Weekly Davar - Devarim: The Message Of Our Pain

Devarim
Deuteronomy 1:1 – 3:32

4th Av 5771



GOOD MORNING!! It’s amazing how we are able to stick stubbornly by our definitions in spite of all evidence to the contrary. The premature death of Amy Winehouse provides a case in point. It was sad and tragic that a young girl had to die so unnecessarily.  But I believe there is something important to learn. She was so ‘successful’ – money, fame, millions of adoring fans. So what went wrong? Why was she so desperately unhappy? We can point to all sorts of possibilities related to her particular circumstances and see why she was an anomaly. But that wouldn’t be right. In truth, there was nothing wrong with her; there is something wrong with our definition. ‘Success’ means money and fame? You don’t need to be happy without needing to resort to addictive substances to be a success? You don’t need to have a stable lifestyle to be a success? You don’t need to have direction and focus and meaning in life to be a success? If we continue with our stubborn insistence on defining success in the way that we do, then young people like Amy Winehouse will continue to climb the ladder and reach the pinnacle, only to find that it is hollow and empty up there. Our society failed Amy Winehouse. Only when our values and our priorities change will tragedies like this be averted.

This Monday night is Tisha B'Av, the 9th day of Av. It is the most tragic day in the Jewish calendar. On this day, throughout history, many tragedies befell the Jewish people, amongst them the destruction of two Temples in Jerusalem. It is a 24 hour fast and day of National mourning.

Torah Portion

This week we begin the last of the Five Books of Moses. Deuteronomy, which is Greek for Devarim, which is Hebrew for ‘words’ (though Deuteronomy does not mean ‘words’!) is the oration of Moses before he dies. Moses reviews the history of the 40 years of wandering the desert and gives rebuke so that the Jewish people will learn from their mistakes. The Rabbis say that it is good for a person to give rebuke to those he cares about before he or she dies. They do not feel threatened and will more readily accept the points.

Davar Torah

The Rabbis tell us that the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed because of causeless hatred. They suggest that it was not a random historical happening, rather a direct consequence of decisions made by the Jewish people.
 
It’s a fundamental principle in Jewish thinking: God responds directly to our actions. If we act in a spiritually healthy way, He will encourage and uplift us. If we act in an unhealthy way, He will respond with painful consequences – also to help uplift us.
 
Our Sages tell us that if a person goes through pain, he should examine his deeds and figure out why it is happening to him. Judaism believes that nothing is random. If something ‘bad’ happens in your life, there is a reason. You are doing something spiritually unhealthy. You can know the reason and if you correct the mistake, you can usually get rid of the consequence. Cause and effect – get rid of the cause and you usually get rid of the effect also. Easier said than done, I know, but I believe it to be possible.
 
Let me clarify what I mean though: to tell someone who is in pain, that they are responsible for their own suffering is incredibly insensitive. Not only is the person going through a tremendous challenge, but now you are going to tell them that it is because of their ‘sins’ that they are going through it?! That’s callous and uncaring. When someone else is in pain, our job is only to comfort, not preach.
 
But Judaism is not talking about what you say to other people; it is talking about what you say to yourself.
 
And the way I see it, it’s quite of the opposite of what we might think; if a person believes that bad things happen for no reason is what would really compound their suffering. To think that you go through pain – and there is no purpose whatsoever in your doing so – makes the pain unbearable. To understand that there is a reason for the pain might not make it worthwhile, but it makes it more bearable. You still won’t like the pain, but you can at least make some sense of it. As Nietzsche said, “a person can deal with any ‘what’ as long as he has a good enough ‘why’.”
 
Tisha B’Av is a time when Jews focus on this idea. The pain the Jewish People has gone through for 2000 years is beyond anything conceivable. But it is not meaningless and empty. It is purposeful. On Tisha B’Av, we Jews feel the pain and embrace it. It challenges us as a Nation to lift ourselves to the spiritual and moral heights that have been lacking for so long.

Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Shaul Rosenblatt

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