“Lebanon” Parashat Va’etchanan 5784

Lebanon has been on the front page of the news pretty much since October 8, when the Hezbollah, the de facto rulers of Southern Lebanon, opened a northern front against Israel. While Hezbollah repeatedly states that they are firing rockets and missiles at Israel only to put pressure on the IDF to declare a cease fire and to remove its forces from Gaza, a more credible reason for their belligerence is that they are operating as an Iranian proxy, the northern component of the “ring of fire” that Iran has successfully cobbled together to surround Israel. Indeed, as I write these words, Israelis are looking fearfully towards Lebanon, fearing a massive volley of rockets and killer drones above and beyond our daily allocation in retribution for Israel’s recent targeted killing of Fuad Shukr, an arch-terrorist[1] who was serving as the head of Hezbollah’s military wing.

The word “Lebanon” appears in the Torah only three times, and, interestingly, it appears once in each of the first three portions of the Book of Devarim: Devarim, Va’etchanan, and Ekev. In the portion of Devarim [Devarim 1:7], Moshe recalls the marching orders he gave to the Jewish People when they began what was meant to be an eleven-day journey to the Land of Israel: “Start out and make your way to the hill country of the Amorites… in the Aravah, the hill country, the coastal plain, the Negev, the seacoast, the Land of the Canaanites, and the Lebanon, as far as the Great River, the Euphrates.” In the Portion of Ekev [Devarim 11:24], Moshe tells the Jewish People of the reward that awaits them if only they keep G-d’s commandments (mitzvot): “Every spot on which your foot treads shall be yours; your territory shall extend from the wilderness to the Lebanon and from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea.” In both of these instances, Lebanon forms part of the borders of the Land of Israel that the Jewish People will one day inherit. The second instance, in the Portion of Va’etchanan, is qualitatively different than the other two. Moshe, who has been banned from ever entering the Land of Israel, beseeches G-d to overturn His decree. Moshe pleads [Devarim 3:25]: “Let me, I pray, cross over and see the good land on the other side of the Jordan [River], that good mountain, and the Lebanon.” Why does Moshe seek to see specifically “Lebanon” and not, say, the Gaza Strip or the Golan Heights? Rashi[2] explains that Moshe is speaking metaphorically. The “good mountain” is really Jerusalem, as King David writes [Psalms 125:5]: “Jerusalem, mountains surround it”, and “the Lebanon” is actually the Holy Temple (Beit HaMikdash), whose altar whitens[3] (malbin) the sins of Israel.

Why did Moshe want to see specifically Jerusalem and the Beit HaMikdash? This is not a trivial question and it goes to the heart of Moshe’s desire to enter the Land of Israel. The Talmud in Tractate Sotah [14a] asks why Moshe wanted so badly to cross the Jordan. Did he want to have a felafel at Felafel Devorah in Karkur, by far Israel’s best felafel, or did he just want to sit on the shore of the Kineret, sip a tall cold one, and take in the view? The Talmud answers that Moshe wanted to enter the Land of Israel because there were many mitzvot (ha’teluyot ba’aretz) that he could keep only in Israel and he wanted to perform these mitzvot before he died. His point was valid. The Jerusalem Talmud [Challah 1:6] notes that eating a slice of bread in Israel results in the performance of no less than ten commandments and many of them are pertinent only in the Land of Israel, including three different types of gifts to the poor and at least four different types of tithes.. In the diaspora, a person eats a sandwich. In Israel, a person accumulates a potpourri of merits.

