TORAH PORTION
Only Few May Enter
Land Of Their Dreams
RABBI MORTON F. YOLKUT
Special to The Jewish News
A
nd God said to
Moses: "Go up into
this mountain of Au-
arim, and behold the land
which I have given to the
Children of Israel. And when
you have seen it, you will be
gathered unto your people, as
Aaron your brother was
gathered" (Deut. 32:48-50).
One of the most moving
events in the Bible is con-
nected with this statement
recorded in
Parashat
Haazinu. If ever there was a
man who deserved to reach
the goal of his life, that man
was Moses. He devoted his
'
Haazinu
Shabbat Shuvah:
Deuteronomy
32:1-52;
Hosea 14:2-10
Michah 7:18-20
Joel 2:15-27
•
whole life to the purpose of
taking his people out of slav-
ery and leading them to the
land of their fathers. As a
young man he turned his
back on the luxuries of the
Egyptian royal court to throw
his lot in with his oppressed
kinsmen. Through great ef-
fort and determination his
first great aim was suc-
cessfully accomplished. He
liberated his brethren from
slavery.
But when the Red Sea was
crossed, forty hard and bitter
years of leadership awaited
him. More than once he felt
overwhelmed by the weight
of responsibility. Meek and
gentle though he was, he was
compelled to cry out: "How
can I alone bear your cumbr-
ance and your burden and
your strife?" The Jewish
_ people, by their complaints
and despair at every difficult
moment, made his tenure
much harder than it should
have been.
Throughout his • endless
trials, one thought alone sus-
,
tained him and gave him the
strength to endure: his ambi-
tion to see his people safely
settled in the Holy Land. But
at the end of his life, when
his great goal seemed within
reach, it was denied him. His
foot would never tread on the
soil of the Promised Land;
another man would lead the
•
Israelites there. On the top of
•
Mount Nebo he would behold
the goal of his dreams
stretching beyond the River
Jordan, and then he was to
die: The disappointment must
have been immense, but he
did not complain. One may
even suppose that he died
•
Morton F. Yolkut is rabbi at
Cong. B'nai David.
happy, although his greatest
wish had not been fulfilled;
because he must have felt
that he had not lived in vain
and that the work that he
had commenced would be
brought to fruition.
That final scene in the
career of Moses has much to
teach us. Moses did not com-
plete the task he set for him-
self. But his life was not a
failure. His immortal great-
ness rests upon what he at-
tempted, not upon what he
achieved. It is only the men
who aim low who accomplish
all that they desire. In the
words of the poet Browning:
"Ah, but a man's reach
should exceed his grasp, or
what's a Heaven for?" The
unfinished work of one man
may be infinitely greater and
more beneficial to humanity
than the completed task of
another.
Reflection on the life and
death of Moses also helps us
to understand the meaning of
the terms "success" and "fail-
ure" from the Jewish perspec-
tive. To have accomplished
all that was undertaken is
not the criterion; if it were,
the most honored names in
our history would be consid-
ered failures. Not only did
Moses fail, but David failed
to carry out his dream to
build the Temple in
Jerusalem; Elijah failed to
bring reformation of Israel;
Maimonides planned several
works which he did not live
to write; Herzl died long be-
fore the realization of the
Zionist dream; and there are
innumerable others. Their
names live on in the admira-
tion of our people, but they
all failed in that they did not
reach their goal.
But that is not the Jewish
way of evaluating a career.
The criterion which our tra-
dition proposes is, rather: "It
is not your duty to complete
the task, but neither are you
free to desist from it" (Avot
2:16). If before undertaking a
worthy task we stop to ask
ourselves whether we can
fully accomplish it, we shall
never even begin to attempt
it. The proper course to adopt
is to start and do our very
best, to make as much pro-
gress as we can, and leave
the end to take care of itself.
From this perspective we
can appreciate the superb
success of Moses' career. It
was an unfinished life, but it
was anything but a failure.
He lived to see the Promised
Land from a distance and his
life had brought the goal ap-
preciably nearer. That is all
that one should hope for and
labor for in life. Very few are
allowed to enter the land of
their dreams; most of us must
be content with a far-off
glimpse. But if we end our
life with our eyes turned
toward the land of promise as
did Moses, the sight which
we observe will be a full re-
ward.
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