Va'etchanan: Keeping the Torah, Details and Principles

by Rav Hillel Fendel.

Moshe Rabbeinu continues his parting speech to the Children of Israel in this week's Torah portion of Va'etchanan (D'varim 3,23-7,11). This is just before his death and as the nation is about to enter the promised Land of Israel without him. In his speech, Moshe continues to emphasize the importance of keeping the Torah as they begin their national life in the Holy Land, repeating the Ten Commandments and telling them the principles of Sh'ma Yisrael.

At one point, Moshe says (6,24-25): "G-d commanded us to keep all these rules… It is our privilege to safeguard and observe this entire mandate before Hashem our G-d, as He commanded us."

A famous Talmudic teaching states, in the name of R. Samlai, that the Torah given to Moshe to give to Israel contains 613 commandments – 365 negative commandments of what not to do, corresponding to the days of the solar year, and 248 proactive commandments, corresponding to the organs of the human body. R. Hamnuna adds that this is alluded to in the Torah itself, in the verse, "Moshe commanded us the Torah as a legacy" (D'varim 33,4) – "Torah" that was given to Moshe to give to Israel is equal to 611 in gematriya, plus another two commandments that were commanded directly to Israel (the first two of the Ten Commandments), for a total of 613.

The Talmud then adds a fascinating but puzzling insight: "King David came and stood/established them on only 11 commandments, as he wrote in Psalms 15: “Lord, who shall sojourn in Your Tabernacle? Who shall dwell upon Your sacred mountain? He who walks wholeheartedly, and does righteousness, and speaks truth in his heart; who has no slander upon his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor takes up reproach against his relative; in whose eyes a vile person is despised, and honors those who fear the Lord; he takes an oath to his own detriment, and changes not. He neither gives his money with interest, nor takes a bribe against the innocent."

Rashi – actually, his student and son-in-law known as Rivan – explains: "At first, they were righteous and were able to fulfill many of the mitzvot, but in later generations, they were not as righteous, and if they would seek to fulfill all of them, no one would merit to do so. David them came and established them on 11 so that they would be meritorious if they would fulfill these…"

The famous question is of course, "Are the other 600-plus mitzvot then null and void simply because they became too hard?! This certainly cannot be!"

The Maharsha (a famous commentary on the Talmud by R. Shmuel Eliezer Edeles, 1555-1631) explains as follows [paraphrased]:

"Most of the 613 cannot be fulfilled by everyone: Most people are exempt from the Priestly mitzvot, and the priests are exempt from giving tithes to the Levites, and others cannot fulfill the commandments that apply only to the Land of Israel, etc., etc. The same is true for negative mitzvot: One does not fulfill the mitzvah of not eating non-kosher food, for instance, unless he was faced with that situation and overcame it. As such, how can we ever merit the World to Come? The answer is that the Prophets provided comprehensive principles of behavior for the entire Jewish Nation, which apply at all times and in all places. These 11 principles that David established include a great part of the Torah and apply to everyone at all time, and with these we can attain the World to Come."

Another explanation is provided by the renowned Rabbi Moshe Feinstein of New York (d. 1986) in his work Dibrot Moshe. He writes that the Gemara explains that the 11 principles of David are principles and character traits that one must adopt and live by in order to fulfill the entire Torah. As such, they are not "replacement" mitzvot, but rather attributes that we should adopt in order to overcome the negative behaviors we became accustomed to in our childhood, before we acquired the maturity to understand what is right and what is wrong. (See there for a learned discourse on whether character traits can be commanded, and more.)

May we merit to work hard and be privileged to "safeguard and observe this entire mandate before Hashem our G-d, as He commanded us" so that it may be "good for us all the days" (ibid. verse 24).

Dvarim: Moshe Rabbeinu's Mussar Shmooze to Israel

by Rav Moshe Leib HaCohen Halbershtadt, Founder and Director of YORU Jewish Leadership, yeshiva.org.il, translated by Hillel Fendel.

This week's Torah portion of D'varim, which begins the Book of Deuteronomy, starts off with an introduction to Moshe Rabbeinu's parting speech to Israel before his death as they are about to enter the Promised Land: "These are the words that Moshe spoke to all of Israel on the [eastern] side of the Jordan River…"

The Medrash (Yalkut Shimoni 788) asks: "These are the words? Did he not prophecy much more than this over the years? He wrote the entire Torah! What is so special about these words?"

