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Orchard of Delights
can strengthen someone to implement life changing decisions, so too
these leaders had managed to break out of earlier corrupt leadership
paradigms. The natural tendency of power to corrupt has been
overcome in the new heads of the tribes; therefore, the Torah honors
them by naming the portion after them. The incorruptibility of that
entire new generation is expressed at the end of the book of Joshua:
“And Israel served God all the days of Joshua and all the days of the
elders that outlived Joshua” (24:31).
££The Faithful Servant
£The Faithful ServantThe Faithful Servant
As we have seen throughout this book, analyzing words according
to their letters yields deep and profound meanings. This in fact is
intrinsic to the PaRDeS system of learning. The Hebrew word
for vow (neder) when split into its two syllables reads “ne-der” –
“[the letter] nun dwells.” When the two letters spelling the word
“dwells” are exchanged, the phrase reads “ne-red” – “[the letter] nun
descends.” The letter nun is one of five letters that has two written
forms, a common form for when it is at the beginning or the middle
of a word and a final form for when it ends a word. When spelling the
word “nun” in Hebrew, one begins with the common nun and ends
with the final form. Due to its bent over shape and the fact that the
word “faithful” begins and ends with a nun, the Talmud (Shabbat
104a) characterizes the common form of the nun as “bent over and
faithful” and the long, straight line of the final form as “straight and
unboundedly faithful.” Supporting this characterization, the letter
nun also appears as the middle letter in the Hebrew words for “poor”
(ani) and “humble” (anav).
Usually people take vows only when they have reached a lowly
and humble state of mind. Figuratively bent over from the weight of
life’s challenges, they must, as it were, bend down and search deep
within themselves to find the strength and inspiration to carry on.
Oftentimes making a vow enables people to discover the strength to
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that the person being rebuked is not immediately put on the defensive.
If rebuke is given in a confrontational and harsh manner not only
will it be ineffective, it will also be summarily rejected and may even
lead to more reprehensible behavior. Of course, every rule has its
exceptions. The rebuke in the book of Lamentations is direct, harsh,
and full of dire warnings. Sometimes this is the only way to grab
peoples’ attention in order to get them to really change. No matter
which approach is adopted, the importance of words, warnings, and
their powerful effect is clearly evident in the portion of Devarim.
An additional association between this portion and the Ninth of
Av is that the book of Lamentations read publically on the evening
of the Ninth of Av begins with the word aicha (“How could it have
come to pass?”). Indeed, this Hebrew word is the name of the book
in Hebrew. Significantly, Moses in this very portion uses this word
to describe how exasperated he is at the many trials and tribulations
the Jewish people have put him through in the desert: “How [aicha]
can I bear alone your troubles, your burdens, and your quarrels?”
(Deuteronomy 1:12). Recognizing this association, the Rabbis
have decreed that this verse be chanted with the melody used for 17
Lamentations instead of the regular one.
It is important to note that the word aicha has an even earlier
biblical echo. After Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge
of Good and Evil, they hid in the Garden of Eden hoping to avoid
the inevitable confrontation with God. God called out to them with
the term “ayeka” (Where are you?). This Hebrew word is spelled
the same as aicha but is pronounced slightly differently. God, of
course, is not literally asking Adam and Eve where they are for He
is Omniscient; rather, he is challenging them to answer a series of
existential questions: How could you have done such a thing? Where
are you now that you have done this? What motivated you to
distance yourselves from Me to such a degree that now you feel you
must hide from Me? What will you do to rectify the situation?
Ayeka connotes a profound expression of pain, distress, and shock.
It is as if God is expressing His profound disappointment with the
choices His most treasured creation has made. When God witnesses
humanity’s moral and ethical degradation in Noah’s time, the Torah
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