Ki im-el-hamakom asher-yivchar A’donai Eloheikhem
mikol-shivteikhem lasoom et-shmo sham l’shikhno tid’r’shu uvata shamah….
Va’a’khaltem sham lifnei A’donai Eloheikhem u’s’machtem b’khol mislach yedkhem
atem uvateikhem asher beirakh’kha A’donai Elohekha. Lo ta’asoon k’khol aser
anachnu osim po hayom ish kol hayasher b’einav…. Va’a’vartem et-haYardein
vishavtem ba’aretz asher-A’donai Eloheikhem manchil etchem…. Ki im-lifnei
A’donai Elohekha tokhlenu bamakom asher yivchar A’donai Elohekha bo: atah
uvinkha uvitekha v’av’d’kha va’amatekha v’haleivi asher bish’arekha…
Therefore to the place that A’donai your God will
choose from all the tribes to put His name there, you will seek his dwelling
and come there…. And you will eat there before A’donai your God, and you will
rejoice in all that you put your hand to: you and your households where A’donai
your God has blessed you. Do not do as we have done here today, every man
[doing] what he chooses in his own eyes…. When you cross over the Jordan and
settle in the land that A’donai your God chose for you…. Thus before A’donai
your God you will eat in the place that A’donai your God will choose: you and
your son and your daughter and your servant and your maid and the Levi that is
within your gates… (D’varim 12:5,7-8, 10,
18)
From
the time the Israelites leave Egypt they go through many transitions. As a
post-slavery people they are learning to be individuals. They must learn to
think on their own, as well as for and about themselves. A slave cannot care
for him/herself. He must be at available for his master, and must therefore
subjugate his own needs, desires and wants. The generation born in the desert
is a generation that no longer needed to do this. Rather, they needed to focus
on the opposite. The desert generation is a selfish one. Out of the needs
surrounding survival in a wilderness, each individual must be self-focused.
Manna serves for an entire meal. It is individually gathered, by all who are
able, each person for him/herself. Additionally, as they would have in Egypt
and before, each family maintained its own altar, worshipped in its own way,
and had only a personal relationship with God disconnected from the rest of the
community.
Now
the Israelites stand on the verge of another transition. They are about to
cross the Jordan and enter Israel. To flourish as a people in a new land, no
longer nomadic, they will have to grow together. Just as children are
self-centered, teens in their transition to adulthood even more so, in the
wilderness the Israelites are in their adolescence. It is time to grow into a
mature people. They must move beyond this self-centeredness. No longer are they
to remain in their own dwellings, but rather to join with the community. Their
relationship to God also needs to move beyond the individual. They have to
learn to care about the community and to provide for others.
This
is not a lesson that always sticks. Over and over the Israelites must learn to
do this. They’re human. Humans are, by our very nature, self-centered. We want
what we want, and we sometimes forget about others. Especially in the weeks
between Tisha B’Av and Elul, the period leading up to the High Holy Days, it’s
appropriate that we are reminded to care about others, not just the others who
are close to us, our children, our family, but those outside our immediate
circle. We need to care for those over whom we have control, in biblical terms-
the servant and the maid, but in modern terms- employees, store keepers, service
workers (police, fire fighters, TTC workers). We also need to maintain our
communal connections. As the Israelites spread throughout the land, the
importance of coming together for worship and meals and s’machot becomes even
more important. With our busy lives the synagogue can be our center, the place
where God chose for us to maintain our ties to each other and to God.
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