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The Path To Emuna
Moshe told the people terrified by the spies’ report: ‘You’ve seen Hashem carry you the long way traveled in this desert, as a man carrying his child. You lack faith in Hashem, Who went before you on the road to find you camp ground, Who lit your way at night with fire, and who leads you by cloud at day’
Why mention all these points?
The sovereign path to Emunah: look back on your life’s troubles and how Hashem carried you through. Think of the times when you had difficulties and were saved. When things seemed desperate yet worked out in the end.
Say “Hashem helped me all these years, He fed me, clothed me and sheltered me. I fear not: He who has led me thus far will continue to…”
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The Big Bed
“His [-Og] bed is yet around today in Rabah of Amon, nine amos by four, in the amah of a man” – the Torah telling of Og’s great size, whom the Jews nevertheless defeated.
Rashi comments that “in the Amah of MAN” refers to the Amah of OG. Were it normal man-amos, that would not be so tall: Moshe was even taller – ten Amos!
The Ibn Ezra comments that normal human arm-to-height proportions are about 1:3.8. A man is around four times his arm length. Nine times the size of one’s arm would mean that Og was a freak, with relatively tiny arms and a huge body! How can that be true?
Newton’s square cube law relates particularly to giants; A person with a torso 1x1x3 is 3 cubic feet of person. Were he to be tripled, to be 3x3x9, his mass would suddenly shoot to 81 square feet, a full 27 times as much. His legs would need to be 27 times as thick, otherwise they would simply snap off uder the strain!
A giant CANNOT be of normal proportions, a normal person merely multiplied. He must – if he were to exist – be a freak.
So Og was indeed flattened, with tiny feet and arms; of an alligator or dinosaur shape. Not only is this pasuk giving his dimensions, it describes what a monstrosity he was!
(Far from being inaccurate, as the Ibn Ezra suggests, this actually backs up the Torah’s veracity, for which sane person imagines a giant as anything other than a large-sized normal human being!? Why would Moshe make this up?!?)
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The Unwashed Masses
Moshe expressed his difficulties with the Jews, labeling them (as per Rashi) Difficult People (Rashi’s example; when two people came before a judge and one saw that he was losing the case, he would lie and delay, saying that he had more proofs and witnesses, to stretch out the case and make things difficult), Insolent (-they attacked Moshe personally in the lowest manner,) and kvetchers, always complaining to Moshe and to each other. Moshe exclaimed that he felt that he couldn’t handle them alone.
Yet one pasuk before this one, Moshe blesses them: “May Hashem multiply you a thousand times!” Wasn’t he deeply disappointed with them?
Moshe was not disappointed at all. He was a realist. He knew what his people were, and he was ready to deal with them, were he only able to.
Whenever dealing with the public, expect that they will be tiresome, difficult, insolent and ungrateful. They will talk badly about you.
That’s the way things are. Don’t sweat it.
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Flaunting Wealth
Moshe told the Jews: When traveling through Edom, we ought to pay our way, “for forty years Hashem has been with you and you have lacked nothing!”
Connection??
“If one has money, use it. It is ungrateful to hide or deny it.” [-Rashi]
(Ought we flaunt our wealth? Ought we cause others to be jealous?
Perhaps that this was specific to those people who followed Hashem out into the desert. The world assumed they were ragged and desperate. They had a special mitzvah to show how successful they were.
Another thought; showing off money often breeds jealousy and vanity, not recognition of Hashem’s gifts. However in the desert all were equally rich. No one could be jealous or proud. So a display of Hashem’s blessing was appropriate)
The lesson to us: in private (e.g. with your family) discuss your blessings. Think of them and appreciate them, but in private, please…..
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Wishful Thinking
The Jews cried that they would never succeed in getting Eretz Yisroel – it was only Hashem’s HATRED FOR THEM that led him to take them out into the Midbar on a wild goose chase, to die by Emori sword.
Hashem was furious about this rank ingratitude, and had Moshe tell them that they would die right there.
The Jews changed their minds immediately. Each man girded his sword and said; “Come, let us attack the Emori”. Moshe pleaded with them to stop, telling them that Hashem was not with them.
They took no heed. They advanced courageously up the mountain, only to be routed by the people living there.
What had happened?! First they lay back moaning that it was impossible to march against the Emori and then suddenly they arose and raced into battle – yet in the face of a warning?!
Man believes what he wishes to. Belief is not objective, not at all. When the Jews wanted to, they believed they couldn’t fight the Emori. When they saw where that led, they decided on the exact opposite – that they could fight this all on their own.
We believe what we set our minds to. Big rule…
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Futurists
Moshe searched for judges who were wise, navonim, and accepted by their communities. He found people that were wise and accepted, but not nevonim.
Rashi explains that ‘nevonim’ understand one thing from another – they see one thing and realize the implications down the road.
Moshe couldn’t find people insightful enough to foresee things? All of us claim to have foresight. Why couldn’t Moshe find anyone??
Indeed, nothing is commoner than forecasting. Everyone tries understanding what will be tomorrow. But almost no one succeeds.
Moshe tried, – and failed – to find them.
The takeaways are very important:
A. Never assume. You got into a fight with a neighbor. You assume that your relationship will forever be poisoned. You made a bad impression on an institution. You assume that they will always see you as a loser. You failed at something and assume you will never succeed. Never assume. We are terrible at predicting future; lets not pretend to.
B. Beware people who claim to know the future. They will say ‘This will cause terrible harm!’ or ‘People will learn to be careless from this’ or ‘The neighborhood will be ruined!’ (I challenged one of these ‘futurists’ as to how is he so sure, he told me ‘Because I have eyes and I see!’ It wasn’t his eyes that were seeing, rather his imagination. As it turned out, in that particular case his imagination was not in line with reality…) Moshe couldn’t find people that could predict the future. This fellow probably cannot either.
(I once read in a book that a person can develop the skill of predicting the future by making predictions, writing them down, and then following up on them. As he starts seeing which came true and which does not, he may start getting a grip on predicting well. Maybe. I haven’t tried it.)
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How Expert Is Your Expert?
Moshe told the Jews that they sent spies who went to Eretz Yisroel “and they went to Nachal Eshkol and scouted it and they returned to us saying…”.
Is that all? They didn’t go through the whole of Eretz Yisroel? It seems that not. Moshe’s tone implies that the spies had seen Nachal Eshkol, but not too much more….
So what was Moshe’s point? He was saying ‘Yes, you sent representatives. They returned with a report. Are you to take that at face value? Wouldn’t you ask them where they got their information from? You may well learn that your supposed expert didn’t even scout the country!’
We would do well to learn from this!
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Who Wrote Dvarim??
The gemarah in meggilah (31b) says that Moshe wrote Dvarim on his own – not representing Hashem. (The gemarah is discussing the tochacha, but the same holds true for the entire Mishne Torah, presumably. The Ohr Hachaim in beginning of our parshah also understands so.)
What is it? Its the speeches Moshe gave before he died, his personal legacy to Klal Yisroel.
Is that Torah? Yes. The Rambam rules that every word in a sefer Torah is the Word of Hashem. Yet how can that be??
It seems the simple answer is that the Torah is Hashem’s book: he assembled it and authorized its every word. But not all are His words. Was Paroh’s question to Yaakov “How old are you?” the utterance of Hashem? No, but He wrote it in His Book. And so is it with Moshe’s speeches.
And sometimes we need to know that indeed – this is Moshe talking, not Hashem. Its not the same….