How Did We Get Here?

The following are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel on the side of the Jordan — in the desert, in the plain, opposite the Reeds, in the Paran, maligned the white, at Chatzerot, abundance of gold. [Deuteronomy 1:1]

The Book of Deuteronomy could be titled “My Turn.” After 40 years of leading a wandering nation, Moses gets to say his piece. He traces the history of the Children of Israel from their liberation in Egypt, to the zigzags through the Sinai, the endless trek and the waiting in between.

It didn’t have to happen that way.

“It is an 11-day journey from Mount Horeb via the road to Mount Se’ir, to Kadesh Barnei’a.” [Deuteronomy 1:2]

The entire sojourn could have been over within a fortnight — even three days. The Jews could have crossed into the Land of Canaan without resistance. Each family would have been given a parcel of land fit for farming, grazing and habitation. Rainfall would have come at the right time. Their lives would have been sweet because they would have been devoted to the Almighty.

Moses recognized that Israel is special. Deuteronomy contains numerous laws, many of them repeated. But there is no mention of the duties of the priests. Moses Ben Nachman, known as the Ramban, says the priests got it right the first time. They were careful to observe the laws of the Tabernacle as well as maintain purity. It was the rest of Israel that needed reminding.

One time was required for additional explanation. Another time was meant not to review [the laws] rather warn Israel numerous times — as in the matter of idolatry. [Ramban. Introduction to Deuteronomy]

A mirror is the most brutal critic of man. He sees a face that certainly saw better times; a skin beaten by the sun or pocked by disease, a pate bereft of hair. For a nation, history is a mirror. The objective narrative of a people might include heroism. But it also exposes betrayal, cowardice and corruption that held back a promising future. Unlike a mirror, ignoring history ensures its repetition.

The last weeks of Moses were not meant to praise the generation of Jews at the shore of the Jordan River. Praise can wait. The lessons of the past generation — the one that died in the desert — can not. Moses begins Deuteronomy with the all-important question: “How did we get here and why did it take so long?”

Notice the first verse in which Moses “spoke to all Israel.” There is no longer a reference to the Mixed Multitude, known throughout the Torah as “the people” and blamed for numerous tragedies. Moses holds all of Israel accountable. And all the Jews attended his sermon. Nobody, not even the wise guys in the market, could later claim “Had we been there we would have given him a piece of our mind.”

“G-d, our G-d, spoke to us at Mount Horeb, saying, ‘You have dwelt too long at this mountain. Turn and journey.” [Deuteronomy 1:6-7]

Mount Horeb, or Sinai, was not meant to be the apex of Jewish history. Although Horeb was where Israel received the Torah, built the Tabernacle and appointed the Sanhedrin — these were just the tools of a nation meant to live peacefully in their own land. In the desert, Israel lived on life support. They relied on the miracles of the manna, water and the pillar of cloud. The ideal, however, was for the Jews to live a natural life based on the Torah and blessed by the Almighty. Gold and silver would continue to shimmer, but the average man would no longer be mesmerized.

“Come and take possession of the land that G-d swore to your forefathers — to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob — to give them and their descendants after them.” [Deuteronomy 1:8]

History is also about rights. As Shlomo Yitzhaki, or Rashi, says, Moses stressed to his people that had they listened to G-d — had they simply listened — the return would have been simple. Nobody would have disputed the rights of the Israelites to the land of their forefathers. There would have been no need to send the so-called spies for a report on Canaan. If only the Jews had moved, they would have met no resistance. They wouldn’t have even needed to display their weapons.

Placing a mirror in front of a nation is more than uncomfortable. Has America faced its past of genocide and pillage of the Indians, the slavery of blacks? Has France addressed its collaboration with Hitler during World War II? Has Britain examined the cruelty of colonial occupation as well as the blocking of escape by millions of European Jews from the Final Solution?

When it comes to looking in the mirror, we have little to be proud. Twenty years later, have we — and yes, the majority stood silent — addressed the cruelty of tearing thousands of Jews from their homes in Gaza and northern Samaria? Do we see the connection to the repeated Hamas wars, culminated by Oct. 7, 2023, that followed? Do we recognize the lethality of a Jew who hates another Jew? Indeed, are we willing to see at all, rather than wait for the state to tell us what to see and think?

Moses was a leader. He did not have spin doctors, didn’t trot out 20-year-old photos of himself on Facebook and Instagram. He didn’t seek popularity. His job was to tell the next generation straight: You’re at the Jordan because of G-d’s mercy. You will enter Canaan because of G-d’s will. Your enemies have been destroyed because of divine miracles. Recognize and cherish that and life will be good. Ignore that and the nations will be ready to pounce once more.

“G-d, your G-d, has made you great. Behold, you are today as numerous as the stars of heaven.” [Deuteronomy 1:10]