion that the first Tablets that were written by G-D Himself were broken and did not last – while the second Luchot written by Moshe did last.
One would think the opposite should occur. Logic bespeaks the one written by Hashemshould have greater permanency?
From hear we learn a powerful lesson, for Jewry, in our relationship with G-D.
When it comes to Torah, it is truly a G-D given gift that we are to cherish and to observe. To accomplish this, we need to be an active participant in the Torah experience. We need to write the Torah upon our hearts and minds, to always keep it in front of us and to actively hew out the tablets into our being as Moshe did with the second Tablets. If we do so, it will have permanency and it will continue to be a strong influence in our lives and in the lives of future generations.
The second Luchot resulting in a Divine – Human collaboration and when that occurs Torah becomes everlasting. As our Torah states: At Sinai the Israelites heard a “Great Voice V’elo Yosef”. One of the interpretations is a “Great Voice that did not cease” – a voice that is heard again and again throughout all generations. This Voice of Hashemwill never cease, as long as man is involved in the Mesorah process of Torah.
To the rest of the world the survival of the Jewish people is one of the mysteries of life. To the Jewish people it is not a mystery, for we continually carry our Luchot of Torah in our hearts and in our minds.
In her autobiography, Golda Meir tells of an incident when she served as Israel’s first ambassador to Russia. On her first Rosh Hashana, her staff in Moscow went to the synagogue, and there found the street jammed with 50,000 Jewish of all ages. They had come, despite the displeasure of the Soviet regime, to declare their love for Judaism, their loyalty as Jews, and their feelings for Israel. The crowd surged in a torrent of emotion, shouting, “Nasha Golda! (Our Golda) Shalom, Shalom, Goldele, laben zolst du, Shana Tova, Goldele, (Long life, to you! Happy New Year)” The crowd of cheering and weeping Jews engulfed her. She did not know how to respond, and in an emotion – choked voice, she uttered one sentence: “A dank eich vos ihr zeit gebliben Yidden (Thank you for having remained Jews).
We, as Jews, remain vibrant - for we continue to hew out our Luchot for the world to see.
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