Thursday, July 23, 2015

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Devarim

Since there are no Rabbi Frand shiurim on the Parsha until Elul, I would like to substitute a vort from other Rabbanim each week, rather than leaving the blog without a vort for shabbos. This week, I am attempting to repeat a vort heard from R' Eli Mansour as recorded on www.learntorah.com. Same rules as usual apply - I have attempted to reproduce the vorts to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to the maggid shiur.

In Devarim (1:22-36) the Torah recites that Moshe rebukes the Jews for the sin of the Meraglim - the spies who gave a false report about the land of Israel. Moshe states that because the Jews did not have trust in Hashem, they were punished and were not allowed to enter the land of Israel.

However, Moshe then makes a statement which is difficult to understand at first blush as he states in Devarim 1:37  "Gam Be" - I was also punished by Hashem because of you (the Jews) and I was told that I could not enter the land of Israel.

The mefarshim ask the obvious question - how was Moshe punished because of the spies? After all, it is very clear that Moshe is punished for hitting (rather than talking) to the rock at Mei Merivah.

The Ramban answers this question by stating that Moshe was just listing why people were not allowed to enter Israel. After stating (at length) the reason that the Jews could not enter Israel, Moshe simply stated - and Hashem got mad at me too and I was not allowed to enter.

The Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh gives a different explanation whereby he links the two events. He began with a general statement that the sin of the spies was so damaging that the impact would be for generations. As a result of the sin of the spies, Hashem would be forced to destroy the Beis Hamikdash twice and it would be embedded in their DNA for generations. 

He then explained that because of the sin of the spies Moshe could not have entered the land of Israel. The reason for this is that Moshe's trait was netzach and the results of his labors live on forever. In fact, the Zohar posits that had Moshe entered the land of Israel he would have built the Beis Hamikdash it never would have been destroyed. And that would have been the greatest disaster in history.

The Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh explains that when the Jews sinned, Hashem had two choices - destroy the Beis Hamikdash or the Jews. Hashem took his wrath out on the physical structure and the Jews were allowed to survive. However, had Moshe built the Beis Hamikdash, Hashem would have had no choice but to destroy the Jews.

R' Mansour then added to the vort by stating that had Moshe played the incident of the rock in the right way, it could have undone the damage of the spies and he could have entered the land of Israel. But he did not did do so, and as a result Moshe could not enter the land of Israel and build the Beis Hamikdash. 

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