Given all the turmoil going on in the world. Iran’s bombing of a Saudi oil field, Israel elections and inability to create a governing coalition, phone calls with Ukraine, pulling out of Syria and leaving the Kurds unprotected, an Impeachment investigation, Brexit, and elections here in Canada, let’s just say that I have some anxiety about the future in the “macro” sense of the word. I have a concern about the future over which I have no control. In our home, we are also experiencing some anxiety about the future or at least the next four or five years. With a daughter in Grade 12 (12th grade if you speak American), Shabbat and Holiday meals with friends and family always include a question directed at her. “So, grade 12, that’s terrific, what are your plans for next year?” With that simple, innocent, innocuous question are daughter understands that she actually needs to think about this next stage of her life. I remind her that we call this idea, “The Future”. She understands that she needs to make some self-assessments and ask herself some questions: What are her academic interests, does she want to take a Gap year in Israel? If so, which program and will that program offer credit that is accepted by a university? Does she want to attend university in Ontario or the Northeast United States? If she wants to go to university in the U.S., then she needs to sign up for standardized tests and study for these tests. There are a lot of decisions and it is incredibly overwhelming and without a plan, it is paralyzing. The good news for our daughter is that her parents went through it, her older sisters went through it and even her aunts and uncles all went through it. Her friends at school and her friends from camp are also going through it. So she is not alone. When her mother and I have tried to discuss “The Future, and her Plan”, she smiles at us and, blessed with a biting wit and great sense of humor, she says in her most dead-panned delivery, “I plan to take next year off preparing for my gap year.” I smile and ask how she intends to finance her year of gap year preparation? We all laugh but we realize that we need to get our daughter to be more excited about the future rather than anxious and dreading it.
This Shabbat, we read from Parshat Ha’Azinu. The Parsha is poetry, a song that God had commanded Moshe to compose in the previous Parsha, VaYeleich. Composing this song was the final deed that God commanded Moshe. The song is the final prophecy that God told Moshe in the previous Parsha, VaYeilech. As a song, it does not contain the most pleasant of lyrics, and it is not particularly uplifting or inspiration. The song does not offer such an optimistic future. Rather, Moshe invokes Heaven and Earth to offer testimony to God’s prophecy and future punishment against his people. Throughout Sefer Devarim, Deuteronomy, Moshe has taught the law and inspired B’nai Yisroel to choose fidelity to God and God’s Torah. Choosing to follow would result in a reward. Choosing not to follow would result in a punishment. Now, during the final moments of Moshe Rabeinu’s life, the song suggests neither choice nor the results of that choice. Instead, we are told that we will choose badly and that we will be punished. There is nothing explicit within the song that suggests or even offers a means by which we can do Teshuva (repent) and ultimately return to God. While intellectually, Moshe has taught that concept to B’nai Yisroel; here in the song that possibility is not explicit.
Only when he completes writing the song, Moshe then transmits his words to B’nai Yisroel. His words offer a sense of hope, a sense of inspiration. He reminds B’nai Yisroel that even when they have grown distant from God, even though the resulting punishment will be brutal; there is still a measure of hope, hope for the next generation. Simu Levavchem L’Chol Hadvarim Asher Anochi Mei’id Bachem Hayom, Asher T’Tzavoom et Bnaichem Lishmor La’Asot et Kol Divrei HaTorah Ha’Zot - Apply your hearts to all the words that I Testify against you today, with which you are to instruct your children, to be careful to perform all the words of this Torah. Ki Lo Davar Reik Hu Mikem Ki Hu Chayeichem Uvadavar HaZeh Ta’Arichu Yamim – for it is not an empty thing for you, for it is your life, and through this matter shall you prolong your days on the Land to which you cross the Jordan to possess it. In Moshe’s final moments, he reminds us that the key to our survival is to teach Torah to our children. Yes, according to the song, we will grow distant from God, yes we will engage in idolatry. Yes, we will be punishment. However, there will always be hope for the next generation if they are educated in such a manner that when it comes time for them to make a choice; they choose wisely, they choose God’s Torah. Moshe reminds his people that the Torah is not empty. Rashi reminds us that if we find Torah to be empty and unsatisfying then the fault lies with us, Mikem.
Rashi seems to be empowering us. If the fault lies with us, then we have it within our power to do something about it. Parsha HaAzinu is always read at this time of year, a time when the Jewish people have stood before God to be judged for past behavior as well as received the message that the future is NOT set in concrete. Our behavior, our deeds can affect our future. I can see why some may find that to be an overbearing weight. At the same time, I find such empowerment to offer a bit of hope in dealing with the future. Sensing our daughter’s avoidance of dealing with the future by joking about a “gap year to prepare for a gap year”, we tried to think of something within our control that might help alter her outlook, something that would allow her to see herself in the future. Since our daughter was planning on spending the final days of the Sukkot Festival in New Jersey, we decided that I would pick her up and on our way home we would stop at a few University Campuses. Hopefully, just walking around, getting a tour, and speaking to with the admissions department, at least she will have a sense that the future is not as daunting as perhaps she envisions.
Peace,
Rav Yitz
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