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Home -> Devarim -> 5758

Moshe Marcovich
In 5758, Devarim

All of you approached me and said, “Let us send men ahead of us and let them spy out the land. (1:22)

Chazal claim that the key to their error lies in the word “kulchem” – all of you.  All of Klal Yisrael came together in total disarray, with disrespect for their elders, each one pushing ahead of the other.  This approach contrasted the situation at Kabbolas HaTorah, when everyone maintained proper decorum as they prepared to accept the Torah.  The Netziv, zl, contends that “all of you” is not factual.  Certainly, not everyone came forward.  Only the leaders of the tribes, the noblemen who represented the masses  came forward, requesting that spies go to search out the land. Horav Elyakim Schlessinger,…

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Home -> Devarim -> 5758

Moshe Marcovich
In 5758, Devarim

I instructed your judges…saying, “Listen among your brethren and judge righteously.” (1:16)

Moshe adjured the judges to be deliberate in judgement, to listen to the litigants and to understand their claims — not to make rash decisions.  Rashi adds, if a case comes before you two or three times, do not say, “I have already rendered my decision in this case.  Rather, listen to each case, regardless of its redundancy, and be deliberate in rendering your decision”.  The Mizrachi contends that Rashi derives his thesis from the words, “Listen among your brothers.”  How do we infer from this phrase that one should view each case as original, regardless of how many times…

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Home -> Devarim -> 5758

Moshe Marcovich
In 5758, Devarim

How can I alone bear your contentiousness, your burdens, and your quarrels? (1:12)

The word “Eichah,” “how”, in this context is contrasted by Chazal to the exclamations of later prophets, who also used the word eichah to allude to the churban, destruction, of the Batei Mikdash.  Notably, the baal koreih, Torah reader, chants this pasuk differently than the others, singing it to the tune of Eichah, Lamentations, which is read on Tisha B’Av. The obvious connection is the single word, eichah.  The Gaon M’Vilna suggests a deeper connection between the two pesukim. In the third word of the pasuk Moshe says, “levadi” “alone,” (How can I alone bear?). A form of the word…

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Home -> Devarim -> 5758

Moshe Marcovich
In 5758, Devarim

Enough of your dwelling on this mountain. (1:6)

A year had passed in which  Klal Yisrael was situated at Har Sinai.  It became time to move on to Eretz Yisrael.  The Midrash defines the word “rav” as “abundance”; Klal Yisrael’s encampment at Har Sinai brought  much benefit to them: the Torah, the Mishkan, the Zekeinim and other leaders.  The Kli Yakar views the summons to leave Har Sinai as a practical lesson in  attitude toward Torah.  Moshe observed Klal Yisrael lingering at Har Sinai. They had become content with the Torah as a book of thought, a wonderful collection of laws brilliantly formulated by their Divine Author.  They…

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Home -> Devarim -> 5758

Moshe Marcovich
In 5758, Devarim

These are the words Moshe spoke to all Yisrael…(1:1)

Chazal tell us that these “devarim,” words, constituted the content of Moshe’s speech – divrei tochachah, words of reproachment.  Moshe spoke to all of the Klal Yisrael, so that no individual would later say, “Had we been present we would have challenged his words.”  Anyone who had an objection to Moshe’s admonishment had the opportunity to challenge  Moshe, although nobody did so.   Offering tochachah, reproach, is a serious endeavor which should not be undertaken lightly.  It obliges every member of the Jewish community to try his hardest to improve his fellow man.  Indeed, as Horav Shlomo Breuer, zl, writes,…

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