I live in the country. I was walking with my dog, Beau, who is almost 14, so it is a slow meandering walk, minding my own business, when out of nowhere; a word came into my head: DEVARIM. Devarim? That’s Hebrew for Deuteronomy, the last book of the Hebrew Bible. It means “the words.” I barely speak Hebrew these days, let alone think in Hebrew. And then imagine my surprise when I found out that this week’s Torah portion is from Devarim.
I believe in God and I also believe if we listen and open our hearts to possibility, then when God speaks we hear and listen. God spoke. I went home and looked up Devarim as taught by the late Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. And I understood immediately why that word came to me. America is at a crossroads, and so is the West. The decision Americans make in November not only affects America, it affects the viability of Western Culture which is under attack all over the world.
I am sharing the teachings of the late Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks as these “words” spoken so long ago, are relevant, today and must be heard by all. The world is on fire and only a strong, united America can extinguish the flames: An America with a leader who loves her people and the morals, values and ethics of Western Culture; the greatest culture ever. I have taken the liberty of emphasizing some of his statements.
Until this last book of the Bible, Deuteronomy/Devarim , the Israelites have been described as Bnei Yisrael, “the children of Israel”. Now for the first time they are no longer the children of Israel – they are simply Israel.
What does this signify? It means that the Israelites were about to become something they had not been before. Until now, they had been linked vertically, by biological descent. They had a common ancestor: Jacob, who was given the name Israel. They were his descendants. They were part of the same family tree. They were his children.
With the subtle shift from bnei Yisrael, the children of Israel, to Yisrael, Moses was preparing the Israelites for a new mode of existence. Now they would be linked horizontally, to one another. They were no longer children. They were about to become moral adults. Their unity was no longer simply a matter of a common past. They were about to create a shared future. They would no longer exist in a state of dependency – relying on Moses and through him, God, to provide for their needs, welfare and safety. Henceforth they would have to take responsibility for one another.
The nation would be defined by the covenant their parents had made at Mount Sinai. It would be their constitution, their mission, their task, their destiny. They were about to become, not just individuals, but a people:
That is the deep significance of the shift in the book of Deuteronomy / Devarim from “the children of Israel” to “Israel” – from a group of individuals with a common ancestry to a nation bound by collective responsibility. God did not choose, nor did He make a covenant with, individuals as individuals – the righteous, the holy, the pure, the innocent, the upright. He made a covenant with an entire people, righteous and not-yet-righteous alike.”
America promotes individual rights as well as “We the people.” It is a fine balance. Today’s definition of individual rights – often spoken without part two – responsibilities, is much different from the past. The new “individualism” in America is promoting DEI, CRT and Woke ideology, with a touch of Marxism, which at its core promotes “divide and conquer” of family and therefore, ultimately, society; often devolving back toward tribalism. This was never the intent of the American Constitution which is firmly rooted in the teachings of the Hebrew Bible. Today’s “individuality” is also in direct contrast to the social contract. For Rousseau, the social contract was “one in which people would receive in exchange for their independence a better kind of freedom, namely true political, or republican, liberty. And the state is a moral person whose life is the union of its members, whose laws are acts of the general will, and whose end is the liberty and equality of its citizens. It follows that when any government usurps the power of the people, the social contract is broken; and not only are the citizens no longer compelled to obey, but they also have an obligation to rebel.”
Many in America speak of the individual rights. But is America a people or a collection of individuals? And this is one of the most important questions in the upcoming election. Will America be a nation or just a collection of people with disparate views each fighting for his/her own rights? Has America veered too far to the individual that she has lost the connectivity between Americans? Is individualism causing the cracks in America? Is that the reason MAGA has grown? MAGA is a call for the people to come together sharing their common morals, values, ethics and goals, the glue that holds America together as “We the people,” while Woke and DEI and CRT have been expressly designed to destroy “peoplehood” in America by placing everything on individual identity and breaking the “people” into competing tribes.
Perhaps it is time for America to return to “the faith of a community, a people, a nation.”
Paul Johnson, a Catholic and the author of the superb “A History of the Jews,” was asked what he found most impressive about Judaism. He replied:
“It has managed, better than any other culture known to me, the delicate balance between individual responsibility and social responsibility”.
America must choose. Will she be a nation, a peoplehood; or will she crumble from “individuality”?
Words. Devarim: Not word salad
From the Ethics of the Fathers: “Rabbi Tarfon used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it.”
Diane Weber Bederman