And the Medrash answers that these words were in fact special and particularly needed because they were words of rebuke, as Rashi on this first verse also explains.

Giving rebuke when necessary is in fact a Torah mitzvah, as written: "Surely admonish your neighbor, and do not bear sin because of him [alternatively: do not embarrass him with your rebuke]" (Vayikra 19,17). However, the details of this law were not spelled out there, such as who is commanded, under what circumstances, and how to give the rebuke. Here then, where we read about the admonishment that Israel's great teacher Moshe delivered, we have a chance to see how he fulfilled the mitzvah and learn the ideal way to do so.

Studying these verses and the words of our Sages thereupon, we find that there are seven conditions for effective rebuke.

The first and most well-known aspect of Moshe's rebuke is as written in Rashi: "Listed here are all the places in which the Children of Israel angered G-d with their sins; they are listed only by allusion [without mentioning precisely what happened in those places], in order that the honor of Israel not be marred."

The first condition, then, is to give rebuke in a manner that will show honor to the other person, i.e., in an indirect manner that will not embarrass him – and in this way, there is a chance that he will accept the admonishment.

The Medrash (D'varim Rabba 1,4) states: "It would have been appropriate for the rebukes to be said by Bilam and for the blessings to be said by Moshe - but if so, Israel would have said, 'Bilam hates us and that's why he rebukes us,' and the nations of the world would have, 'Moshe loves them and that's why he blesses them.' G-d therefore said that Moshe who loves them should rebuke them, and Bilam who hates them should bless them [Bamidbar 23-24]."

The second condition, then, for the rebuke to be accepted is that it must come from someone whom the subject of the rebuke knows loves him, and can therefore be sure of his sincerity.

#3 – The Medrash says that Moshe was the right man to admonish Israel because he had no ulterior motives, and never sought anything from his people, as he said during Korach's rebellion: "Not even one donkey did I take from them!" Thus, only one who cannot be suspected of having ulterior motives in rebuking someone can assume that his words will be properly heard.

#4 – We read here that Moshe delivered this speech to "all of Israel." Rashi says that if he had only rebuked some of them at a time, those who were not there would have said, 'What? You heard that from Amram's son [Moshe] and you did not answer him? You could have said such and such!" Moshe therefore gathered all of them together and said, "Whoever has what to answer, let him answer now."

This is true for individuals, who must be given a chance to answer and explain when they are rebuked – and all the more so, of course, for entire groups.

#5 – The Sages were very skeptical, to say the least, whether in their generation there was anyone who could rebuke, anyone who could accept rebuke, or anyone who knew how rebuke should be delivered. The Gemara cites the verse, "Do not reprove a scorner, lest he hate you; rebuke a wise man, and he will love you" (Mishlei 9,8).

We thus learn that one who would issue reproof must be sure not only that he knows how to reproach, and not only that his listener knows how to receive it, but also that the rebuke will lead to actual love between them, as in the cited verse from Mishlei.

#6 – The sixth condition is that one must calculate in advance all the possible ramifications of the rebuke - and then he must decide accordingly when is the best time to deliver the admonishment to ensure that it will be most effectively received. We learn this from Yaakov Avinu, as well as from Moshe, both of whom made sure to issue their reproaches (to his sons and to Bnei Yisrael, respectively) right before they [the rebukers] died. The Medrash explains four reasons why deathbed-rebuke is the best: so that the rebuked will not later see him and be embarrassed, and the like.

And the final condition: One must be on a high level before he tells others what they are doing wrong. As R. Tarfon says in the Gemara: "I am doubtful whether there is anyone in this generation who can accept rebuke, for if someone says, 'You have a splinter in your teeth,' they will retort, 'You have a board between your eyes!"

Thus, the 7^th condition is the most difficult one of all: He who reproves must be a tzaddik, so that he cannot be told that he is guilty of even worse sins than he is rebuking about! And if this was said in the generation of the holy Tannaitic sages, how much more so is this true nowadays, when we have none who know how to rebuke and therefore no one who knows how to be rebuked.

The Chafetz Chaim writes in the name of Rav Y. Mullen, and the Maharam of Lublin agrees, that this is why it is a mitzvah to love those who do not keep the Torah – because they have never been properly rebuked before, given that no one knows how to do so correctly, and therefore they don't know the proper way to act!

Love your fellow – and then he will want you to show him the right way!