of another day will consign another
burger to the waist, so all dinners —
future and past — merge in time.
We treasure the idea that our past
is our future. We teach our children
traditions that validate our past and,
we hope, ensure our future. There is
something arrogant about this, yet
also naively hopeful. We lay claim to
a past before our own time, and we
try to shape a future that we shall
not see. We load our children with .
"our" past and launch them into
our" future — a strange journey.
Meanwhile, we reassure ourselves,
our children are our future.
From the first word of
"Vayelech," then, opposites are
fused. Look at Moses: an old man
ever youthful. Look at the people: a
holy nation ever sinful. And look at
us, yearning to keep God with us
despite our contradictory failings,
our stubborn stiff necks and our fee-
bly wavering faith.
God promises to give Moses a
poem to save us. When we stray and
suffer punishment, we can recite its
words, "Then this song will speak
up for [the people] as a witness"
(31:21). The song is next week's
the spiritual cry
sedrah, Ha'azinu
of the future, replacing the sacrificial
ritual of the past. As Hosea says in
today's Haftorah, "our lips will pay
[our debt of sacrificial] bulls" (14:3).
Paradoxically, whereas in today's
sedrah we prepare for our words to
God, in Wetchanan the channel of
communication was reversed: God
was to speak, and we were to listen.
Among these contradictions, what
is our future, our present, our past?
We are ashamed that we have
strayed, oppressed by the fearful con-
viction that we will stray again, yet
buoyed by the hope that we may
repent and be forgiven. These feel-
ings seem mutually contradictory,
but the contradictions are part of our
religious outlook. God, who has seen
us break our side of the contract and
sees us repeating our error in the
future, has already given us the anti-
dote for our desperate malady. The
divine presence will hide from us,
playing peek-a-boo that reassures us
even as it leaves us trembling in fear
of abandonment.
Vayelech: "And he went/will go":
Our future is in our past. As you will
have come to shul this Shabbat, be
sure to come again next week and
hear the song that Moses taught to
keep God with us then, now, and
forever. ❑

WHERE
KIDS
LEARN
SPORTS!

TENNIS

junior program

lessons

clinics

SWIMMING

youth lessons

U.S.S. swim team

"

—

summer swim team

GYMNASTICS

recreational classes

preschool classes

The

spor117

/Club

NOW TWO
LOCATIONS

WEST BLOOMFIELD

6343 Farmington Rd.
(Just north of Maple)
Classes begin August 31

team

MARTIAL ARTS

taekwondo

preschool classes

U.S.T.A. belt program

DANCE

(NOVI only)

ballet

tap

jazz

NOVI

42500 Arena Drive
(Off Novi Rd, South of 10 Mile)
Classes begin September 28

modern

248-626-9880

9/25
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