Torah Portion - August 7, 2008

Parashat Devarim - 8/8/08

Rabbi Mark S. Kram, Temple Beth Or

When families travel, most prefer to take a direct route to their destination.  Sometimes, we choose (or we get lost) to take a detour or an indirect route – to see an interesting site, to visit friends, or just because we “heard” about something we “couldn’t miss.”  Especially on vacation do we feel “freer” to explore or discover.  At those times, we are “new” looking at things with “new eyes.”

We feel it was “meant to be” if we discover something extraordinary or unique and we feel that the deviation was well worth it.  We’ve learned something or seen something that we would not have seen if we had taken the “regular” route.  We learned something new about a place or seen a view not on the guidebooks. The road less traveled, in this case, made all the difference.

In the case of the Israelites also their indirect route was for a purpose.  And it made all the difference!  The final and fifth book of the Torah, Deuteronomy or Devarim (words [spoken]) begins with Moses’ address to the community.  We learn that the distance between Sinai and the doorstep to the Promised Land is only eleven days.  So what’s with a forty year trek?

OK, we know the jokes – Moses would have arrived in Canaan earlier had he asked for directions, but, no, Moses was a guy.  Guys don’t ask for directions!

But what else caused the Israelites to meander and wander for 40 years rather than a straight 11 days?!  The rabbis comment that the entire generation of Egypt had to die off before entering the Promised Land.  Why?  Because that generation would have been unable to face the military battles and succeed*!  They were slaves, after all, and those with a “slave-mentality” would not have been equipped to withstand the terrible battles or the seductive assimilation that only a new generation could!  This generation was actually “new.”  Seeing for the first time the dream-site their parents would never enter. 

And with their new leaders, would be able to conquer the Promised Land, avoid assimiliation, and reach our communal goal – a homeland in our land.

*Think of all the kvetching they did along the way!

SHABBAT SHALOM!

Mark