Shabbat Parashat Vaetchanan 5783

Parashat Hashavua: On Life, the Land, and Eternal Life

In Moshe Rabbeinu’s opening speech of Sefer Devarim, which the Gra and Rav D.Z. Hoffman posit ends after perek 4, Moshe related to a few fundamental aspects of basic philosophy. Let us examine some of them. As Divine Providence arranged it, the reading for Tisha B’av, which falls out before our parasha, is taken from this section. We will relate to p’sukim from there.

“Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and laws that I am teaching you to do so that you will live and come to and acquire the Land that Hashem is giving you” (Devarim 4:1). Toward the perek’s end (ibid. 40), it says: “You shall guard the statutes and laws I am commanding you today so that it will be good for you and your sons after you, and so that your days will be long on the Land Hashem is giving you all of the days.”

These p’sukim teach us the formula of life and arichut yamim (lit., long days). Towards the beginning of this section, Moshe demonstrated what shortens life and what enables eternal life. “… for every man who followed Ba’al Pe’or, Hashem destroyed him from your midst” (ibid. 3). This means that when life follows only the material side, certainly in its lowest form, with illicit relations with the daughters of Moav and following their idols, their lives were greatly shortened (see Bamidbar 25:1-3). In contrast, the next pasuk in Devarim 4 says: “You are those who cling to Hashem; you are all living today.”

Part of Moshe’s words focus on distancing people from anthropomorphism (attributing human physical traits to Hashem). The problem is not in limiting Hashem’s specialness. It comes to teach something else – Hashem is not part of the material world and His revelation to the nation at Sinai was in many ways a one-time event. Our conclusion should be to not relate anything physical to Hashem, who is the source of life. The only way to merit life is to connect oneself to Him, which requires following His attributes and being involved in Torah, both in study and in actions. When acting as the Torah prescribes, our use of the material world is not involvement in it but in the spiritual world, for which the material is an instrument.

Moshe also pointed out (ibid. 8-15) that Bnei Yisrael’s distinction as a great nation is due to the correct laws we follow, which teach us to fear Hashem as we live in the Land. We heard Hashem but did not see Him. Finally we should “be very careful for our souls, for we did not see any picture on the day Hashem spoke to us at Horeb from amidst the fire.” This is not to protect Hashem but to teach us that realizing the limitations of the material world enables long life, in this world and the world to come.

The Rabbis took this last pasuk out of its simple context, teaching: we must protect our physical lives from danger (see Levush, Yoreh Deah 116:1). Then Moshe warned that following false gods will shorten our lives in the Land (Devarim 4:25-27). Even if Bnei Yisrael must undergo the national tragedy of exile, Hashem will uphold his covenant with them (ibid. 28-30).

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