Va'etchanan – Once Upon a Week

Read the transcript below, or watch a video of the teaching by Yehuda Bachana.

This Torah portion is very rich in content and deals with a variety of different topics, with the Ten Commandments and the ‘Shema Israel’ prayer at its heart. This Torah portion is read on the Shabbat known as ‘Shabbat Nachamu’ (the Shabbat of Comfort) which is named after the Haftara reading from Isaiah chapter 40.

The name Va’etchanan (meaning: ‘and I plead’) is named after the pleading and begging of Moses, the greatest among the prophets. The Torah lovingly describes Moses, saying:

So, what happens in our Torah portion?Moses pleads with God to see the Land of Israel; yet, God’s answer is ‘no’.

These verses are difficult for us, as Prayer is an important part of our life and many people pray to God often: some pray on a regular basis; while, others pray in times of need.

So These verses touch us especially, because we pray often. We pray for healing, for one another, for our country, for the safety and protection of our dear soldiers. Prayer plays an important role in our life as believers.

Moses begs to enter, to touch and taste the good and Promised Land. Yet, God declines. That same great leader who sacrificed his life willingly for the People of Israel and whose prayers for the People of Israel were accepted, again and again.

Even when God intended to destroy Israel, He accepted Moses’ prayers and pleas. Yet now, when it is very personal, God declines with a ‘no’. Moses accepts this answer with humility.

We can learn such a powerful lesson from Parashat Va’etchanan: we ought to be ready to accept a ‘no’ from God.

Yeshua teaches us that we can and actually should continue to pray for ourselves, our surroundings and our congregation and more. We should pray for our family and for the sick. However, first of all, according to Yeshua, our words and intentions should be:

In other words, we express our acknowledgement of the fact that God governs the world according to His will. We are like tools in His hands. We humbly accept God’s plan.

Another question, or more precisely, an additional thought arises concerning the reason behind this monologue. Why did Moses proclaim publicly that he pleaded with God Who denied his final request and sent Moses to die in sorrow?

Isn’t it better to keep silent about Moses’ final request? This would prevent the unnecessary and futile discussion about God's harsh leadership and His refusal to allow Moses this privilege, after Moses dedicated his life to the establishment of the People of Israel. Didn’t Moses deserve that?

Moses really begs God after 40 years in the wilderness, where the new generation was raised on the stories of the Holy Land and mentally prepared to enter it. Let’s remember that 38 years earlier, Moses had sent spies to the Land of Israel. They returned with amazing stories and experiences. We can easily imagine how those stories spread and turned into a vivid legend.

Now after 38 years of expectation, of dragging their feet in the desert and hearing stories about the Promised Land, while sitting at the feet of the elders… we finally see this land!

Even before entering, we see the greenery and the wealth of theTrans-Jordan. That alone feeds our imagination about the riches that await us in the land.

All Moses wants is to walk the trails of Israel and breathe the air of the mountains of the Galilee. To touch the land that belonged to our fathers, to visit the well of Beer Sheva. To pay his respects in Hebron and that would be it.That is what Moses asks of God; however, the same God Who listened, participated and protected Moses during the long journey in the wilderness, the same God Who spoke face-to-face with Moses, says ‘no’ this time.

Why?I think the answer appears in the following verse:

The English translation misses the boat a bit, as the Hebrew says ‘lema’anhem’, meaning: ‘for your sake’. The Hebrew text explains why God did not forgive Moses, and why Moses, in fact, announces this to the entire world.Truly, thanks to Yeshua, the Bible, including this very story, is known and published all over the world.

Moses says:

The meaning of this phrase is very different from ‘because of you’. ‘For your sake’ means - ‘for your benefit’.In fact, Moses says: “God might possibly have forgiven me and allowed me the privilege to enter the Promised Land; however, for your sake, my entry has been denied. My tragedy should shake you. The fact that my prayers and pleas were not accepted, presents you with an extremely serious warning. It is important to understand that not everything will be forgiven. Learn that lesson from my personal tragedy.”

Moses’ incident is an example for us. Moses tells and reveals everything to the People of Israel, in order to shock them. It is important for us to understand that we cannot bargain with God. We cannot explain our point of view in order to ‘make a deal’ with God, thinking ‘He will understand my circumstances’. No, Moses tells us there can be no excuses. We should look at him and learn our lesson.

