Windshield or Rearview Mirror? — Parshas Devarim

this guy is flying on an all-night flight to eritseral he's trying to get some sleep when he hears the guy in the seat next to him starts whimpering crying ivey i have hey i'm so thirsty i'm so thirsty this guy can't take it anymore he gets up from his seat he marches down to the galley gets a bottle of water marches back to a seat pours it in a cup gives it to the guy next one says here here's some water drink it you won't be thirsty and both of us can get some rest guy drinks the water it's quiet all right now we can finally get some sleep shuts his eyes starts to drift off all of a sudden he's woken up he hears the guy in the seat next to him saying hi hi they i was so thirsty i was so thirsty okay parshas devorim is the first parsha of the fifth book of the five books parties devoting seyfried the bottom ela had voted these are the words that meshes spoke el call israel to the entire jewish nation this is the 40th year the very end of the travels in the wilderness they're about to enter the promised land malaysia is giving his final farewell address to the people where does it take place the first verse tells us where it takes place on the other side of the jordan in the wilderness okay now i should mention the first verse of the fifth book and the last verse of the fourth book now this is by midbar say for by midbar take place in exactly the same location so where did and they're just one verse apart because the last verse of a midbrain the fourth book comes right before the first verse of the fifth book devoteem so where did bamidbar leave off it tells us here's the last verse of bamidba allah these are the commandments and the laws that hashem commanded through masha al-bin israel to the jewish people where by arvis may of alyadin in the plains of mayav on the and on the jordan near the city okay so here's a question these two settings are one setting the last verse of the fourth book the first verse of the fifth book it's exactly the same place how come it's described two different ways that's that's the first question we're asking today second question the way it's described at the end of the fourth book is more specific than the way it's described at the beginning of the fifth book which is funny because that's not the normal way that you describe a setting like for instance if i would say this story took place in america in new york to be exact right that would make sense but if i would say this this story took place in new york in america well you told me in new york i i i know that then i know america so you don't go from specific to general you might go from general to more specific well look what happened here at the end of bamidbar it tells us very specifically of arves muy of the plains of mayov is a specific area in a very yarding ave yardain the other side of the yard is a very very large area which basically means anything on the other side of the jordan river from from eretz isro but at the beginning of the bottom all it says is in the in the wilderness on the other side of the yarding by the way you're going to maybe ask but it says being playful of a lovin as rashi explains those aren't even really locations those are encoded uh messages that maisha is speaking to the jewish people so they're not actually uh place names anyway the place the setting at the first verse of the fifth book is every yard but on the other side of the wilderness on the other side of the jordan in the wilderness which is a very general way of of setting the location all right so that's our second question at the end of bamidbar it was very specific about the location arvasmayov which is a specific place the plains of mayav in iver yarding in the other side of the jordan territory and then at the beginning of dvarim it gets general again it just says on the other side of the jordan okay which is a funny thing to to go from specific to general when you know if you said the specific we already know the general another question is um literally means the other side what does mean the other side other means where you're not right like where is there there it's not here and then when you go there then there becomes here and here becomes there you got what i'm saying wherever you're not is called the other side so it's funny because it says on the other side we're talking about the beginning of devoteem it says this story took place on the other side of the yard wouldn't mean the other side that's where they were that's where they were at that point so at that point that wasn't the other side that was the side that's where they were so it's a funny way of describing it after they enter the land okay after they enter eretz israel then it makes sense to refer back to the place they came from where they used to be that's the other side where they crossed over from but when they're still there it's funny to call that the other side okay how many questions we have three three questions so far okay one question why is the same exact place described two different ways in two different two verses that are back to back why does it go from a more specific place description to a more general which is not normally the way logically you would describe a place third question why does it say the other side of the yard and when it's talking about the side that they were on at that time that wasn't the other side that was the side and in fact at that point eric's israel was the other side right and uh and i'll throw in another question which is what does this all have to do with the nine days the period of mourning for the destruction and the uh the the exile that we're in right now and we're always in when we when we read devoted and then another question is what does this all of this have to do with oive i was so thirsty i was so thirsty i was so thirsty all right so i'll tell you a little story they say there was a town where the khadrakadisha the burial society had a rule that in order to be buried locally in their in their cemetery you had to be an upstanding person to be an upstanding person that meant somebody had to be able to say a hespet to say a eulogy for you so if nobody could eulogize you then you couldn't be buried now it had never been a problem because you could always find something nice to say about everybody right until one time there's a guy who was just a low down dirty rotten scoundrel there was nothing that anyone could say nice about him he