Parashat Devarim: The Rebuke of Love

The Rebuke of Love

Sefer Devarim is Moshe's final address to the Jewish people. His last will and testament. As he prepares to leave this world, he recounts their journey through the wilderness. His words contain rebuke, but it is striking that the rebuke comes from Moshe, not from someone like Bilaam, who despised the Jewish people.

Perhaps, true rebuke can only come from someone who loves you.

Moshe's words are not meant to criticize or diminish. They are the words of a loving teacher and shepherd who wants his people to grow. His love meant it was his responsibility to remind the people who they are and what they are capable of becoming.

Moshe revisits the story of the spies, who saw giants and fortified cities and concluded that the Jewish people could never succeed in conquering the land. Their mistake was not simply that they underestimated themselves. They forgot that Gd loved them. The same Gd who redeemed them from Egypt, split the sea, and sustained them in the wilderness would continue to guide and protect them. That Gd would help them conquer the land. Essentially, they lost faith in Gd and even believed that Gd hated them.

Moshe reminds them that Gd goes before them, carries them "as a parent carries a child," and never abandons them.

This is the essence of emunah.

The word emunah appears in the Torah during the battle against Amalek. The Torah tells us that Moshe's hands remained "emunah, "steady and unwavering, as Aharon and Chur supported him. Perhaps emunah is best understood as steadfastness.

We are enjoined to not only be steadfast in our faith in Gd, but that Gd is steadfast in Gd’s love for us.

Gd does not change with our circumstances. Gd’s love is constant. Gd’s goodness is constant. Gd is all good and does only good, even when we cannot understand Gd’s ways.

That is one of the greatest challenges of faith.

There are moments in life when we experience revealed goodness, and we bless Gd as HaTov VeHaMeitiv: the One who is good and does good.

But there are also moments of profound loss, when Jewish law teaches us to say Baruch Dayan HaEmet, "Blessed is the True Judge."

From our limited perspective we cannot say HaTov VeHaMeitiv because we cannot see the goodness in that moment. We feel grief, pain, and bewilderment.

Yet emunah allows us to hold two truths at once.

Our hearts may be broken, and our questions remain unanswered. At the very same time, we trust that Gd's goodness has not disappeared. We simply cannot yet perceive it.

Faith is not having all the answers.

Faith is believing that although we cannot understand Gd's ways, Gd’s love for us remains unwavering.

That quiet, steadfast belief is what enables us to endure suffering without losing hope, to grieve without losing our relationship with Gd, and to continue walking forward even when the path is dark.

May we merit to hear Moshe's final words as they were intended, not as rebuke, but as an expression of enduring love, and may we cultivate an emunah that is steadfast, trusting that the Gd who has always loved His people continues to guide us with compassion, wisdom, and goodness, even when we cannot yet understand Gd’s ways.

Shabbat Shalom.