Parshat Vaetchanan begins
with Moses pleading, e’b’rah na v’ereh et
ha’aretz ha’tovah, “let me, I pray, cross over and see the good land…”
Talmud and later rabbis
note – why is Moses begging, or if not begging, than really desirous of going
into the land of Israel?
The answer is that Moses wanted
to do more mitzvot, and although they weren't in front of him (he had to go
into Israel to perform them), he still felt the need to perform them, and did
what he could to be able to complete them.
In contrast, when was the
last time we begged anyone to be able to do a mitzvah?
In fact, do we even perform
all the mitzvot that we can – that are right in front of us to do?
How many times have we
even deliberately walked away from a chance to do something godly, to help
someone, to foster our Jewish spirit?
What could you do to be
just a little more like Moses? To
appreciate and take advantage of and especially learn, about the many, many
opportunities that are all around us to transform the prosaic, mundane world around
us into the poetic, divine work of art the mitzvot let us make of the
world.
So I’m begging you – give this a thought, maybe even
let me know what you come up with!
You asked for an answer. So here's mine. I need to remember that the past no longer exists nor does the future. Therefore, my "present" gives me the opportunity to act with G-dly guidance to unify G-dliness with this world.
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