Shalom Chaverim!
There is a curious phenomenon: Many people on airplanes tend to cry, or even weep, while watching movies on long-haul flights. Various theories have been suggested as to why, from the psychological to the physiological. I once started sobbing during the “oompa-loompa” song in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and the tears didn’t stop for hours.
In general though, and not just on airplanes, we all connect to a little heartbreak in the stories we read and the movies we see.
This week’s Torah portion is, truly, heartbreaking.
Moses tells how he pleaded to God to cross the Jordan and see the Promised Land, despite already having been told that he will die before reaching the Land. V’etchanan – “and I pleaded before God”, is the first word of our portion: tradition wants to draw our attention to this poignant episode, by naming our portion for Moses and his plea.
Moses led the people towards the Promised Land for nearly forty years. He led them to the banks of the Jordan and is ready to ford the river and fulfill the promise made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in days of old, to realize the hope that sustained him and the people through slavery and the desert. Moses has prayed on the people’s behalf multiple times, intervening successfully to revoke the decrees which were punishments for – mainly – the people’s disbelief in God and the promise of that Promised Land. The heartbreaking irony is that Moses’ own prayer to enter that land is now denied. The final fulfillment of his life’s labors, so very close to fruition, will remain forever beyond his eager grasp.
This is the ultimate reminder of the human condition.
The poet Rachel Bluwstein captured the feeling beautifully. She was a youthful pioneer in the early days of Zionism, full of life and energy to live by ideals, to make dreams come true, to turn hopes into concrete facts on the ground. As with many of the pioneers, she made it possible for others after her, but she herself did not achieve all she reached for in her own lifetime. She would gaze back across the Jordan from the Promised Land being settled anew, to Mount Nebo where Moses ascended to see at last with his final gaze the Land so close by but still impossibly far off for him personally. A quote from one of Rachel’s poems captures this sentiment so well, and it is etched on her tombstone:
…In every expectation
is the sadness of Nebo..
אִישׁ וּנְבוֹ לוֹ
עַל אֶרֶץ רַבָּה
Each of us has their own Nebo
Over a wide land.
SHABBAT SHALOM!
Rabbi Michael