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Va’etchanan
Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11
The Book of Deuteronomy represents the final chapter in the lives of the early Israelites, and our last glimpse of their leader, Moses, prior to his death at the end of the Torah. In this week’s parashah, Va’etchanan, we witness Moses at both his most poignant and his most desperate and vulnerable.
The Torah portion opens with Moses, who has already been told by God that he will not enter the Promised Land, recounting his heartfelt, seemingly painful plea:
“Va’etchanan — I pleaded with the Lord at that time, saying, ‘O Lord God, You who have let your servant see the first works of Your greatness and Your mighty hand, You whose powerful deeds no god in heaven or on earth can equal! Let me, I pray, cross over and see the good land on the other side of the Jordan….’” (Deuteronomy 3:23-25)
Moses, who has devoted his life to obeying God’s charge and leading the people of Israel toward the land of Canaan — their ancestral homeland and birthright — is near the end of his life. What he wants most of all is to enter that longed-for land with them, to see the fruit of all his labors before he dies.
It may seem a bit out of character for Moses, the great intercessor between the Israelites and God, to plead on his own behalf, and also to share with his people the frustration of having his plea denied. But Moses is desperate, and the time left to him is short.
Some rabbinic commentators suggest that the patriarch was trying to teach that one should never lose hope, that our deepest yearnings and prayers may yet be answered.
Whatever his internal mindset, Moses recounts God’s ultimate response to him:
“The Lord said to me, ‘Enough! Never speak to me of this matter again! Go up to the summit of Pisgah and gaze about, to the west, the north, the south, and the east. Look at it well, for you shall not go across the Jordan.’” (Deuteronomy 3:26-27)
In some ways, God’s rebuke of Moses seems overly harsh, almost punitive. While Moses had an angry side and engaged in some questionable actions, is this a fair response and outcome? Does Moses, in light of all that he did for God and his people, really need to be reminded that his dream will be forever unfulfilled? This appears to add insult to injury.
It gets worse. In the very next verse, God instructs Moses to install Joshua as his successor, the new leader of the people of Israel who will take them into the Promised Land:
“Give Joshua his instructions, and imbue him with strength and courage, for he shall go across at the head of this people, and he shall allot to them the land that you may only see.” (Deuteronomy 3:28)
If Moses still harbored any hope of ever entering the Land of Israel, God’s words here put an end to it. In fact, God tells Moses to actually give Joshua some of his own vitality, his “strength and courage,” as part of the succession protocol. And then God reminds Moses, yet again, that he may only glimpse the land of his ancestors — not enter it.
We can only imagine the deep and profound disappointment that Moses must have felt. After 40 years of leadership and devotion, after initial resistance to his divine mission and then his later personal sacrifices, Moses is essentially cast aside for another, younger person. He fails to change God’s mind. His dream is over, for good.
Like Moses, the vast majority of human beings experience disappointment during the course of our lives, sometimes many times over. Marriages fail, promotions are lost, our favored political candidates fail to win, our hopes and dreams are often unrealized.
To paraphrase the line from the famous Rolling Stones’ song: We don’t always get what we want.
While disappointment seems to be a permanent feature of the human journey, it is how we deal with it that ultimately matters.
After Moses makes his final plea to God in this week’s parashah, he seems to accept his fate. While there are some later midrashim (commentaries) that depict Moses angrily protesting his lot before he dies — he goes down kicking and screaming, so to speak, about the fact that he will not enter the Promised Land — the Torah itself suggests that he is now resigned to his destiny, that he has finally made peace with it.
For most of us, disappointment is largely inevitable. The lesson of this Torah portion, and of Moses’ life, is that we need to know when to give up, when to let go and when to give over. At times, it is better to have an attitude of resignation and acceptance about our lives, even when they don’t turn out exactly as we’d like them to. That’s how we move forward.
Trust in ourselves, and in God, is often our best recourse during times of challenge and difficulty. While we might not always get what we want, we do usually get what we need.