NITZAVIM -VAYELECH

Rikki Landau, Aug. 31, 2002

In my D'var Torah I would like to talk about the way Moses felt when he had to pass his leadership on to Joshua. In Parashat Vayelech, the second of this morning's two parshiyot, G-d told Moses that he is going to die. God had chosen a new leader to take the place of Moses. He chose Joshua. The reason Joshua must have been chosen was because he was trusted and respected by G-d and Moses. Moses gathered all of the people of Israel, gave a speech and said a prayer. Moses was apparently able to put his feelings of jealousy behind him and smoothly pass his leadership on to Joshua. A little while later Moses died.

In the Midrash, a book of the rabbis' thoughts on the Torah, the rabbis gave an interpretation of this scene. They came up with a detailed version of what they thought really happened. Instead of Moses easily giving up his leadership and accepting the fact that he was going to die, the rabbis imagined that he pleaded with G-d to let him live outside of Israel as an animal or plant. G-d did not agree to this. Moses then pleaded with the sun, moon, stars, water and angels. They all did not agree to Moses' request either. Moses then asked G-d if he could live under Joshua's leadership for just a few hours. G-d consented to this request, and Moses went to visit Joshua. In those days the teacher would sit while his students stood around him. When the People of Israel saw Joshua sitting and Moses standing, they yelled at Joshua, "How could you let Moses stand while you sit?" Moses then told them why, and they wept. ...

The rabbis go on to imagine that G-d then appeared before Joshua to tell him something. When Moses asked Joshua what G-d had told him and Joshua refused to tell Moses, Moses became so jealous that he felt he would rather die than to live one more day with this feeling of jealousy, and it was only then that he knew it was time for him to die.

Before Moses died, he gathered the nation so that he could pass on his leadership to Joshua in front of them. Although the rabbis concluded that Moses did feel jealous of Joshua, he was, nevertheless, able to control his jealousy during the ceremony of the passing on of the leadership . My Hebrew teacher (Meira) said that when you are reading the Tanach it is good to ask questions. So when I read my parasha I asked myself two questions. The first question I asked was why did Moses want to control his jealousy? I came up with three simple reasons:

1. he didn't want to make himself look babyish, selfish, uncontrollable or rude in front of the entire nation by acting jealous;

2. he wanted to reassure the people of Israel that he trusted Joshua so that they wouldn't panic after Moses was gone; and

3. he liked Joshua and didn't want to be mean to him. ...

I agree that it is a good thing for us to control our jealousy because if we act upon our jealousy, we might get so out of control that we might break the law and end up in jail. Even if we don't break the law, we could still get people angry with us. Even if we don't do either of these, we might still feel guilty about our actions because we've hurt somebody else, either physically or emotionally.

The second question I asked myself was how did Moses control his jealousy. We know from the Midrash that the rabbis thought Moses did feel jealous. This proves that he was a bit human. I don't think that he was totally human though. Usually when we hear a story about a human getting jealous in the Torah, the person tries to hurt the person he/she is jealous of (as in the examples of Cain & Abel, Jacob & Esau, and Joseph & his brothers). Acting and feeling jealous are two human characteristics. Moses, after spending so much time with G-d, developed some divine characteristics. I believe that the ability to control his feelings was one of them. That explains how Moses might have been able to control his jealousy. As suggested by my dad and one of my friends, it is also possible for humans to control our jealousy, even without the divine power that Moses might have possessed. Three ways we humans can control our jealousy are:

1. to tell ourselves that it isn't worth breaking a friendship for;

2. to leave the situation; and

3. to see the other person's point of view. ...

When I was younger and I got jealous or had any other negative feelings, I would have probably acted upon them, not knowing what was right and what was wrong. Because I wasn't yet a Bat Mitzvah, though, I wouldn't have been held accountable for my actions. Now that I have become a Bat Mitzvah, I am responsible for my actions. My parasha has particular relevance to this because it teaches me that having a good relationship with G-d, as Moses did, will help me have good relationships with other people, as well. If I have a closer relationship to G-d, although this may not give me divine characteristics like it did for Moses, it will at least give me better judgment to distinguish right from wrong and act accordingly.