Ve’ethchanan: grace and rest

  Ve’ethchanan: grace and rest

When I learned Hebrew in school, it was different from the natural language learning that happens by immersion.  I learned roots, three letter groupings that were attached to modifying letters. That root analysis is still often necessary for me to understand a Hebrew word. I came to feel that these roots are close to the neurologic underpinnings of language: how sounds convey thoughts and feelings.  Since languages evolve, that kind of analysis can often lead to error,  misunderstanding. Still, I find the process interesting, independent of its applicability to accurate translation. 

The first word of this week’s parsha וָאֶתְחַנַּ֖ן begs for this kind of deconstruction. We need to go three letters into the word to get beyond the modifiers. The root: חַנַּ֖ן chanan, is related to חן, hayn. This is a Hebrew word, translated as “favor” or “grace”  that is appropriated into Yiddish ( my instinctive, first language), intact. In Yiddish, hayn comes to mean charming, appealing.  In Yiddish hayn is immortalized by the song Bei Mir Bist du sheyn Bei Mir hast du hayn. 

In the Torah, חן is well translated as "favor." The verb מָ֥צָא, found, is usually associate with hayn.  Typically, the phrase  in the Torah is some variation of מָ֥צָא חֵ֖ן, find favor,  and it commonly precedes the request for, or the granting of, a favor, a special request, an act of love toward an individual. Hayn is the aspect of love that rejoices in pleasing the beloved. , Hayn is a tension, a gentle demand. 

Rashi comments on this first word:

ואתחנן. אֵין חִנּוּן בְּכָל מָקוֹם אֶלָּא לְשׁוֹן מַתְּנַת חִנָּם

All forms of the verb חנן signify a free gift

This Rashi seems sensitive to the similarity between  heyn, favor, and hinam, freely given. It is an insight into the mystery of the allocation of this willingness to please.

 Moshe prays for this favor, hayn,  to be bestowed upon him. He prays for a reprieve from the edict that bars him from entering the promised land. It is a prayer that is subsequently repeated by the exiled descendants of the people that Moses led for thousands of years. Layers of meaning adhere to this plea. It is the prayer that  inspires the kinoth, the elegies, that we recite on Tisha Ba’av, the day of mourning that we observed last week, the mourning for which this Shabbath is supposed to be a comfort. 

This Shabbat is designated נַחֲמ֥וּ, Nachamu, the Shabbat of consolation. It is named for the first words of the Haftarah, but its emotional meaning relates to the Tisha BaAv we recently observed.  Tisha Ba Av was  the fast commemorating:

     the destruction of the Jewish Commonwealth, 

the descent of the Jews into a state of powerless degradation, 

the terrible consequences of that powerlessness. 

This Shabbath, and the parsha and haftarah that are recited on it, is the consolation that is bestowed upon mourners of Zion.

Ve'ethchan Begins with Moshe pleading with Gd, asking for favor. He is rejected with prejudice.

 רַב־לָ֔ךְ אַל־תּ֗וֹסֶף  דַּבֵּ֥ר אֵלַ֛י ע֖וֹד בַּדָּבָ֥ר הַזֶּֽה

“Enough! Never speak to Me of this matter again!

This introduces the Torah  reading on this Shabbath of consolation. The bad thing will happen. Even  Moses  cannot  plead out of it. This is the model of how consolation works. It begins with acceptance. Moshe turns his disappointment into a message for the next generation, the generation  that will live in the Promised Land

Perhaps  the Israelites, also, would have preferred  to have Moses  lead them  into the Promised land. That makes Moshes's  speech that follows - with its reminiscence of Gd rescuing the Hebrews from  Egypt and delivering the tablets at Sinai - a part of the consolation.  Such reminiscences are what one hears at a  house  of mourning.

Nachamu also has a two letter root at its core: Nach. Nach means rest, the goal of comfort, nachama. The mourner, confused and agitated by the loss, is brought to a state of serenity by shared recollections of the departed. The Jewish people are comforted by the recollection of Gd’s continued involvement with them. 

  The first mention of hayn in the Torah is connected  with the letters of nach.  It is the last sentence in Bereshith, the first chapter of the Torah: 

וְנֹ֕חַ מָ֥צָא חֵ֖ן בְּעֵינֵ֥י יְ

And Noah found favor in the eyes of Gd. 

This short sentence emphasizes the relatedness of hayn and nach. Noah’s  name was derived from from nechama, comfort:

וַיִּקְרָ֧א אֶת־שְׁמ֛וֹ נֹ֖חַ לֵאמֹ֑ר זֶ֞֠ה יְנַחֲמֵ֤נוּ מִֽמַּעֲשֵׂ֙נוּ֙ וּמֵעִצְּב֣וֹן יָדֵ֔ינוּ

and he called his name Noaĥ, saying, This one shall comfort us for our work and the toil of our hands,

Nach and hayn are anadromes, words related by the reversal of letters. I do not think it is entirely coincidental. The gift that hayn seeks is nach. Entering the land, personally completing the life mission, would have brought Moshe nach, comfort, consolation, for all that he, and the Israelites, had endured. 

May we find favor in the eyes of Gd, and be granted respite from all strife… including the battles within ourselves.