Something
odd happened this week on Toronto sports talk radio. Here we are in the dog
days of summer, the Toronto Blue Jays still competing for the first place in
the American League East and people continue to excitedly call in about it. In
a typical summer, around this time, I notice that Torontonians start calling in
and speaking about Hockey. In a typical summer, big market U.S. cities would be
talking about football training camp. However there has been minimal if any hockey
talk. Rather people have been calling in about the Olympics. They have talked
about a young woman from Toronto earning swimming medals in Rio. Yes indeed,
the summer Olympics are upon us. For a couple of weeks, we are reminded of the
sanctity of the human spirit. We are reminded of the incredibly amount of
effort, of grit and determination for these world class athletes to reach their
potential. In sense, these men and women compete against their “potential” as
much as they compete against each other. There is something quite awe inspiring
when we witness an individual realize that potential. Sometimes that potential
is achieved merely by competing. Sometimes that potential is achieved by
attaining a “personal best”. Sometimes that potential is achieved by setting a
national record, an Olympic Record, or even a World Record. Sometimes that
potential is achieved by a selfless act of sportsmanship.
This morning we begin the fifth and final book of
the Torah. We read the first Parsha of Sefer Devarim of the same name. Parsha Devarim is always the Shabbat that immediately precedes Tisha B’ Av, (the 9th Day of the month of Av), the day in which the Jewish
People commemorate the destruction of both the First and Second Holy Temples. The Sages explain that the reason Second Holy
Temple was destroyed by the hands of the Roman Empire was because of Sinat
Chinam – Pure unadulterated hatred. The Sages viewed the Temples’ destruction
as a punishment of the Jewish people’s failure to not only achieve their
potential but strive towards their potential. Instead, that generation
regressed into the worst that they could be rather than the best that they
could be.
Parsha Devarim, the fifth book of the Torah begins
with a similar message about potential. Moshe and B’nai Yisroel on the eastern
bank of the Jordan River recounting the peoples’ history of the last 40 years,
and specifically the wanderings. Interestingly enough, in his recounting,
Moshe, now imparting his final words to his people reminds this new generation
of its potential, and how their parents/grandparents, those who left Egypt, didn’t
quite reach it national/communal potential. Right away, this wizened old man
begins hammering away at B’nai Yisroel’s potential. Eilah Had’varim Asher Diber Moshe El Kol Yisroel B’Eiver Ha’Yarden
Ba’Midbar Ba’Aravah Mol Suf Bein Paran Uvein Hofel V’Lavan Va’Chatzeirot V’Di
Zahav – these are the words that
Moshe spoke to all Israel, on the other side of the Jordan, concerning the
Wilderness, concerning the Arabah, opposite the Sea of Reeds, between Paran and
Tophel, and Laban, and Chatzeirot, and Di-Zahav; Achad
Asar Yom M’Chorev Derech Har Seir Ad Kadesh Barneah – eleven days from Horeb, by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barneah
(Deut. 1:1-2). Moshe tells B’nai Yisroel that it is only an eleven-day journey
from the Revelation at Sinai to this spot on the eastern side of the Jordan
River. V’Yehi B’Arbaim Shana – And it was forty years…(Deut. 1:3). What
should have been an eleven-day journey took forty years. Immediately Moshe is
telling this younger generation that these past forty years are a direct result
of the previous generation failing to achieve its potential. Indeed, the
generation that left Egypt did have potential. After all this was the
generation that did merit the Exodus, this was the generation that deserved to
be freed from Egyptian bondage. Sadly, that generation did not warrant entry
into the land. Implicitly, Moshe Rabeinu exhorts this generation to live up to
its potential and avoid blowing the opportunity of finally settling into the
land. Moshe Rabeinu exhorts this generation to do better, improve upon what its
immediate predecessors had accomplished. What had they accomplished? The
previous generation had the courage and faith to leave Egypt. They had the
courage and faith to cross the Sea of Reeds, and receive the Torah. They lacked
the courage and faith to inherit the land.
We don’t have to wait every four
years to realize our potential. Every day we have opportunities to live up to
our potential. Everyday we have an opportunity to improve upon the potential of
holiness that resides within our souls. Everyday we have an opportunity to
achieve a higher degree of holiness than where we had been. Interestingly
enough, Moshe is right. Very often achieving higher levels of holiness need not
take 40 years. Instead the transformation can take days. How? By, by working at
the intimate relationship we have with God, through prayer. How? By working at
our relationship with our ancestors through the study of Torah. How? By working
at our relationship with our community through Tzedakkah and Gemilut Chasadim
(Acts of Loving-Kindness). How? By working at our relationships with our
spouses and our children or by giving back to the community, we transform
ourselves into better versions of ourselves. Every day we have the opportunity
to achieve our own personal best.
Peace,
Rav Yitz
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