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