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!

Dvarim: It All Becomes Clear in the End!

by Rav Netanel Yosifun, yeshiva.org.il, translated by Hillel Fendel

Many times, when consoling mourners at a shiva home, people will discuss the last words they heard from the deceased, or the last things that he or she did. This is apparently based on a sense and instinct that the last words of a person hint, in some way, as to the essence of his life.

It is told that when the Baal Shem Tov was on his deathbed, he was heard murmuring, "Let not the foot of arrogance come to me" (Psalms 36,12). He lived his entire life as a loyal conduit for the fulfillment of G-d's word, and he merited to establish, for generations, the Hassidic movement. And on his deathbed, he prayed that no form of pride should enter his heart.

Regarding the Gaon of Vilna it is recounted that when he was about to leave this world, he grasped his tzitzit in hand and said, "O Tzitzit, in This World, one can purchase you for a few coins, and with you he can merit life in the World to Come. But yet throughout that entire life of the World to Come, he cannot acquire even one mitzvah." Yes, his whole life was directed towards Torah and the precise fulfillment of its commandments and teachings. 

And when the Baal HaTanya was about to die, he turned to his grandson, the Tzemach Tzedek, and asked him, "Look up; what do you see?" The grandson said, "A ceiling." The Baal HaTanya said, "What I see is the Active Force upon Creation [a Kabbalistic/Hassidic concept]" – for his life was for the purpose of revealing and living the Divine spark that gives life to all of Existence.

In our weekly Torah portion of D'varim (Deut. 1,1-3,22), Moshe Rabbeinu begins his great parting speech to Israel in the knowledge that he is about to pass from this world. The Torah tells us that here he "began to explain this Torah, as follows:" Before his death, Moshe begins to explain the Torah – for this was his essence in the world, to bring Torah to Israel and to the world.

Aside from the significance of one's "final words," another fundamental point is taught here as well. For at first glance, there seems to be a difficulty here. The Ramban, in his introduction to the Torah, asks why the Torah did not start off with this simple sentence: "G-d said to Moshe all of the following." Many of the Books of the Prophets start off in that way, such as, "The vision of Yeshayahu ben Amotz" (this week's Haftarah reading, Isaiah 1), "the words of Yirmiyahu ben Chilkiyahu," etc. 

The Ramban answers that of course, the whole Torah was spoken by G-d into the ears of Moshe. Still, however, the Torah specifically did not begin by stating that this is Moshe's prophecy. This is because the Torah preceded the Creation of the World, not to mention the birth of Moshe; he is not a participant, but rather a scribe copying from an ancient work. The Ramban says that this is a clear difference between Moshe and the other prophets, who emphasize their presence in the prophecies: Yechezkel often said, "G-d's word to me was…" and Yirmiyahu said similar things. The Torah, on the other hand, speaks of Moshe as a third-person recounting the events – to teach you that the Torah preceded all.

This explanation by the Ramban likely includes many secrets, exalted above our understanding, about the difference between the prophecies of our Prophets and the Holy Torah. 

Another Medieval period commentator, known as the Ran, noted in his work D'rashot HaRan the difference between Moshe's prophecy and that of the other prophets, and that the former is "above and beyond nature." (And Rav Kook wrote at the beginning of his work Orot HaTorah (Lights of Torah): "We receive the Written Torah via the highest and most comprehensive formulation in our soul... Through it we fly above all reason and intelligence, and we feel the supreme Spirit of God hovering over us, touching and not touching... ). 

Why then, asks the Ramban, does the Book of Deuteronomy clearly state that it is the words of Moshe himself? And furthermore, when we read that Moshe "began to explain the Torah" here, the Ramban adds that Moshe himself decided to do this, and that G-d did not command him to do so. In addition, Moshe writes about himself in this book, "I pleaded with G-d" (Deut. 3,23) and other first-person phrases. 

Thus, the Book of Deuteronomy is the words of Moshe, and not of G-d – and as such, why is it on an equal level to the other four books of the Torah? Why is it not, Heaven forbid, on the level of the Books of the Prophets?

The answer, it appears, is that we learn here the great extent to which Moshe minimized himself in relation to the Giver of the Torah. Moshe's words are the words of G-d that were formulated even before the world was created! Moshe's thoughts and reasoning to "explain the Torah," as he does here in the Book of Deuteronomy, were already written up before Creation!

In the Sefer HaKuzari of R. Yehuda HaLevy, we learn that the soul of Moshe is a manifestation of the soul of every Jew. This teaches us that whatever the Sages of the Oral Torah teach and explain, it comes amid their "self-effacement" vis-à-vis G-d's word – and is actually a continuation of the Giving of the Torah. 

-- May it be G-d's will that during this period of the Three Weeks of Mourning over the exile and destruction of the Holy Temples, the light of the revelation of the Torah in the world should shine upon us once again, and that the Rebuilding of the Beit HaMikdash should reveal in itself that "from Zion shall emanate Torah, and G-d's word from Jerusalem!"