This lesson is important for everyone. As mentioned before, the Torah, thanks to Yeshua, was translated to all the languages of the world.This also shows the necessity for a complete forgiveness. This forgiveness can only be received though Yeshua the Messiah.

After this event, Moses continues his speech. He warns us that, even though we will receive all the blessings of financial and material success in the Promised Land; yet, that those blessings - in itself - hold a certain danger.Truly, in times of trouble, in the hour of need, we all remember to pray and ask God for His help.

But what about during times of peace? Times of prosperity and success?We do not always remember to give thanks to our Heavenly Father. Moses tells us not to forget the Source of our blessing and abundance.

Moses touches upon yet another interesting point:what is the source of our wisdom and success? Is it our education or the investment in our children? A rich social life? Our mandatory military service?

All of the above do enrich our children and grant them life-experience and a certain success in life.However, there is more beyond these truly important investments. Parashat Va’etchanan prescribes the recipe for success clearly:

The secret of wisdom is the Bible, the Word of God.

As a People, and as human beings, if we keep and fulfill the decrees, laws and commandments of God, we will be blessed and succeed in everything we do. As is written in Psalm 1:

The source of success, inspiration and wisdom is the knowledge of God and the knowledge of God’s Word. Everyone who is roots himself and their family in the Word of God – will bear much fruit. Such a person, and his children, will be blessed.

As believers in Yeshua, we believe in the importance of being rooted in faith and in the Word of God. We believe the Word of God includes everything from Genesis to Revelation, the Old and the New Testament alike. Our faith in Yeshua leads us to a blessed life. Not because it is some kind of magic trick.

However, we do believe in the power of prayer and miracles. We have absolute faith that God performs miracles and wonders, that we are unable to understand as people. We believe in all the miracles that happened in the wilderness, like the water from the rock and the manna from heaven.

However, what I mean to say is that our faith leads us to success and brings blessing to our life. The reason is, that the Word of God guides us to a social life that is fair, balanced and high-quality. Our faith directs us towards a life of meaning that reaches beyond egoism and the thought of our own personal gain.

Yeshua requires us to live a meaningful social life that contains mutual help. When I help others, my self-worth is strengthened. When I manage to teach my children to help others, it builds them up and gives meaning to their lives.Ask anyone who helped or even saved another person, if it made them feel good.

This is precisely the reason why so many people volunteer in many different areas of life. In Israel there are volunteers who help people who are stuck on the side of the road; and then there are the volunteer who provide life-saving emergency care.These volunteers do not perform these tasks to people-please, but the work gives them a true sense of self-fulfillment.

Surely, our faith in Yeshua leads us to a life of volunteering and care for those around us, which gives meaning to our life. In my opinion, that is what Moses means when he calls the Torah our source for a good, blessed and meaningful life. Our wisdom is not limited by our success as math students; but rather, our wisdom and success are summed up by how we pass on the Word of God to the next generation, as it is written:

God did not choose the People of Israel for being the wisest or the most successful. Rather, God chose this people for two main reasons. The first reason is love, as God loves us. The second reason is an oath. God swore an oath to our fathers, and He fulfills His promises. Our Torah portion concludes with this idea:

Verse 7:

We are the smallest and weakest among the nations. Wisdom is not ours, but it belongs to God Who lives within us.

The New Testament teaches us that God chose the weak. Why so? To make it clear that the abilities and strength are not ours. God stands out among this weak and small people, that is surrounded by 100 million enemies who are filled with hate and sit on our immediate boarders. Enemies, whose armies are 50 times larger and stronger, but who still cannot overpower this tiny people.Clearly, without a shadow of a doubt, there is a God and He protects us. And this is what is written in the New Testament:

What is the secret of our wisdom? What is the secret of our success? The answer is simple – it is God. It is the Word of God. Moses simply asks us, not to abandon our source of living waters, not to abandon the living Word of God.

In the same passage, we read that:

This verse is similar to the beginning of the Ten Commandments that also appear in this week’s Torah portion. We could say that the very heart of the Living Word, the Word of Wisdom lies in the Ten Commandments.

The Ten Commandments were firstly written in Parashat Yitro, in the Book of Exodus. Here, Moses repeats them again:

Our constitution opens with the Declaration of Liberty. Who is God? He defeated slavery and bondage and granted us freedom! I think that is the very heart of our faith in Yeshua the Messiah.

Who is Yeshua the Messiah, and what did He do for me? Yeshua bought us with His blood. He took the curse of our sins upon Himself. Yeshua defeated sin and freed us from slavery.