Ziv: Parashat Vaetchanan


Each week, Gad Barnea or Sister Agnès de la Croix (from the Community of the Beatitudes) proposes a reflection on the portion of the Pentateuch that is read in the synagogue (parashat hashavua). This week the portion is from Deuteronomy 3:23 - 7:11 with the haftarah (additional reading) from Isaiah 40:1 - 40:26. They call their reflection “ziv” – a ray of light.

ziv vaethanan

The Sabbath of Consolation

This parasha is read during the first week following the ninth of the month of Av, in Hebrew, Tisha BeAv, the day when the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, is commemorated by fasting and reading Jeremiah’s Lamentations. This specific day, was preceded by three Sabbaths during which the “haftarah” prepared hearts for repentance.

Today, and for six more Sabbaths, the book of Consolation of the prophet Isaiah (chapters 40-66) is read. This take us to the Sabbath that precedes the day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, the great day when all the sins committed during the year are forgiven…

These readings are therefore not directly related to the parasha. However, such a connection can be made this week. The book of Deuteronomy describes the great suffering of Moses who, after so many trials and bitterness, cannot enter the land for which he had longed so much… For the first time, we see him plead for himself. His plea is heard but he only has permission to see the land of milk and honey from afar. Immediately after this episode, Moses warns the people : “be careful not to forget the covenant that the Lord your God made with you, and not to make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything” the consequence of idolatry is clear: “you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to occupy” (Deuteronomy 4:23,26). The possession of the land is therefore connected to the observance of the Torah, and the refusal of idols. One can understand the stakes of Moses’ admonition : idolatry is characterized by a rejection of distances, a desire of complete possession of the object of veneration. This desire is extremely dangerous when it concerns the land, which is only given in order to be given back to its Owner, just as we give thanks. One should live in the land as if “passing through” it, which is the meaning of the word “Hebrew”. Rashi, in a well-known commentary, asks why the Torah begins with the account of creation and not with the exodus from Egypt … this is because one can go up to the land of Israel only with the remembrance of the Creator, to whom all things belong. This message is fundamental, and it is kept in memory in a very concrete manner in Jewish liturgy : every year, cabins are made under the open sky in which the people lives for eight days, in memory of the life in the desert and the precariousness of existence. Abraham, the first to be called, has also heard the call to quit “his land and his heritage” to begin his travels. Moses, who give the law to the people, must also live in his flesh, the experience of possessing nothing that we know we have received from another: he shall die in the desert “according to the command of God”, with the consolation of seeing the people live on its land. Shabbat Shalom.

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