#parshat devarim

 It’s chilling to read the last passuk of this week’s Parasha.

 “You shall not fear them, for Hashem, your God – He shall wage war for you”

(Deuteronomy 3:22)

Despite the stress, the security tensions, the pain and the tragedy, the fact that so few rockets have hit civilians and populated areas, is simply a miracle. When watching footage of the Iron Dome in action on YouTube it’s easy to see God’s Zeroa Netuyah defending us, waging war for us.

This Shabbat in Shule we witness a microcosm of Jewish history. In Kriat Hatorah we once again discuss the conquering of the east bank of the Jordan. We conclude with Moshe reiterating Hashem’s promise that the Jewish people will inherit the other side of the Jordan and settle it with God leading the war.

In the Haftarah, we read about the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash and the deterioration of Eretz Yisrael.

Yisahayahu prophesies, “Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire, your land before you, strangers consume it; it is desolate as if overturned by strangers”(Isaiah 1:7).

Unfortunately, we have seen Yishayahu’s prophecy come to fruition. It was mournfully recorded by Mark Twain in his famous work, The Innocents Abroad.

He wrote, “Of all the lands there are for dismal scenery, I think Palestine must be the prince. The hills are barren, they are dull of colour, they are unpicturesque in shape. The valleys are unsightly deserts fringed with a feeble vegetation that has an expression about it of being sorrowful and despondent. The Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee sleep in the midst of a vast stretch of hill and plain wherein the eye rests upon no pleasant tint, no striking object, no soft picture dreaming in a purple haze or mottled with the shadows of the clouds. Every outline is harsh, every feature is distinct, there is no perspective–distance works no enchantment here. It is a hopeless, dreary, heart-broken land.”  

However, in the past century we’ve seen the flip side. We’ve begun to see Nevuot of Nechama that we’ll start reading next Shabbat. We’ve resettled our land, we’ve never surrendered our inheritance. And in the past few weeks, we’ve clearly seen Hashem waging war for us, for His Holy Land.

May we merit to see the Geulah Shleima and the rebuilding of the Beit Hamikdash Bimheirah B’yameinu, AMEN.