died so they called a town meeting what are we going to do about this holologically we have to bury him as quick as possible but we have this long-standing tradition in the town and uh we can't bury him until we eulogize him but no one can find anything to say so this guy gets up in the back says i'll do it they say you'll do he says yeah i'll eulogize him okay go ahead if you can do it gesundheit so he gets up and he says the man who died today has a brother and he's worse than him they said you know what good enough that counts and they buried him so everything was fine until a year later what happened the brother died the brother who was worse than the guy who died a year ago now he died what are we going to do now no there wasn't the third brother okay so now the the brother died they call the town meeting what are we gonna do who can eulogize him who can say anything because this guy he was worse than the guy who died his brother who died a year ago who could say anything nice about him little guy gets up in the back says i'll do it i'll eulogize him they say zunta hate go go ahead try so he gets up he says see this man who died today because of him another man was able to be buried [Music] okay what's the point what's the point of this story sometimes we describe something not because of its own merits not because of what it is but because of what it's not because of a negative identity now what's a negative identity in terms of judaism i don't mean someone who's god forbid ashamed of being jewish or hides being jewish i'm talking about somebody who may actually be proud of their jewish identity but it's a negative identity that is the attitude the mentality which we saw by a certain generation particularly an immigrant generation that came to this country where their motto was it's difficult to be jewish and they didn't necessarily mean it as a real complaint uh they almost meant it like a badge of courage like a badge of honor like schweitzein yid like it's so difficult to do it look at all the challenge and the adversity what we have to overcome and and look at we are look at all this that is opposing us and we are jewish in spite of it all right the problem is that's a negative identity that's a negative identity it tells you what you're jewish in spite of it doesn't tell you what you're jewish because of and you see that that attitude didn't really transmit very well from one generation to the next so even these jews who were they had massive snfish they had great self-sacrifice and they were very devoted and yet it didn't necessarily carry over very well to their children who looked at that looked at this and they said well you know you're not really giving me uh something to to to view myself in a positive light that again like i say you're telling me what i'm jewish in spite of but you're not telling me what i'm jewish because of it's not a positive identity and you know in general in general throughout jewish history we have been more about defining ourselves in the positive than in the negative in general that is the jewish approach you know there's there's a joke they say how do you uh sum up every jewish holiday they tried to kill us we won let's eat okay and every joke has a little truth or every truth has a little joke what's the little truth to that joke which it's you know what they tried to kill us okay what else is new every generation right then every generation somebody tries to do it but they failed we're still here what are the details not so important the main thing is you know we're still here let's eat right let's celebrate and and the point is that you know jews are funny because on one hand we have this history of persecution and oppression and and probably more than any other nation because just simply we've been around the longest so we've had a chance to be persecuted by the most amount of oppressors and yet you know jewish identity generally speaking it's not a victim identity it's not about we're so oppressed we're so persecuted we're so marginalized i mean you do see that from time to time and and like i was mentioning the uh schweitzer's mentality but in general in general what's the jewish attitude the jewish attitude is that you know we're we're here for a purpose we're here for a mission that uh ashrae nu mate volcano we're fortunate we're fortunate to be jews we're fortunate to have this relationship with hashem it's a positive identity now is there is there negativity in our past adversity challenge even even suffering brutality you know yeah yeah yeah that is part of our story and we're not denying it we're not pretending it didn't happen but that's not the main identity so it's always you know it's always funny with the jews you know we're like a minority but we're not a minority we're a minority but we're privileged right and and it's it's sort of true because we don't define ourselves as those who have been the underdog throughout history there's a certain pride a certain um self-respect and self-esteem that comes with with jewish identity in other words like i think the the the positive jewish identity and yet at the same time a recognition of the troubles the trials the tribulations of the past but but that part the the what we're jewish in spite of is very very much secondary to the primary identity of what we're jewish because of now let's talk about the nine days we're now in a time of reflecting on the destruction of the temple which led to the exile of the jewish people and are being dispersed into a diaspora all over the world and and the persecution that followed for hundreds and and really thousands of years for two millennia already um how are we supposed to look at that how we're supposed to how are we supposed to feel is it a time where we identify ourselves negatively meaning what we have overcome what we have had to be jewish in spite of or is it still a time of a positive identity of what we're jewish because of our hopes our dreams our aspirations our goals what we're moving toward as opposed to you know what we're moving away from and and the answer is you know it really depends it really depends how you view it there are two perspectives and and they both include mourning and being sad during this time of year but they're two totally different ways of being sad two totally different ways of being sad one way of being sad is look it's a time of when when the exile started this is when all of our troubles started this is when