Parasha Devarim is the parasha we read before the Jewish people’s national day of mourning – Tisha B’Av. In this parasha, the parting words of Moses for the people, before the people’s entry into the Land of Israel, are given. Among his other words, Moshe reminds them of the major events they have experienced together in the past forty years. Of course, some events are pleasant to remember, and some less so.
The first part of the Parasha deals mainly with the words of rebuke that Moses utters in the ears of the Israelites, about the lack of gratitude on the part of the people, despite the enormous abundance that God has given them. One of the most difficult sentences that Moses says is: “And you complained in your tents and say, God brought us out of the land of Egypt because he hates us, and he wants to give us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us.” The discourse inside the tent of the Israelites was that God hates them, and he brought them out of Egypt with the aim of destroying them.
It is very difficult to accept such a sentence. God gave them everything – manna, water in the desert constantly, special clouds of honor and protection from the sun and harmful animals, and their thanks is: “In the hatred of God we were brought out of the land of Egypt.” A person who hasn’t the “attitude of gratitude” is capable of “blinding” his eyes and not recognizing the good that God and the people are providing him. We must be aware of it.
This atmosphere also led to the sin of the spies. The free hatred of the spies towards the Land of Israel happened on the 9th of Av, in the second year of their departure from Egypt. On this date, the Israelites wept for the first time over the land in vain, and they caused the entire nation to weep and shy away from the chosen land. G-d said: You cried on this date a cry for nonsense, on this day you will cry a cry for generations. Hundreds of years later, both the First and Second Temples will be destroyed on the 9th of Av, and we will be exiled from the Good Land.
The period in which we mourn the destruction of the Temple is called “between the strait- narrowness” -Bein Hametzarim – or, “between a rock and a hard place.” This name is taken from a verse in the book of Lamentations: “All her pursuers found her among the narrowness-strait,” and this is the root of all the troubles that happen to us as a nation. All the persecutors catch us when we are “in the narrowness-strait”. When the people of Israel feel that they are in a “spiritual strait”. When they feel that the Torah of Israel is hindering their steps, when they feel that the spirituality demand is “cramped” and they want to unload the burden of the Mitzvot and Torah from them, while searching for “more space” among other cultures, this is the time, historically proven, the troubles will begin, and our persecutors find us in the corner “between the narrowness-strait”.
We must know that a balanced life according to the Torah of Israel is the greatest space. Judaism says that the commandments of the Torah do not limit us, but on the contrary only through them
can a person expand his space. Not everything that looks like freedom is actually a real freedom. A true free man is a person who is able to “limit” himself. A person who accepts the limitations of the Torah upon himself gets to ascend spiritually, live above the nature and become a true free man.
Tisha B’Av reminds us of our duty in our world, our role as a Jewish people, and our dream for generations to be a real free people in our country-Israel.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Refael Cohen