‘I Want it All’ Parashat Devarim 5785
I want it all and I want it now! (Brian May, “Lose Yourself”)
The first third of the Book of Devarim is, for the most part, a recapitulation of events that took place in the previous books of the Torah. Why does the Torah retell stories it has already told? For one thing, much can be learned by comparing stories as they appear in the Book of Devarim with the way they appear when they actually transpire. In a similar vein, much can be learned by noting which episodes the Torah chooses to retell – the revelation at Sinai, the spies, and the Golden Calf (Egel) – and which it does not retell – the splitting of the sea, Korach’s rebellion, and the building of the Tabernacle (Mishkan). Thirdly, some of the events retold in the Book of Devarim serve as sources for deep philosophical concepts not discussed anywhere else in the Torah[1]. In these instances, it is not the event itself that is important, nor the differences between the event as it is told and as it occurred. In these instances, important concepts are transmitted via small “diyukim”, or “precise inferences”, in the text.
One of the most seminal events that occurred in the history of the Jewish People is the episode of the spies. Moshe sends twelve spies to reconnoitre the Land of Canaan in preparation for a ground assault. The spies return and report that while the land is beautiful and bountiful, just as promised, it will be impossible to capture. The enemy is simply too strong and too well-armed. The people are scared stiff and they demand that Moshe turn the car around and drive back to Egypt. G-d is furious. He tells the Jewish People, “If you don’t want it, you don’t need it” and he condemns them to forty years of wandering in the desert, during which everyone between the ages of twenty and sixty will die. The rendition of the episode in the Book of Devarim begins with the following words [Devarim 1:22]: “Then all of you came to me and said, ‘Let us send agents ahead to reconnoitre the land for us and bring back word on the route we shall follow and the cities we shall come to.’” The facts as stated here are very different than in the original episode as it appears in the Book of Bemidbar. There, it is seemingly Moshe who comes up with idea of sending spies, while here it is clear that it is the initiative of the Jewish People.
What interests us here is something much smaller. If we zoom into to the first three words, a diyyuk comes into view, so paradoxical that it defies explanation. Moshe says, “Then all of you (kul’chem) came to me…” All of you? Every last one of you? Without even one exception? Nobody was sick that day and didn’t come to work? Even assuming the women stayed home with the children, we are still talking about six hundred thousand men between the ages of twenty and sixty. Where did Moshe have room to put everybody? And was there really nobody who disagreed with the idea of sending spies? Not one person stood up and said, “This is the land that G-d Himself promised us. Let’s assume He knows what He’s doing. Why are we wasting time with all this reconnoitring?”
Rabbi Asher Wasserteil[2] asks this question in his “Birkat Asher” and he points to Rabbi Saadiah Gaon[3], who asserts that “all of you” should not be taken literally. The Torah means “many of you came to me”. Rabbi Wasserteil also brings the explanation of the Netziv[4], who suggests that people sent their leaders – their congressmen, as it were – who represented all of them before Moshe. Rabbi Wasserteil is satisfied with these explanations, but, hey, I’m an engineer. If the Torah says “everyone” then it means “everyone”.
Continuing down this path, we encounter another paradox. Chronologically speaking, the entire Book of Devarim takes place over one week, between the first and seventh of the month of Adar in the fortieth year after the exodus, thirty-eight years after the episode of the spies. Everyone who was alive when Moshe sent the spies had already died. The Torah attests to this explicitly [Bemidbar 26:64-65]: “G-d told them that they would all die in the desert. Not one of them remained, except for Caleb and Joshua.” How, then, could Moshe tell them that “all of you came to me” when, in essence, “none you [who are here now] came to me”? And now for the cherry on top: This is the only place in the entire Book of Devarim in which “everybody” does something. And yet the only “everybody” cannot possibly mean “everybody” and more than likely means “nobody”. Can somebody help us out here?
When I have issues in understanding Tanach, I typically turn to Rav Shuki Wienberger, a friend from Moreshet. Rav Shuki directed my attention to another verse in the book of Devarim that mentions “everybody”. On the day of his death, Moshe addresses his people with his last will and testament [Devarim 29:9]: “You stand this day, all of you (kul’chem), before G-d”. The Torah gives an inventory of the various people who are standing before G-d [Devarim 29:10-11]: Tribal leaders, elders, men, women and children. In this instance, there is no upper limit to the number of people who can stand before G-d, such that the phrase “all of you” in and of itself is not problematic. Now here is the verse that Rav Shuki was pointing to [Devarim 29:13-14]: “I make this covenant, with its sanctions, not with you alone, but both with those who are standing here with us this day before G-d and with those who are not with us here this day.” Those who are not here? Once again, “all of you” does not really mean “all of you”.
I suggest that this is not a problem – it is a solution. When Moshe first addresses the Jewish People in the Book of Devarim, he blesses them [Devarim 1:11]: “May the G-d of your ancestors, increase your numbers a thousandfold and bless you as promised.” Rashi[5], quoting from the Midrash [Sifrei 11], describes a hypothetical conversation that took place between Moshe and his people: “They said to him, ‘Moshe, you are setting a limit to our blessings [of only a thousand times]! G-d has already made a boundless promise to Abraham [Bereishit 13:16] ‘… if one can count [the dust of the earth, then can your seed also be counted]’! Moshe replied: ‘This blessing [of one thousand times] is [my blessing]; but may He bless you [infinitely] just as He has spoken concerning you!’” According to Rashi, Moshe and G-d are giving the same blessing using different words. Moshe is using this blessing to teach the Jewish People the concept of the limitlessness and infinitude of G-d. Moshe could have used any number – a thousand, ten thousand, a bejillion – and it still would not be anywhere near G-d’s infinite blessing[6]. This is precisely the point. Understanding this paradox is the first step in understanding that G-d is not bound by physical limitations.
Moshe continues: G-d’s limitlessness is manifest not only in space, it is also manifest in time. The Torah specifically chooses a place to use the word “all of you” where it could not possibly be interpreted literally, at least not in our time-driven universe. How can people who You just told us are not here still be here? This is precisely the point. Just as G-d is not bound by physical limitations, He is not bound by temporal limitations. To us, those who have died are no longer here. But to G-d, time is limitless. To G-d, “Everyone” includes everyone who is alive, everyone who has ever lived, and everyone who will ever live. To Him, they’re all here.
G-d is simultaneously everywhere and nowhere. He is everything and He is nothing. He is the future and he is the past. But most of all, He is all and He is now.
Ari Sacher, Moreshet, 5785
Please daven for a Refu’a Shelema for Iris bat Chana, Shlomo ben Esther, Sheindel Devora bat Rina, Esther Sharon bat Chana Raizel, Esther bat Hila, and Meir ben Drora.
[1] These include freedom of choice, the unity of G-d, and the future reincarnation of the dead.
[2] Rabbi Wasserteil lived in Israel in the previous century.
[3] Rabbi Saadiah lived in Iraq – Bavel – in the 10th century.
[4] Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Berlin, known as the Netziv, who was the Dean of the prestigious Volozhn Yeshiva in Lithuania in the 19th century.
[5] Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, known by his acronym “Rashi,” was the most eminent of the medieval commentators. He lived in northern France in the 11th century.
[6] According to Cantorian mathematics, infinity is the same as infinity plus one,
