These Are The Words Moshe Spoke Parashat Devarim

When Moshe Rabbeinu started to rebuke the people in Sefer Devarim it's the last five weeks of his life. The entire book is full of rebuke. Eleh ha'devarim These are the words. What words? This is the rebuke of Moshe Rabbeinu to the nation. This was supposed to be part of the oral Torah but became part of the written Torah. You see one rebuke after another. The entire book of Deuteronomy is one big mussar book of rebuke from Moshe Rabbeinu to the people. But we learn in the rebuke that Moshe Rabbeinu did not want to rebuke them. Why? When he first rebuked the people he said, "You people are mordim. You are traitors." Why traitors? Why? You don't think Hashem is going to give you the water? And he got THEM ANGRY. AND AFTER HE GOT PUNISHED, THE GEMARA says Moshe Rabbeinu had a handful of sins IN HIS ENTIRE LIFE. TWO SINS WERE MADE THAT DAY. ONE WAS HITTING THE sea line instead of speaking to it and the second one was that he called Am Yisrael mordim. Traitors. HASHEM SAYS, "YOU CAN'T CALL MY PEOPLE TRAITORS." AFTER THAT MOSHE RABBEINU DIDN'T WANT TO REBUKE THEM ANYMORE. Hashem says, "Rebuke them and I'm going to make it a part of the written Torah." BUT WHY ARE YOU YOU PUNISH ME FOR IT? I PUNISHED YOU BECAUSE you called them traitors. I punished you because it was personal. You weren't helping them with that rebuke. There's a time to rebuke and there's a time not to rebuke. There's a time to help them and a time to guide them. There's a time to get angry. There's a time to get sad. The rebuke that you gave them at that time was not going to help them. The rebuke that you're giving them in the book of Deuteronomy that will build them. That will make them a true righteous people. That rebuke is the most important rebuke of your life. Hence the reason why Moshe Rabbeinu who had nothing to lose and nothing to gain during his last 5 weeks of his life chose to give Am Yisrael one rebuke after another. Stronger than ever because everyone knew he has nothing to gain from this. He can't get a better job. He can't get more time added to his life. There's nothing for him to gain meaning that the only reason why I'm rebuking you is for you TO HELP YOU. IT'S MY EXPRESSION OF LOVE FOR YOU. IT'S NOT FOR ME TO gain a bigger stage. I'm leaving anyway. And that that rebuke is the most important rebuke that Hakadosh Baruch Hu decided to make it the fifth book in the five books of Moses. It was technically his personal journal. That rebuke Rabotai made Am Yisrael understand all of the teachings that Moshe Rabbeinu taught them over the last 40 years. Where the Gemara in Maseches Megillah says, "Am Yisrael finally understood what Moshe Rabbeinu meant at the end, not in the beginning." Meaning, after 40 years of shiurim from Moshe Rabbeinu, they only finally began to get the message. Why? Because at the end, they realized once and for all, he's not doing it for himself. He's not doing it for reputation. He's not doing it to gain anything. He's doing it to help us. If you're going to rebuke your fellow, that means that you are supposed to be like Moshe Rabbeinu. It's supposed to be kindness. Not kindness that you're, you know, patting everybody like they're some dog. NOT KINDNESS LIKE YOU'RE TELLING everybody that they're really nice, EVEN THOUGH THEY'RE RESHA'IM. NO, THAT'S NOT KINDNESS. That's lying. But kindness, where you tell them the things they need to hear because you're trying to help them. You tell them the things THAT PERHAPS ARE HARD TO HEAR. But you tell them because you know this is the cure. Not because you think you know better, but because the Torah showed you this is better. Because you saw it on your own skin. You tried it and it worked for you. You're living it and it works for you. You have something good and therefore you want to share it. And that's another way of emulating Hashem. This is why the Gemara says that someone who does not teach, someone who does not rebuke, someone who doesn't share Hakadosh Baruch who's Torah is like someone who doesn't have a God. Because if you haven't gained enough from it where you realize I have to share this. It's so delicious. I CAN'T WAIT TO SHARE IT WITH all the people that I can. The ones I love, the ones I don't love. Just simply it's so good. I want to give it to everybody. If you haven't gotten there yet, you don't have the Torah yet. You may not even have God yet. You see about I agree. When we're so consumed with our own problems, it's virtually impossible to see the truth. I understand we all have problems. And I'm not saying to ignore it. What I'm saying is it's a time and a place for everything. Sometimes it's not your turn. Don't be a baby and say my turn all the time. Sometimes somebody else's turn. Help them. Care about them. It's not just you. There's other people. If we do that, I think it's going to be a little different. I don't know if it's going to solve all the problems. We still have a lot of work to do. But Hashem is just enough. Just enough to make this nightmarish last year and a half turn a little bit to the positive side. Enough disasters. Enough tears from parents. Enough tears from kids that don't have parents. Enough suffering for a little bit at least. Give us some time to breathe and do chuva. Don't force us in such a painful way. Let's get the message about the time. Let's try to do something different this year. So, next time when Kadosh Baruch Hu sees us and reviews our actions, he says, "You know what? This time it is different. This time it is." Please let Hashem this time it would be different. I hope that this was enough to motivate and inspire each one of you. At least I'm going to try to inspire myself. Maybe this will be enough. This will be enough.