Friday, September 21, 2018

Rabbenu


Haazinu
Deut. 32:1-52

PrĂ©cis: The parasha, the shortest in the Five Books, containing only 52 verses, begins with the “Song of Moses,” a hymn sung by Moses within sight of the Promised Land. The song contrasts God’s fidelity with the faithlessness of the People, and the need of the People to learn from their history under God’s care. Moses predicts that Israel’s enemies will be overcome. He is told to climb a mountain to see the Promised Land he will not to enter, as he prepares for his death. This is the last parasha read on Shabbat in the annual cycle: the final parasha (V’zot Habracha) is read traditionally on Simchat Torah.

Deut. 32:49-50. “Ascend these heights of Abiram to Mount Nebo… and view the land of Canaan…. You shall die on that mountain.”
          Writing in Covenant and Conversation (9/19/17), Rabbi Jonathon Sacks provides a capsule review of Moses.
          Moses is to die in view of his ultimate goal. He has been the quintessential “leader, the liberator, the lawgiver, the man who brought a group of slaves to freedom, turned a fractious collection of individuals into a nation, and so transformed them that they became the people of eternity.”
          Moses, Sacks reminds us, performed miracles, gave us our laws, fought against the people when they sinned, sought forgiveness from God on their behalf, and suffered repeatedly because of their failures.
          Moses has been viewed differently through the ages. Some thought of him as one who ascended to heaven to argue with angels. For much of Jewish history, he was simply “Rabbenu" (“our Rabbi).”  He was not a king or political leader, but a teacher and scholar. The Jewish Egyptian philosopher Philo, under the influence of Greek thought, saw in Moses an exemplar of Plato’s philosopher king. Maimonides, saw him as a unique prophet, who received instruction while fully awake (not in dreams), and spoke directly with God, at times “face to face.”
          But to more modern readers, Moses is unquestionably human. He despairs, he craves death, he shows anger, he loses faith in the people he leads. He begs to achieve a final goal, and is denied. He is not worshipped, but is a role model.
          Sacks reminds us that his status as a role model remains strong, even among non-Jews. The night before his death, Martin Luther King Jr. recalled Moses’ own struggle, saying that God “allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.”
          What are we to make of this hero Moses? Sacks suggests an answer: “That it is right to fight for justice even against regimes that seem indestructible. That God is with us when we take our stand against oppression... That change, though slow, is real, and that people are transformed by high ideals even though it may take centuries.”
          Our text tells us that Moses was 120 years old when he died, “yet his eyes were undimmed and is strength undimished.” The first explains the second: because he never lost his ideals, his strength remained.
          Moses remains a role model for us all: despite bitter disappointments, his belief in a better future remained. So may it be with us.