Our Responsibilities
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Our Responsibilities |
Our
Responsibilities
This
week’s portion takes place nearly a year after the Jewish people received the
Torah at Mt. Sinai. At this moment, the Children of Israel correctly assumed
that they were on the verge of entering the land of Israel. Sadly, they
committed three sins which forced them to wait forty years before they would be
able to enter the land of Israel. The
Midrash (Yalkut Shemoni) explains that their first sin was the matter in which
they left Mt.Sinai: “the Jewish people fled the mountain like a child runs
away from school”. Nachmanidies explains they were worried G-d would prescribe
more commandments for them (The other two sins were complaining about the manna
and the incident of the spies). Why
is this such as terrible sin? Is it not human nature to not desire more
responsibility? And what is wrong with “fleeing like a child from school”?
Isn’t the definition of religion, things we have to do? It's
not like the Jews said they were not going to fulfill the commandments, yet this
sin had a domino effect and eventually caused the Jews to wander for forty
years. In
order to understand the travesty of this sin, we must first understand how we
are meant to relate to our responsibilities. In
a normal contractual relationship, a mutual feeling of love is not only not
necessary, but could also possibly cloud the relationship. However, one of the
principal factors in our relationship with G-d is love.
When
G-d created the world, He envisioned a people who would be a “nation of
priests”, who would accept the yoke of responsibility for teaching the world.
Only in the time of Abraham, who was the 20th generation from Adam, did He find
a worthy progenitor for such a nation. Our
“contract”, i.e. our acceptance of the Torah, does not signify a mere
business relationship, but something much deeper. The
Jewish year is focused around the holidays, those days which signify special
events. After the period of Shavuos, we enter the period of the commemoration of
the destruction of the Temple. At this same time we read the portions dealing
with the sins the Jews committed in the desert, which resulted in them being
there for forty years. This is obviously no coincidence. What are we to learn
from this synchronicity? The
Midrash on the book of Lamentations quotes G-d
as saying: “were it only that they (the Children of Israel) had forsaken me,
and not my Torah.” What G-d is saying is that for us to understand the true
essence and beauty of our responsibilities, we must study the Torah. We must be
intellectually and emotionally aware of how and why we do things. Without this
knowledge we will be lacking the passion required to embrace our relationship
with G-d and will be subsequently unequipped to fulfill our special role in the
world. When
the Jewish people departed Sinai in such a fashion it showed an immaturity, a
lack of understanding of their true selves. We can rectify this by delving into the Torah. To question and attempt to gain deep insights which in turn will make us better Jews. And this, G-d willing, will lead to the building of the third temple. |
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