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Torah Portion
Return, Repentance
And Torah Observance
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of Ahrwolitan Drrroit
/Mk
empty thing it is 'from you' that it is
so; and why? Because you did not
weary yourself upon it. It is your
life. When is it your life? When you
weary yourself upon it." Rabbi
Mana understands that Moshe is
telling the people that to truly make
the Torah meaningful and the source
of their existence, they must not
only keep its rules, but must also try
to understand it and internalize that
learning and understanding.
his Shabbat is known tra-
To the Jew who feels that the
ditionally as Shabbat
Torah is empty, meaningless and
Shuva, the Sabbath of
irrelevant to him and his
Return, or Shabbat
life, Rabbi Mana proclaims
Teshuva, the Sabbath of
that the lack is not within
Repentance.
the Torah, but rather it is
Both names emphasize
from you. The Jew for
the same point, for in
whom
the Torah is not "his
Hebrew the root word of
life,"
the
source of his very
is
the
teshuva,
repentance,
existence, simply does not
word to return, shuva. We
know or understand the
are bid to return to God
Torah. Rabbi Mana says
and to the proper way of
even more than that; he
life that we, in our igno-
emphasizes the point that
rance or arrogance,
our
b
RABBI ELIEZER understanding the Torah
desire or stubbornness, have
COHEN
requires hard work, dili-
forsaken.
Special to the
gence and devoted time —
This week's portion con-
cc to weary oneself upon it.
Jewish News
tains the shim, song or
The Torah cannot be
poem, that Moshe (Moses)
understood — really
places before the people as
understood
— in a superficial man-
a testimony to God's love for the
ner.
Jewish people and His ultimate jus-
The Talmud makes the same
tice and righteousness in dealing
point. "Rabbi Yitzchok said, 'If one
with them. Following this shira,
says to you I wearied myself (learn-
Moshe exhorts the people one last
ing Torah) and did not achieve
time before his death to remain
(understanding), don't believe him;
faithful to God and His Torah.
or
if he says I didn't weary myself
Moshe proclaims to his beloved
16)
32:15
nation (Deuteronomy
... set your hearts upon all
these things that I testify to
you today, that you charge
your children to be sure to do
all the words of the Torah; for
it is not an empty thing from
you, but it is your very life ..."
Moshe tells them that the
source of life, their very being,
existence and identity, is God's
Torah. The very essence of the
Jew is his being commanded by
God to keep the Torah.
However, the term "from
you" that Moshe uses is almost
as strange a construction in
Hebrew as it is in the English
translation. The Jerusalem
Talmud picks up on this
unusual usage and interprets
the verse, " ... as Rabbi Mana
interpreted: 'for it is not an
empty thing ...' and if it is an
Shabbat Haazinu:
Deuteronomy 32:1-52;
Hosea 14:2-10;
Micah 7:18-20;
Joel 2:15-27.
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