Summer is Gone and We Are Not Saved - Commentary on Parashat Vaetchanan
Weekly Torah reflections from Matthew Schultz, a rabbinical student at Hebrew College.
On Tisha B’Av, which came earlier this week, we read a haftarah from the prophet Jeremiah which featured the following line:
“עָבַ֥ר קָצִ֖יר כָּ֣לָה קָ֑יִץ וַאֲנַ֖חְנוּ ל֥וֹא נוֹשָֽׁעְנוּ”
“Harvest is past,
Summer is gone,
And we have not been saved.”
It hit me like an arrow.
Today, I moved back into my apartment in Somerville, MA. For the next nine months, my dispatches will not be coming from the promised land, but rather from here. It’s time to begin my last year of rabbinical school.
Indeed, summer is gone. And we have not been saved.
“עַל־שֶׁ֥בֶר בַּת־עַמִּ֖י הׇשְׁבָּ֑רְתִּי“
“Because my people is shattered I am shattered.”
Another line from Jeremiah. Another arrow.
We are at a strange moment in Jewish history. Tisha B’Av’s story of destruction forces us to confront the fact that in many ways, redemption is here. Jerusalem, the city that sits desolate and lonely in the book of lamentations, has been rebuilt. At the same time, Tisha B’Av reminds us of all that remains shattered.
The harvest is past, the summer is gone, but the hostages are not home and the war drags on.
In this week’s Torah portion, Moses pleads for his life. God has decreed that he will die without entering the promised land because of his sin.
Moses begs: “O Lord Hashem, You who let Your servant see the first works of Your greatness and Your mighty hand, You whose powerful deeds no god in heaven or on earth can equal! Let me, I pray, cross over and see the good land on the other side of the Jordan.”
There are two comments from Rashi on the phrase “mighty hand.”
Commenting on the word “hand,” he writes: “A hand extended to all the people of the world.”
Commenting on the word “mighty,” he writes: “Mighty in that your compassion dominates your harsh decrees.”
And so the image of a mighty hand—a fearful warlike image—is softened. The raised fist becomes and open, extended hand.
As we enter into a fourth season of sorrow, let us remember this teaching.
Yes, we pray for the mighty hand of God to defend us from evil, to reach out and smite our foes, to rescue the hostages and restore the people of their north to their homes.
But as another season of war concludes, we must also pray for God’s mighty hand as Rashi understands it—a prayer for compassion to prevail over anger, and for our fists to unclench.