What Moses Saw

July 13-14, 2012 / 17 Tammuz 5772

Shabbat Pinchas

Torah Portion:  Numbers 25:10-30:1 / Haftarah Portion: I Kings 19:1-20

“What Moses Saw”

Dear Friends,

Last week, the prophet Bil’am was on a mountaintop blessing the Children of Israel as they passed through the land of Moav.  This week, Moses stands on a different mountaintop, Mount Nevo, looking at the Promised Land.  Even though he led the Israelites out Egypt and through 40 years of wandering, he would not enter the Land.  Though Moses would die in the desert, God gave him the opportunity to see the Land into which a new and younger generation of Israelites, born in freedom, would enter.

What did Moses see in those moments before his death?  Certainly he saw across the Jordan River to the mountains of Judea.  Tradition says that he saw all the way from Eilat in the south to Metullah in the north.  He saw the deserts of the south, the fertile farm lands of the coastal plain and valleys, and the rivers, streams, marshes and mountains of the north.

Another tradition says that Moses saw the continuum of Jewish history from the Biblical period through the Greek, Roman and Medieval eras, right up to the Modern and Contemporary times.

Moses saw the two thousand years when our people was banished from our homeland.  He saw antisemitism, the ugliness of the Holocaust and renewal of Jewish life afterwards. He saw the rebirth of the State of Israel and the rise of the Jew that fights in self-defense and stands up for justice and freedom for all.  He saw Israel’s tradition of democracy and its zeal for study and learning.  He saw the tech-boom and Israel’s “Startup Nation” phenomenon.  He saw Israel’s tremendous prosperity and he saw its many challenges, from poverty, civil rights, the influx of Jewish refugees and its tremendous defense readiness.  Moses saw Israel's rise to a position of great respect amongst the family of nations. Some say that Moses also saw the Jewish people in all its dispersion throughout the world,too.  He saw the creative revitalization of Jewish communities throughout the world and he saw how Jews worldwide kept in touch over the generations through the principle of ‘Kol yisrael areivim zeh b’zeh - All Jews take care of each other.”  According to this tradition, Moses saw the future.  He saw us today.

During the last two weeks, Dawn and I have had the wonderful honor of visiting and touring throughout the Land of Israel, visiting with friends and families.  We have seen what Moses saw... a good land, with a good people striving to do right and succeeding beyond everyone’s wildest imaginings.

Check out this youtube video.  Perhaps you will get a glimpse of what Moses saw in this week’s Torah portion when he stood on the mountaintop - a land flowing with milk, honey and dynamic Jewish people filled with hope, energy and lots of promise.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=AoizSL-TEJQ&NR=1

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Eitan Weiner-Kaplow