we became persecuted this is when you know all of the sad stuff and and it's like rehashing the pain and the suffering and the victimhood and it's iv i was so thirsty i was so thirsty i was so thirsty there's another way though of we're looking ahead we're looking ahead and we're looking you know mashiach is coming and there's there's going to be an end to all of this and this was all part of a process to get us there 2000 years of exile was part of a process to get us to this glorious redemption for for our people and for the for the whole world and and we're yearning for it we're pining for it we're longing to be there we want to be there so bad we can already taste it and therefore we're crying we're crying because we want to be there so badly we see our goal it's so close and we want to get there you see two different ways of of crying shedding tears but two totally different uh self concepts and and and world views one is i'm crying because life's been so hard and being jewish has been so hard right and the other is i'm crying because we're heading to something so beautiful and so glorious and and i want it now already think about it this way when you're when you're driving on the road you have the windshield and you have the rear view mirror so you need to have a rear view mirror to tell you where you've been it's not safe without mirrors but the rear view mirror is much much smaller than the windshield the windshield is much bigger and i think that's sort of like a metaphor for our whole concept as jews and uh collectively and and individually the suffering the adversity the troubles in our past yeah that's the rear view mirror we look back and we can still see it and we're cognizant of it and we remember we know where we've been we know what what we know what we've overcome and we know what we've been jewish in spite of but that's just a little rearview mirror the windshield that takes up 95 percent of of of our view that's where we're going that's meshiach that's the goal the glorious end to all of our problems the solution that is already in sight and and in fact we can see it so clearly that in many ways mentally emotionally it's almost like we're already there and even though we're not yet there it's ahead of us and and maybe it's not even just the rear view mirror where we see the suffering from the past even in the side mirrors we see the suffering of the present mashiach's not here yet the world still has imperfection here in the present okay but the past and the present are in the mirrors which are much smaller the future is the windshield which is by far most of what we're looking at most of what we're thinking about and focusing on concentrating and that's most of jewish identity is about what we're going toward and what the goal is and what's going to be and it's going to be good and it's wonderful so now we can answer all of our questions actually bamidbar literally means in the wilderness what's the wilderness exile exiles of wilderness midbaram the wilderness of nations or the jewish people have been dispersed so the very end of bamidbar we're still in an exile mentality a little bit more and therefore moshe is speaking about the details of the exile with a little bit more um you know a little bit more exactly so he tells them specifically the location arves maya which is a very specific location but by the time we get to devoting voting is mesha speaking to the people who are about to enter the land like they're literally just about to enter the land so they already they're already in the mentality of entering eretz israel so at that point we don't get into specifics about the exile about where we've been we don't go and go into little nitty-gritty details so therefore when we describe the wilderness we just say every yarding the wilderness on the other side of the yard well that's a very general way of describing yeah you know why because that's the past that's what we've overcome that's the wilderness stuff and we acknowledge that that's part of our story but it's not it's not what we want to look at you know zoomed in in in graphic detail you know what we do want to look at very very closely and focus on where we're going the future what we're headed toward and that's why like we where we asked why does he call it every yarding why do they call it the other side of the yard then that's the side that they were on you don't call the side that you're on the other side you call the side you're not on the other side but that's the answer because by the time they were about to enter the land mentally and emotionally they were already there to the extent that the place where they were physically standing already felt like the other side meaning the wilderness the mid-bar the exile already felt like a foreign place something that they'd already left behind even before they'd actually entered the land it felt like exile and wilderness was like that's in the rearview mirror already we're already we can see the promised land ahead of us in the windshield and and it's almost as if that's where we are so when we think about where we've where we've been or even where we are presently that becomes like the other and that's really the connection to the nine days is that we can look at the nine days uh through the windshield or through the mirror we can think about all the terrible things that have happened to us and make that the focus or we can acknowledge it yeah it's part of part of our story but it's just a rear-view mirror the main thing the main focus during the nine days is on redemption what's ahead of us and we can feel it and it's so palpable and and it's so real to us where that that you know we're crying with longing and yearning for it to to happen already so during these nine days we have a very potent opportunity to define ourselves as jews both on an individual level think about everything that you are going through and everything you've been through and also to define ourselves as jews collectively as a nation as a as a as thousands of years of history we have a choice right now how to define it to define it with a rear view mirror perspective all the things that we were jewish in spite of all the trials and tribulations or to define the whole thing with a windshield view all the things that were jewish because of the wonderful wonderful future and destiny of the jewish people to bring meshia to bring peace prosperity to ourselves to the entire world may it be now