By Rabbi Moshe Pogrow
“After my death,” Moshe warns the people, “corruption will begin. You will leave the path you were commanded to follow, you will go so far as to disobey on principle, and when your fate is complete, misfortune will befall you.”
Nothing attests to the Divine origin of Moshe’s mission like the awareness of the past and future expressed in the last four pesukim of the parsha. He would have had to be a fool to write such a Book. What greater foolishness could there be than to give laws so at odds with human nature? Moshe himself knew full well that centuries later, the people would still not have adapted themselves to the Law. He appointed no guarantors but heaven and earth, and no means of achieving it but the Book of the Law itself, the teachings that will never be forgotten: ki lo sishakach mipi zaro!
Now, looking back on millennia since then, we see that everything has come true. In the end, precisely in times of dire suffering, this nation attached itself so deeply to the Torah that, for the Torah’s sake, it endured martyrdom unparalleled in world history. This Torah became our kanfei nesharim,
Any non-Jew can become a member of the Chosen People if he wants; the door is open. What is the price of entry? Is there a large application fee? Do they need to take on extra-strict rules? No. All they have to do is go through tevilah, kabbalos hamitzvos, and for men bris milah—the same price that we paid when we accepted the Torah 3,000 years ago. People of any race can join klal Yisrael. Jewish history is full of gerim who became leaders, prophets, and teachers. The Torah reminds us in 36 places to treat the ger as an equal. The idea of a favored nation is not racist, but reflects the sacrifice that we make to serve Hashem.
bearing us over all the trials through a world that offers only scorn and degeneration, to attain renewed spirit and vitality.
At the same time, the Torah became a source of light for the world, a fountain from which all our host nations have drunk. To this day, the Torah remains a tree of life, planted by its scattered children in the fields of the future of nations. The seeds of this tree, seeds of peace and truth, bring forth salvation for all of mankind, and the whole world reaps its fruit.
Thus, the “Yisrael” of flowering prosperity has indeed become a “Yizre’el” of the exile. As a consequence, the motto of Jewish history – vayisarvu bagoyim, vayilmedu maaseihem – was actualized in both senses.
In retrospect, we might suggest that Hashem chose us precisely because of our dual nature: mamrim heyisem im Hashem, u’fana el elohim acheirim on the one hand; lo sishakach mipi zaro on the other. These two traits make the Jewish people a perfect instrument to fulfill Hashem’s plan for mankind. Even defectors have served His purposes—despite their sins, the Jewish people have carried into exile sparks that can spread, and seeds that can germinate among all mankind.
Anyone who reads Moshe’s concluding words and reviews our history, and the history of the Torah, cannot fail to recognize that this is precisely why it could not have been written by Moshe, the man, but only by Hashem, of Whom Moshe was merely a messenger. We, the people, and our Torah, are etzba Elokim, the finger of G-d pointing the way for all mankind.
Based on the commentary of Rav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch zt”l on Chumash, with permission from the publisher.
