Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch once remarked that he wished he could close all synagogues for one hundred years. He dreamed that closing all synagogues would force households to take their Jewishness into their own hands, and produce a more engaged and serious Orthodox community. After months of actually living through R. Hirsch’s thought experiment, I think we can all agree that his dream comes at much expense.
One such mainstay of Jewish life that has suffered due to our current homebound practice is that of Kriyat ha-Torah. As a fundamentally community-oriented institution, weekly Torah reading stood no chance under quarantine. Indeed, most authorities maintain that if a person misses a Parashah in the Torah cycle, there is no responsibility to make it up, as Torah reading was a responsibility placed on the community, not on any particular individual. An exception to this rule is Parashat Zakhor, the portion we read before Purim about the war with Amalek. Since this is a Torah commandment, as indicated by the multiple imperatives to “remember” and “not forget,” it is a personal responsibility for all Jews to fulfill.
Given that background, Parashat Eikev should feel both familiar and out of place. Moshe tells the Jewish people: “Remember and don’t forget that you angered God in the desert. From the day you left Egypt until you came to this place you have been rebels against God” (Devarim 9:7). The significance of “remember” and “don’t forget” should resonate to a reader familiar with Parashat Zakhor as a unique imperative. Indeed, R. Baruch Epstein in his Torah Temimah, suggests that the Torah’s formulation here may indicate that there is a Torah Mitzvah to read this verse, just like there is by Parashat Zakhor. Thus, according to this approach, all of us at home would be obligated to read this Torah portion to ourselves– Shul or no Shul– much like we are obligated by Parashat Zakhor.
But beyond this practical takeaway, the Torah Temimah’s position begs an important question. What is so special about this Torah verse? Of all things, why must we remember that our forefathers sinned in the desert and rebelled against God? The Torah Temimah answers that it is specifically because of the embarrassing and sinful nature of what occurred that Moshe is commanding us to work against our natural inclination, and, instead of hiding our collective skeletons in our closet, we should make an effort to acknowledge and engage with them. Moshe is commanding us not to be so embarrassed by our past mistakes that we refuse to learn from them. It is specifically the embarrassing and sinful parts of our past that we are required to read, engage with, and ultimately learn from.
We are currently living in a difficult time in many ways. In addition to the health threats posed by COVID, America is struggling to come to terms with the sins of its past, as the current moment highlights how much remains to be learned. Feeling challenged, embarrassed, or even angry about bearing the blame for the sins of the past– especially those that were perpetrated by ancestors living hundreds or thousands of years ago– is normal, relatable, and human. It is hard to face our own mistakes, much less to feel punished for the choices of our predecessors. But in Parashat Eikev, Moshe challenges us to fight back against that discomfort and to do the hard work of confronting those mistakes to create a better future. Hopefully, we can live up to the challenge, and push our community into an even more compassionate and supportive future.
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