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July 16, 1999/3 Av 5759, Vol. 51, No.41
Choose words that matter
Torah Study
RABBI JOSEPH R. BLACK
Devarim / Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22
On a recent evening I was checking my e-mail when an instant message from a friend in New York popped up on my computer screen. A few seconds later, the phone rang. A friend in Minnesota was calling. Soon after, another instant message arrived from a colleague in California. Since we all know one another, we at once joined in a four-way Internet and telephone "chat," almost as if we were sitting around in a living room.
Such communication has become commonplace. The information age offers the opportunity to be in instant contact with nearly anyone at any time. Our interaction is limited only by our imaginations and technology's increasingly proficient capabilities.
A risk in this world of easy communication is that our words and conversations can lose their importance and impact. We are bombarded with talk and with junk mail, e-mail and telephone solicitations. The Information Age is in danger of turning into a wilderness of wasted words.
In Deuteronomy, the final book of the Torah, no words are wasted.
Devarim, this week's portion, comprises Moses' final speeches to the Israelites. It begins: "These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel" (Deuteronomy 1:1). Traditional commentators found in Midrash Rabbah take great pains to point out that Moses, the man who first encountered God at the burning bush with the words "I have never been a man of words" (Exodus 4:10), proves in the final chapters of his legacy to be a great orator.
The book prior to Deuteronomy is Bemidbar (the Book of Numbers). Bemidbar (literally, "in the wilderness") is a book about growth and chaos. It is in the midbar (wilderness) that the Israelites rebel, challenging Moses and even God's authority. In Bemidbar, we are presented with a Moses who exhibits great fluctuations of temper and temperament. He negotiates and manipulates. He is filled alternately with cockiness and self-doubt. He is a tortured soul. Anger and insecurity cause him to lose everything he holds dear. His words burn with despair and compassion.
Deuteronomy, on the other hand, brings closure. The Moses we see in this final book has gone through a radical transformation. He now understands that his days are numbered. Self-pity has given way to self-awareness. Every moment and every word must count as he coaches, cajoles, chastises and applauds his people on the eve of their entrance into the Promised Land.
In terms coined by the scholar Martin Buber, the midbar, as portrayed in Bemidbar, is the realm of the "It" - meaning of daily transactional interaction. Devarim, on the other hand, is the realm of the "Eternal Thou" - of meaningful and life-changing connections to one another and to God.
Like Moses and the Israelites, each of us must travel through our own midbar in order to fully understand our role in life. As we grow as human beings, our task is to realize that life is a process of becoming aware of and accepting our limitations and gifts. Some of us never leave the midbar. We remain trapped in the seductive cycle of becoming and never fully emerge into the realm of Devarim. Most of us, most of the time, fluctuate between the two realms - shifting between higher and lower arenas of consciousness and connection.
Our goal in life should be to constantly seek to make our words and our deeds reflect the potential for holiness that God has given us by creating us in the Divine image.
Like Moses, we should strive to understand the importance of making our words count. Each conversation and every connection that we can make with one another provide us with the opportunity to experience holiness.
Joseph R. Black is the rabbi of Congregation Albert in Albuquerque, N.M. He is also a singer/songwriter whose new CD, "Leave a Little Bit Undone" is available on the Sounds Write Records label. Torat Hayim, produced by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, is available on the Internet at www.uahc.org/growth.
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