Parshat VaEtchanan
Normally, I spread the comments of our three commentators throughout the parsha. Va-Etchanan has a verse my teacher, Prof. Yitzchak Twersky, zt”l, focused on often, so I am taking the opportunity to collect three more perspectives of its meaning. The Torah says its laws are chokhmatchem u-vinatchem be-einei ha-am, your wisdom and understanding in the eyes of the nations, who will hear of the Torah’s laws and say this is surely an am chakham ve-navon, a wise and understanding people.
Rambam in the Moreh cited the verse to support his claim mitzvot have reasons ordinary people can understand and respect, how other nations will admire us for our Torah. In an interesting contrast, Ran in his Derashot, written in a more Christian, less philosophical society, suggested our being blessed through our observance of chukkim, mitzvot not immediately understood, would show our wisdom, would show we know aspects of the world hidden from anyone else, because we act in obscure ways and flourish.
Let’s see what our three commentators had to add to the verse’s rich commentarial history.
Most of Us May Not Know the Reason, But Our Greats Do
Kli Yakar addresses an audience who seem to have been daunted by the criticism of those around them. He says the verse comes to reassure Jews, to help steady them in their observance. When others mock us, we sometimes stop acting that way, for fear the mockers were correct, those acts indeed have no meaning. The Torah wants us to know the chukkim do have a meaning, for all that we don’t know what they mean, and non-Jews will eventually find out the reason and praise our observance.
For support, he makes an interesting jump. He quotes a Midrash Rambam cited, too, Shlomo Ha-Melekh said Kohelet 7;23—I thought I would be wise, but it was beyond me—regarding the laws of the red heifer, which even he could not understand. According to Kli Yakar, Moshe Rabbenu was taught the secret of the heifer’s meaning, an example meant to set up a general rule, the great ones of each generation will have the full wisdom of the Torah.
When They See the Whole System
How does the knowledge of our leaders help Jews who might be tempted to stop observance of some chukkim, to avoid non-Jewish denigration? He limits Rashi’s idea, Bamidbar 19;2, that Satan and other nations dismiss our observance as ridiculous, to those non-Jews who hear one law of the Torah. After they hear all the Torah’s laws, the majority of which have clear reasons, they will certainly not make fun of us, because the bulk of obviously well-reasoned mitzvot will convince them the rest must have good reasons as well, known to the outstanding leaders of the generation.
They Rely On Our Values
Helping support the non-Jews’ willingness to believe all the chukkim have some reason is their assessment of the Jews as an am chakham ve-navon. Other nations focus on wealth, honor, power, and war, but the Jews do not bother with such trivialities, focus on wisdom alone [although last week, we saw Kli Yakar castigate Jews who flaunt their wealth too obviously]. If such people adhere to rules that seem nonsensical, they will still trust we have some reason for doing so.
In his reading, the next two verses tell us why our mishpatim, the kinds of laws all societies have, are nonetheless better in the Jewish version. The verse stresses our closeness to God, evidence of even the ordinary laws we have being of divine origin, and therefore superior.
For Kli Yakar, the chukkim are close to Ran’s version, a point of possible pressure from other nations, a pressure we relieve by their seeing the sense in the majority of the system—closer to Rambam—restoring their trust both that the laws they don’t understand have a good reason, known to the special figures in each generation, and that the laws they might think obvious are actually slightly different, and better, because Hashem gave them to us, not people.
Don’t Pay Attention to the Non-Jews!
Chatam Sofer rejects what has been common to all the approaches so far, that there is some value in the non-Jews’ positive view of Torah and mitzvot. They all read the opening words of 4;6, u-shemartem va-asitem, you shall observe and keep, as a call for us to be sure we obey the Torah’s dictates, for what it would produce.
Chatam Sofer instead thinks it calls us not to pay any attention to non-Jews’ view of Torah. Whatever reason they come up with for mitzvot, convincing them of our wisdom, will not be the true reason. The true reasons for mitzvot are hidden and esoteric, an idea he thinks proven by the ability of observance to bring us closer to God [since God is metaphysical and wholly Other, I think he means, anything that brings us meaningfully nearer must touch on the metaphysical, cannot be just whatever the non-Jews think].
For one example, he says the positive impact of others’ Torah study and/or reciting Tehillim on behalf of someone who is ill has no rational explanation, is obviously an element of the Torah hidden from ordinary humans. So we should be careful about investing any energy, value, or joy in whatever the non-Jews decide to think about our Torah.
[In case it’s not clear, I don’t necessarily subscribe to the views of the commentators I share. In this case, though, I hope you are fascinated by his taking the verse in such a different direction from those who came before, grounded in his clear concern that Jews care too much about what non-Jews think of them.]
It’s Our Creativity They Will Admire
Years ago, I read a biography of the Beis Ha-Levi, R. Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, a colleague of Netziv’s at the yeshiva in Volozhin. In the story this biography told, Netziv was known more for his beki’ut, breadth of knowledge, and this first R. Yosef Dov Soloveitchik for his iyyun, depth of insight. Netziv’s comment to our verse suggests the idea is an exaggeration.
He says u-shmartem va-asitem refers to the process of Torah study rather than observance. The first word means to know what has been said until now, where va-asitem calls for us to innovate, find new ideas, warns us against purely keeping and passing along the traditions of the past, calls for us to find new ideas in the Torah, expanding it and making it greater.
Remarkably, he thinks that itself will be reason for non-Jews to respect us, where today I think the malleability of Torah has caused both Jews and non-Jews to dismiss it as another man-made system. In his view, the 13 Middot of Biblical derivation will impress other nations, because they will know they could not themselves have come up with such a body of knowledge and understanding given only the Torah and those middot [it reminds me of a joke my father a”h loved, a version of which is here].
So: Beyond Rambam and Ran, Kli Yakar thinks non-Jews will accept the reasonableness of even the unreasonable parts of Torah because the overall system is so good, and will trust our greatest leaders know the reasons behind the whole system, Netziv thinks they will admire our ability to reap new insight from a well-reviewed text, armed only with thirteen rules of derivation, and Chatam Sofer can’t imagine we were supposed to care about what they thought to begin with.
Five interpretations, so far. More to come, maybe, from commentators we take up next year or beyond.
