Dear Friends,
“They are a generation who have reversed themselves!” [Deut. 32:20]
But, don’t we all reverse ourselves from time to time? Don’t we all change our minds, learn new facts, or reconsider our points of view? Isn't it normal, if not proper, for us to review our positions, especially at this season of repentance? Now, maybe more than at any other time, we are amid national self-assessment which should demand of us to reconsider ourselves.
Our Torah portion, however, also presents Moses’ description of the Israelites as faithless, fickle and unrepentant. It describes us as ungrateful for God’s rich blessings, and thus God hides the Divine face from us.
Perhaps, God was angered at our ancestors precisely because they were unrepentant. In describing us as reversing ourselves, it is not describing our repentance, but our manipulating and rationalizing and reversing ourselves like indicted politicians or cornered third-graders who were caught talking in homeroom.
Perhaps, this verse which comes in Moses’ final oration, when he is about to surrender leadership of Israel to an uncertain future and he is hopeful that Israel will remain faithful in to God, reveals Moses’ disappointment with us for our backslidings and our unremorseful regressions. Ironically, just when Moses might want to see us as reversing ourselves and turning from our misdeeds, we disappoint, instead.
And, such it is with us, today. This season is our reminder that just when we have the opportunity to make a difference in our lives, sometimes we dig our heals in and defend our wayward ways. Just as Moses, and God, were incensed with us for our failures in antiquity, today often we perpetuate our stubbornness and engender anger of dear ones, friends and coworkers. Each of us knows what we do – or don’t do… Hence, the Holy Day season.
“Repent one day before you die,” a sage taught in the Mishnah, to which his disciples retorted “”How can we know when such a day will come?” “Then repent every day,” replied the master.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we would be a generation which reverses ourselves?
Shabbat Shalom, and Mo’adim L’Simcha – For Happy festivals of Sukkot and Simchat Torah!
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
“They are a generation who have reversed themselves!” [Deut. 32:20]
But, don’t we all reverse ourselves from time to time? Don’t we all change our minds, learn new facts, or reconsider our points of view? Isn't it normal, if not proper, for us to review our positions, especially at this season of repentance? Now, maybe more than at any other time, we are amid national self-assessment which should demand of us to reconsider ourselves.
Our Torah portion, however, also presents Moses’ description of the Israelites as faithless, fickle and unrepentant. It describes us as ungrateful for God’s rich blessings, and thus God hides the Divine face from us.
Perhaps, God was angered at our ancestors precisely because they were unrepentant. In describing us as reversing ourselves, it is not describing our repentance, but our manipulating and rationalizing and reversing ourselves like indicted politicians or cornered third-graders who were caught talking in homeroom.
Perhaps, this verse which comes in Moses’ final oration, when he is about to surrender leadership of Israel to an uncertain future and he is hopeful that Israel will remain faithful in to God, reveals Moses’ disappointment with us for our backslidings and our unremorseful regressions. Ironically, just when Moses might want to see us as reversing ourselves and turning from our misdeeds, we disappoint, instead.
And, such it is with us, today. This season is our reminder that just when we have the opportunity to make a difference in our lives, sometimes we dig our heals in and defend our wayward ways. Just as Moses, and God, were incensed with us for our failures in antiquity, today often we perpetuate our stubbornness and engender anger of dear ones, friends and coworkers. Each of us knows what we do – or don’t do… Hence, the Holy Day season.
“Repent one day before you die,” a sage taught in the Mishnah, to which his disciples retorted “”How can we know when such a day will come?” “Then repent every day,” replied the master.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we would be a generation which reverses ourselves?
Shabbat Shalom, and Mo’adim L’Simcha – For Happy festivals of Sukkot and Simchat Torah!
Rabbi Douglas Kohn