This Week's Drash, for Parashat Ve-etchanan

The following is my drash for this week, which in addition to being posted here, appears on the Union for Progressive Judaism website here:

 http://upj.org.au/index.php/learning/parshat-hashavua.  

Accepting the Unwelcome Decree

A Drash for Va-etchanan

Because I’m an American, I have of course been closely following the trial of 28-year-old George Zimmerman who was charged with Second Degree Murder in the 2012 death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.  Zimmerman’s plea was Not Guilty, that the killing was in self-defence.  Because of the racial overtones of the case – Martin being African-American and Zimmerman being a white Hispanic – much of the American public took sides in the case long before the trial began.  As with the equally-sensational OJ Simpson murder trial back in 1995, public opinion was divided almost neatly along racial lines.  In the recent Zimmerman matter, the jury deliberated carefully, not rushing to conclusions, taking almost two days to reach their verdict on Saturday night which was Not Guilty.

          The voices who had already decided Zimmerman’s guilt began immediately crying foul and calling for intervention by the Federal Government. (The State of Florida was trial authority in the case.)  Protests sprang up in various US cities, turning violent in several places in California.  This, probably because it was late evening on the East Coast, but still daylight on the West Coast when the verdict was announced.

          On Sunday morning, President Obama to his credit appealed for calm.  While acknowledging the disappointment of those who were hoping for a Guilty verdict, Obama reminded the country that the USA is a “nation of laws” and concluded that in the case, “the jury has spoken.”  Those who had already decided that Zimmerman was guilty, were thus reminded by the President that sometimes it is necessary to subordinate our own desires for the Greater Good.

As this week’s sidra, Va-etchanan opens, Moses has clearly learned a difficult lesson about the subordinating of his own desires for the Greater Good.  He has been told that he will not lead the People Israel into the Promised Land, that he will die on the East Bank of the Jordan and Joshua Bin Nun will take over the reins of leadership for the conquest.  This has brought deep disappointment to Moshe Rabbeinu – Moses our Great Teacher.  Earlier in the text – and later – we see reflections of Moses’ bitterness.  While we are told that there will never again be a Prophet of Moses’ calibre, we also understand that this change of leadership is necessary as he has become progressively cynical about the people’s fitness for the task.  He has become something of a whiner, which is unbecoming of a great leader.

In this week’s reading, it appears that Moses has internalised this lesson.  Why do I say this?  Because he starts this discourse, in Chapter Four, verse 23 through 27, by recounting his complaint against God, how he cried out and asked God to relent, and that God wo9uld not soften His decree.  And then, as Chapter Four opens Moses launches into a sermon about how the people must obey God’s decrees if they are to successfully live in the land which God is assigning them.  In other words, all protestations are duly lodged; but then when the answer is received from ‘City Hall’ one accepts the decree and gets on with business.  Especially when ‘City Hall’ is the Divine Being.

Most of us are not used to receiving direct instruction, or clear responses to our pleas, from the Divine Being.  Even so, from Moses our Teacher we learn an important lesson about the acceptance of just decrees from ‘City Hall’ – even when they aren’t what we’d hoped to hear.  Moses has learned that the grand design of the People Israel inheriting the Land of Israel is bigger than his own personal aspirations.

How many times have each one of us reacted poorly to a decree, with which we disagreed?  Even when we must acknowledge that someone else has more complete information, not to mention the authority to decide, we sometimes protest and litigate and scheme to overturn the decree in question.  Moses at first reacts similarly to the decree that he will not enter the Promised Land, but in this week’s reading he has accepted this unwelcome decree and reclaimed his position, for the time being, as Israel’s Great Teacher.  My prayer is that we will all internalise this important lesson.  Including my fellow Americans who are not apt to accept the decree in the Zimmerman case.  Sometimes, our own desires or pre-conceived opinions notwithstanding, someone else with more complete information – and who has been duly empowered with the authority to decide – decrees other than the way we would have wanted.  When that happens, sometimes we just have to accept the unwelcome decree and get on with our lives.  Shabbat shalom.