SPIRIT
O
ne of the gifts of great leaders,
and one from which each of us
can learn, is that they frame real-
ity for the group. They define its situation.
They specify its aims. They articulate its
choices. They tell us where we are and
where we are going in a way
no satellite navigation system
could. They show us the map
and the destination and help
us see why we should choose
this route not that. That is
one of their most magisterial
roles, and no one did it more
powerfully than did Moses in
the book of Deuteronomy.
Here is how he does it at the beginning
of this week’s parshah: “See, I am setting
before you today the blessing and the curse
— the blessing if you obey the commands
of the Lord your God that I am giving
you today; the curse if you disobey the
commands of the Lord your God and turn
from the way that I command you today by
following other gods, which you have not
known.
” (Deut. 11:26-28)
Here, in even more powerful words, is
how Moses puts it later in the book:
“See, I set before you today life and the
good, death and the bad … I call Heaven
and Earth as witnesses today against you,
that I have set before you life and death, the
blessing and the curse. Therefore, choose
life, so you and your children may live.
”
(Deut. 30:15, 30:19)
What Moses is doing here is defining
reality for the next generation and for all
generations. He is doing so as a preface to
what is about to follow in the next many
chapters, namely a systematic restatement
of Jewish law covering all aspects of life
for the new nation in its land.
Moses does not want the people to lose
the big picture by being overwhelmed
by the details. Jewish law with its 613
commands is detailed. It aims at the
sanctification of all aspects of life, from
daily ritual to the very structure of society
and its institutions. Its aim is to shape a
social world in which we turn even seem-
ingly secular occasions into encounters with
the Divine Presence. Despite the details,
says Moses, the choice I set before you is
really quite simple.
We, he tells the next generation, are
unique. We are a small nation. We have not
the numbers, the wealth, nor the sophisti-
cated weaponry of the great empires. We
are smaller even than many of our neigh-
boring nations. As of now, we do not even
have a land. But we are different, and that
difference defines, once and for all, who
we are and why. God has chosen to make
us His stake in history. He set us free from
slavery and took us as His own covenantal
partner.
This is not because of our merits. “It is
not because of your righteousness or your
integrity that you are going in to take pos-
session of their land.
” (Deut. 9:5) We are not
more righteous than others, said Moses. It
is because our ancestors — Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah —
were the first people to heed the call of the
one God and follow Him, worshiping not
nature but the Creator of nature, not power
but justice and compassion, not hierarchy
but a society of equal dignity that includes
within its ambit of concern the widow, the
orphan and the stranger.
Do not think, says Moses, that we can
survive as a nation among nations, wor-
shiping what they worship and living as
they live. If we do, we will be subject to the
Defining
Reality
Rabbi Lord
Jonathan
Sacks
A WORD OF TORAH
68 | AUGUST 25 • 2022