Parshat Vaetchanan 5777-’Playing the pauses’

כג  וָאֶתְחַנַּן, אֶל-יְהוָה, בָּעֵת הַהִוא, לֵאמֹר.

23 And I besought the LORD at that time, saying:

Moshe prays to God to allow him to come into Eretz Yisrael.According to Chazal, the number of prayers that he offered to God corresponds to the numerical value of the word ‘Vaetchanan’-515. Moshe is told to stop praying and that he will not enter the land of Israel.

In Parshat Chukat, when the same fate is made known to Aharon, that he will die in the desert and not enter Israel, we are told that he ascends Mt.Hor to effect the transition of high priesthood to his son, Elazar.

כג  וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל-מֹשֶׁה וְאֶל-אַהֲרֹן, בְּהֹר הָהָר, עַל-גְּבוּל אֶרֶץ-אֱדוֹם, לֵאמֹר.

23 And the LORD spoke unto Moses and Aaron in mount Hor, by the border of the land of Edom, saying:

כד  יֵאָסֵף אַהֲרֹן, אֶל-עַמָּיו, כִּי לֹא יָבֹא אֶל-הָאָרֶץ, אֲשֶׁר נָתַתִּי לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל--עַל אֲשֶׁר-מְרִיתֶם אֶת-פִּי, לְמֵי מְרִיבָה.

24 'Aaron shall be gathered unto his people; for he shall not enter into the land which I have given unto the children of Israel, because ye rebelled against My word at the waters of Meribah.

כה  קַח, אֶת-אַהֲרֹן, וְאֶת-אֶלְעָזָר, בְּנוֹ; וְהַעַל אֹתָם, הֹר הָהָר.

25 Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up unto mount Hor.

כו  וְהַפְשֵׁט אֶת-אַהֲרֹן אֶת-בְּגָדָיו, וְהִלְבַּשְׁתָּם אֶת-אֶלְעָזָר בְּנוֹ; וְאַהֲרֹן יֵאָסֵף, וּמֵת שָׁם.

26 And strip Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son; and Aaron shall be gathered unto his people, and shall die there.'

Aharon is punished for the same sin as Moshe,in not making the required Kiddush Hashem at the Mei Merivah/rock incident.However there is a major difference between the reaction of moshe to his own punishment and to that of his brother Aharon.

The Panim Yafot(R.Pinchas Horowitz:Germany 18th century) asks as to where are the mass of prayers which we would have expected from Moshe on behalf of his brother Aharon?He has already prayed for Miriam at the incident of her leprosy, so praying for a sibling is already established.If so why is there such a ‘pause’ here in terms of the tefilla which Moshe should have made?Why the silence?

Rabbi Isaac Bernstein quoted the famous cellist,Pablo Casals,who commented on the definition of greatness in terms of playing any musical instrument at a high level.He said that the greatness is not just in the way the person plays but also in the way that he plays the ‘silences’.Such an approach can be applied to our appreciation of Torah in terms of not only seeing what is there, but understanding what is missing and why.

The Panim Yafot gives a number of answers which are all very enlightening.His first suggestion is that at the time when Moshe prayed, he was already in the area known as ‘ever Hayarden’-tantalizingly close to the land of Israel.Also the lands of Sichon and Og had been captured and the eastern part of the Jordan has similar laws to the land of Israel itself.Moshe may be forgiven to believe that he was now able to achieve forgiveness for the ‘rock’ incident as he is now so much closer to the land of Israel and maybe God has ‘changed His mind’ and the vow has been rescinded.Therefore he begins to daven and almost succeeds in his request.When Aharon dies however, they are still in the desert and not near ‘ever hayarden’, so the chance of forgiveness is not even remotely to be considered, and as a consequence Moshe does not pray.It would be a tefillat shav as such and not to be done.There is a real purpose in the silence here.

The second answer is connected to the Talmudic statement that when a word /vow of God is given for something bad to happen, it will not be retracted if it also has within it some good news as well. When God told Moshe that he was not going to Israel he was told that he would not bring the people there.The implication is that they might be able to go in as ordinary 'rank and file' Jews and not as leaders. There is no allusion to death in God’s word immediately after the event.However, with Aharon, the words above clearly refer to the demise of Aharon and also the ‘good’ news that his son will take over.Such a decree is never revoked and therefore Moshe did not pray for Aharon as again this would be a tefillat shav-prayer in vain.The silence is justified once more.

A third answer is concerning the sin which both Moshe and Aharon are accused of, that of Chillul Hashem.This is such a serious sin that it would take an extraordinary amount of forgiveness and possibly would only be atoned for after going through a Yom Kippur service of forgiveness. Aharon dies at the beginning of the month of Av and there is no chance of arriving at another Yom Kippur.Moshe realizes this and does not pray for him.However Moshe died on 7th Adar,by which time another Yom Kippur has passed and therefore a renewed effort of tefilla is made by Moshe for his own situation before he arrives at his final days. The hope is that tefilla and Yom Kippur will be enough to cancel the decree.

Each answer of the Panim Yafot creates interesting ramifications about tefilla and its efficacy. Although Moshe may have been aware of the calculations to pray or not, we are not as privileged to know such details in our  own lives. We are told that if we want to be answered in our tefillot, then we should pray for someone else and the compassion we show for them will hopefully be shown to us by God.

These are wonderful insights into prayer which we must bear in mind in all situations.Even when God says 'no', we can feel that we tried our best ,which is an important achievement and does not go without merit.The silence in the action of Moshe is very significant and certainly gives us a reason to pause and reflect on the vital lessons which the Torah is conveying in the silence of this story and which is also found in other places.As David puts it in sefer Tehillim:

‘Open my eyes and I will behold the wonders of Your Torah’. May we always be blessed with such insights.

Rabbi Ian Shaffer Cherry Hill NJ