פרשת נצבים וילך

פרשת נצבים וילך

...לא אוכל לצאת ולבוא...

… I am no longer able to go out and come in…

                This phrase at the beginning of the second portion of this week’s תורה reading is a very strange and interesting one. משה רבינו, the Jewish leader, tells בני ישראל that he is no longer going to be leading them, and that he will not be bringing them into ארץ ישראל. He says, “I am no longer ABLE…” The big question here is, what do you mean he was not able? The מפורשים say that משה was actually in great health, physically and mentally. He still had the ability to lead! If משה really wanted to, all he had to do was just walk in! What does he mean he is not ABLE to go in?

                רשי answers that, משה said this because he was unable to bring himself to go into the land against the will of ה'. משה could not bring himself to enter without ה'’s permission, even though he really could have. There is a strange thing that happens to us humans. Have you ever gotten so angry at someone all you wanted to do was slap them in the face? Now imagine that the person you want to hit is your father or mother. As angry as you may get, most of us realize that there is a line that we can’t cross. As much as we may want to hit them, as hurt, angry, or sad they have made us feel, we can’t physically bring ourselves to lift up our hands and hit them (which is a good thing by the way).

                משה realized this too. He knew that if he went into א"י it would be a major slap in the face to ה' his Father. For whatever reason ה' decided the משה was not allowed to go in to the land and for that reason משה physically could not make himself enter. He could not bring himself to “slap his father” in the face like that.

                This is a huge message that we should all keep in mind as we enter ראש השנה and יום כיפור. We need to learn from the strength of משה רבינו. There are so many times in our lives where we are tempted to go against the word of ה' and sin. We need to always remember that whenever we do this, it is a slap in the face of our creator. He created us to do good, and we are deliberately going the other way to do wrong by Him. When this happens, and these temptations come we need to say no, we need to lower that hand from His face and turn the other way.

Have Awesome Shabbos

Yoni Spigelman