Let us continue down this path. Assuming Moshe wanted to cross the Jordan so that he could perform more mitzvot, how was the Beit HaMikdash involved? What additional mitzvot could Moshe perform in the Beit HaMikdash? Moshe was not a Priest (Kohen), meaning that he could not officiate in the Beit HaMikdash . Further, any mitzvah that Moshe could have performed in the Beit HaMikdash in Jerusalem could have been performed in the Tabernacle (Mishkan) in the desert. Also, the Beit HaMikdash would be built only four hundred and fifty years after the Jewish People crossed over the Jordan River. What was Moshe planning to do in the interim – spend some quality time at Felafel Devorah? And finally, before Moshe dies, G-d has him climb Mount Nevo, where He miraculously shows him the entire country [Devarim 34:1-3]: “G-d showed him the whole land: Gilead as far as Dan; all Naphtali; the land of Ephraim and Manasseh; the whole land of Judah as far as the Mediterranean Sea; the Negeb; and the Plain – the Valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees – as far as Zoar.” Something is glaringly missing: the “good mountain” and “Lebanon”. One would think that if Moshe specified that these were two of the places he most badly wanted to see, that G-d would show these places to him before he died[4].

To address these questions, we must first differentiate between Moshe’s desire to enter the Land of Israel and his desire to enter Jerusalem and the Beit Hamikdash. Let’s stick with the Talmud in Tractate Sotah and assume that he wanted to enter the Land of Israel so as to maximize the number of mitzvot he could keep. I suggest that the Jerusalem part of his request came from another place entirely. Towards the end of the Book of Bemidbar [27:16-17], as Moshe sees his time as leader coming to a close, he petitions G-d to appoint a new leader to replace him after he dies: “Let G-d… appoint someone over the community; who shall go out before them and come in before them, and who shall take them out and bring them in, so that G-d’s community may not be like sheep that have no shepherd.” Did Moshe really believe that after his death the Jewish People would be live under anarchy? Of course a new leader would have to be appointed. I suggest that Moshe wanted much more than just a leader and that G-d understood exactly what Moshe wanted. In response to Moshe’s request, G-d orders him [Bemidbar 27:18] “Single out Joshua son of Nun, an inspired man (ish asher ruach bo), and lay your hand upon him”. Rabbi Ovadia Seforno[5] explains the term “inspired man” as “someone who is ready and worthy to be presented to the King of Kings.” Moshe was the consummate prophet, who spoke to G-d [34:10] “face to face”. He offered his people a direct route to G-d. When he passed on, they would be left not “as a nation without a leader” but as “a flock without a shepherd”. Moshe knows that while no human being could ever offer that kind of closeness to G-d, there was another way – the Beit HaMikdash. Before he died, he needed to show the Jewish People that the hotline to G-d would not be buried with him. Noting that the Hebrew word for “to see (lir’ot)” is very similar to the word for “to show (lehar’ot)”, it can be argued that Moshe did not want to see the Beit HaMikdash, he wanted to show it to the Jewish People. He wanted them to see the Priests officiating, to hear the Levites singing, and to watch the smoke from the altar rising heavenwards, a sign that their pleas had been accepted. Most importantly, he wanted them to experience the throng of people who gathered together for the sole purpose of reaching out to the Divine.

G-d denied Moshe’s request [Devarim 3:26] “because of [the Jewish People] (lema’anchem)”. The word “lema’anchem” is better translated as “for your own good”.  The Jewish People could not have the Beit HaMikdash given to them on a silver platter. That would have given the wrong message. Achieving intimacy with G-d requires toil and sacrifice. If they really wanted that intimacy, they would have to work for it. And so, for that matter, must we.

Ari Sacher, Moreshet, 5784

Please daven for a Refu’a Shelema for Shlomo ben Esther, Sheindel Devorah bat Rina, Esther Sharon bat Chana Raizel, and Meir ben Drora.

[1] The U.S. had a $5 million reward for any information leading to Shukr’s capture due to his part in the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, killing more than 300.

[2] Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, known by his acronym “Rashi,” was the most eminent of the medieval commentators. He lived in northern France in the 11^th century.

[3] The Prophet Isaiah writes [1:18] “Be your sins like crimson, they can turn snow-white; be they red as dyed wool, they can become like fleece”

[4] Rabbi Zalman Sorotzkin, writing in “Oznayim LaTorah”, suggests that the “land of Judah” is referring to Jerusalem, thus bequeathing Moshe his final wish.

[5] Ovadia ben Jacob Seforno, known as “The Seforno”, lived in Italy at the turn of the 16^th century.