Two Minute Torah Podcast

Devarim 5770 by Rabbi Adam Frank

This week’s sidrah begins the final of the Five Books of Moses. Sefer Devarim contains many instances of Moshe rebuking the Israelites for their behavior during the 40 years travel from Egypt to the cusp of entering the Land of Israel. A midrash on the opening words of the book, אלה הדברים אשר דבר משה...these are the words spoken by Moshe, comments that it would have been more proper for rebuke to come from the enemy prophet Bilaam and the blessings to come from Moshe — instead of the opposite which occurred. However, the midrash then answers itself by teaching that if Bilaam had given the rebuke, the Israelites would have ignored it for fact of the messenger, and if Moshe had giving the blessings then the nations of the world would have discounted them for fact of the messenger. The midrash puts the following words into God’s mouth, "Rebuke them will Moshe the lover of Israel and bless them will Bilaam the hater of Israel in order that the contents of each will be clearly in reference to Israel." Messages sweet and sour are often determined as much by the lips of the speaker as the ears of the receiver.

Too often we do not recognize in our own daily lives the gift or weapon that we wield which are our words. Though destructive speech — Lashon har'ah — is well known of amongst Jewish communities, too few of us realized the power of positive speech we can gift to even the anonymous other each day:

'you’ve helped me greatly — thank you'
'that shirt is a great color for you'
'your kindness made my day'
'I'm proud to be your partner'
'Your handling of that matter was terrific'

Moshe rebukes the people for he was the only appropriate person to do so.

Each of us, however, has the right to gladden the hearts of others with a generosity of spirit in our daily interactions through words. Shabbat shalom.