Aikev: Knowing and hearing

Aikev: Knowing and hearing

verse 9:2 says You have known and you have heard that," who can stand up against the children of giant?" 

You have known and you have heard. What does hearing add to knowing?  How did you know before you heard? 

Belief can precede the reinforcement of hearing" the fact" from others, You can fell that you know something before the comfort of learning that others believe as you do.  The verse implies that agreement is stronger than belief, a statement is more likely true if other people believe it, as well.  A statement is more likely true if it is canon, repeated as a teaching, validated by the authorities, published. 

The sense of knowing can precede the synthesis needed to hear a statement.   The fear of the giant is instinctive, adaptive.  Hearing that one can stand up to an overwhelming force is counter intuitive, unbelievable, maladaptive. Learning to run from the giant reinforces a self preserving instinct.  Hearing the abstraction: run from the giant- helps formulate a plan for survival. 

The  great thing about this verse : what you knew and what you heard - are wrong.  There is an alternative .  When you only come up to the ankle of the giant, smite his ankle... he will fall hard ( if Gd helps you.). 

Do not trust what you believe.  Be careful whom you listen to

Ve'etchanan: repetition

The parsha contains the Shema, the Orthodox pledge of allegiance,  a  paragraph that  is repeated twice daily .  That tradition devolves from a few words, contained in the Shema: and you shall speak in them when you go to sleep and when you stand  (wake) up. We make those words true by the repetition. 

Repetition makes anything more plausible,  No matter how remote it seems at first, repetition makes us  comfortable with it.  Something that seems right does not need repetition, but after hearing it many times, we begin to believe anything may be true.The mantra. The chant. 

The parsha also contains a copy of the Ten Commandments.  The tradition of reading this section, like the section in Exodus, with a special cantillation reveals that they are to be considered copies of one another.  But that is not the case.  The deviations are not large, the overall meaning is almost the same ( to my reading), but the changes are obvious.  Famously, concerning Shabbath, the first edition says Shamor (keep) and the Deuteronomy edition says Zachor: remember.  The rabbis say that Gd uttered both words at once to teach us laws concerning the Sabbath ( e,g kiddush) 

The Shamor/Zachor is  the beginning of the variances.  Oxen and donkeys appear in the second and  not the first edition.  The exodus from Egypt is emphasized in  Deuteronomy and the creation is emphasized in Exodus. the restatement  clarifies the first draft. They are   presented to a somewhat different audience.  Relating the Shabbath to creation is a message to all the world, presented to people who are  recently liberated from Egypt.  The repeat comes as  a people are about to disperse throughout their promised land and need to b reminded of their common, unifying experience. 

The people did not want to hear  Gd declare the law.  They wanted Moshe to transmit it, to interpret the law.  The people wanted a copy, not the original.  the original is too hot to handle. The consequence of misinterpretation  are too dire. We needed some entropy, some room for ambiguity and growth

Devarim: Timing

Devarim: Timing

Devarim opens with an introduction: "These are the words that Moshe spoke to all Israel" We extrapolate this introduction to the last bool of the Torah to the entire Torah.  The explicit statement here  raises a question: Why state the traditionally obvious? 

The first half of the parsha deals with the failure to enter the land immediately after the revelation at Sinai, with the resultant 38 year delay of  traveling in the wilderness.  The mistake was sending the spies.  Moshe reminds us of the role of democracy in this series of  errors.  The people endorsed the decision to send the spies.  Then they interpreted the reports for themselves, they did not wait for the official interpretation,and they rejected it.  These people who live entirely by miracle and grace cannot put their faith in the source of their daily sustenance and direction this time. 

Gd announces the punishment: remain in the wilderness When they decide to join the battle, they are told it is too late,  They go anyway and are defeated. 

I have heard the idea: that the new world  has different rules It can justify anything. It is not a winning strategy

My friend and patient wandered through metastatic cancer for 20 years.  She lived by the grace of Gd. We knew that it could not last.  But she took that as a motivation and a mission: to do everything now, to live with beauty and dignity while she could  The wandering can be an inspiration. You will find everything in the struggle. She did not shy away from the struggle. She will be bound with the living. 

The second half of the parsha talks about the end of the journey.  It introduces a Divine political geography, respecting the descendants of  Esau and Lot,  celebrating the  replacement of aboriginal peoples. It tells us that no people in this region are really the first people of the land, justifying the conquest by   the Israelites,

A place for courage.  A place for conscience.  A place for democracy.  A place for obedience

Go figure it out. 

Matos-Massei: unity through division

Matos-Massei: unity through division

The parshiot are: Tribes and Travels.  One purpose of the travels was to unite the tribes.  The shared experiences of the journeys, the glories and the moments of shame, become an evolving legend that ties this people together...to this day.  It is  a technique that organizations, even now, try to emulate.

We have come so far together.  We are united by the successes , and perhaps more, by the errors. The tragedies are strong glue.  The Holocaust is probably my strongest bond to  Judaism. 

The Torah directs the evolution of the Jewish people The unity of the nation is a paramount value.  This raises the problem of advanced evolution: diversity favors the individual, cooperation  favors the larger grouping ( nation, species). At the end of Bamidbar, Moshe tries to reconcile these forces. 

A border land is conquered. It is grazing land,  Two tribes identify themselves as cattle and sheep herders.  They would optimize the use of this unexpected bounty. Moshe adds to the two of them, Reuben and Gad, half the tribe of Menashe. The land is assigned to them.  They get the lone star territory on the promise of their loyalty in the military campaign to follow.  Those most adapted to that land, those who can optimize its productive capacity, acquire it.

The land is divided by lot and by population. Many economic theories are at work:equal opportunity distribution, ideas of inheritance, utility, limitation - are all in play.  Through all of the considerations and interests, the system must work, the nation must produce and prosper, and stay together.

We have evolved a sense o justice that makes the displacement of an aboriginal people loathsome and unacceptable.Now there is a declared Jewish Homeland, originally partitioned along population lines, but now extending into additional territories for a variety of considerations: military, religious, economic, political.  This is our current land based quandary.  We pray for a resolution that will generate a saga of beauty.