The thought that ran through my head after reading today's exceedingly short aliyah is that this must be the second most mystical verse in all of Torah - thinking Devarim 29:14 - the verse about those standing here before H' as well as those not standing here. And the typical interpretation is beautiful - that future generations, too, stand with those present just as Moshe's generation, too.
But while certainly beautiful, certainly there is something to be said for the fact that just two verses earlier, the Torah references those that G-d "swore" to in bringing this day forward - and I'm talking about, of course, the forefathers, Avraham, Yitzhak, and Yaakov. It seems to me, therefore, that the more plain reading of the verse would in fact be almost a tribute to those that came and went long before we were fortunate enough to receive Torah.
But there is also perhaps a deeper meaning - a one that clearly references the earlier parts of Torah including the plagues and mass death and the 40 years of wandering - and how those could not join because their bodies perished.
Recently - okay, today - I was wondering why G-d puts us in such troubling and challenging times. Wouldn't it have been easier to remove the struggle entirely (it would have - even the Talmud agrees) - or wouldn't it have been better if we at least had eyes to see the divinity in everything. But, no, life is hard, some people (as exemplified in story after story) make unwise choices, and they pay the ultimate price. In this season of teshuvah, it was once boldly said that the ultimate form of teshuvah is death - and this must be true. But is that all - that the reason people die is solely to do teshuvah? If so, why would Moshe potentially memorialize them as he does here? (And, yes, as always, I am sure that the Torah can be saying at least three messages at once in this verse.)
And yet I'm still looking for the connection to the struggles of the day - where resistance and judgment and downright bullying and meanness still prevail. Where, sure, some days flow, but other days - even in the holy flow state - are sought after to be stopped at all costs.
The resistance is the measure of the meaning.
The greater the barrier, the greater the purpose
Or, in the Torah's stark terms, the greater the loss, the more worthy the ending.
But what are we to say about that resistance, that barrier, that loss? We cannot say that it was simply in service of the next step. And that's where I think even the most deep among us get caught - that this darkness is worthwhile because it signs that a change is to come.
But the quest must be in that darkness - that darkness is still echad. That there is nothing outside of H'. And that, in reality, there is no resistance or barrier or loss, nor is there the opposite. The dialectical is a myth.
There is simply the oneness - a message we repeat every single day in shema but which is still so very hard to fully comprehend.
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