Parsha: Devarim (2024)
This coming week, Monday night and Tuesday, we will mark the solemn and mournful day of Tisha B’av. A day of fasting and mourning the destruction of the Beit Hamikdosh (Holy Temple) in Jerusalem. It is a day that gets us to focus on our past.
There are moments in life when we just want to go back in time, and fix up a bad decision that we made. It can cause much frustration to live with that decision forever, without the possibility to go back and change it.
While we cannot go back in time, there is perhaps another way to manage the guilt of past mistakes.
Today we call it “reframing.” We can’t change the past literally, but we can rebrand it. There is always more than one way to look at a past event, we can choose to reframe it as a moment of progress for future growth.
The Torah does something similar in this week’s Parsha. When referring to the location of the Jewish people at the time, the Torah says they were at the “side of the Jordan.” This is not the same name that Moshe gave just a few verses earlier in the previous Parsha and previous Book of Bamidbar. There he referred to the same place with the name, “In the plains of Moab, by the Jordan at Jericho.”
Why the need to change the name?
Moshe was teaching us the gift of looking back and reframing. He was giving a name to the location that expressed hope for the future. A name that brings out the final destination, the Land of Israel. Whereas, the previous name expressed the 40-year journey in the Desert which was full of ups and downs, challenges, and failures.
It was indeed in the same geographical location, however there was a choice of how to frame the place. With a positive spin or a negative one.
We too, can look at previous experiences and revisit them with a positive spin. This tool of “reframing” can deflate the raging feelings of guilt and anxiety.
This becomes even more liberating when we realise that all past experiences are part of G-d’s plan. He has been our guide throughout all our life. Hashem had and has a plan. We trust his plan, and feel confident about our life’s journey, without disruptive deep guilt and regret.
While we do mourn the past of Tisha Bav, we also look and hope for a bright future. We hope and pray for the end of the exile, when “G-d will wipe away all tears from saddened faces.”
Wishing everyone a Shabbat Shalom and an easy, meaningful fast.
There are moments in life when we just want to go back in time, and fix up a bad decision that we made. It can cause much frustration to live with that decision forever, without the possibility to go back and change it.
While we cannot go back in time, there is perhaps another way to manage the guilt of past mistakes.
Today we call it “reframing.” We can’t change the past literally, but we can rebrand it. There is always more than one way to look at a past event, we can choose to reframe it as a moment of progress for future growth.
The Torah does something similar in this week’s Parsha. When referring to the location of the Jewish people at the time, the Torah says they were at the “side of the Jordan.” This is not the same name that Moshe gave just a few verses earlier in the previous Parsha and previous Book of Bamidbar. There he referred to the same place with the name, “In the plains of Moab, by the Jordan at Jericho.”
Why the need to change the name?
Moshe was teaching us the gift of looking back and reframing. He was giving a name to the location that expressed hope for the future. A name that brings out the final destination, the Land of Israel. Whereas, the previous name expressed the 40-year journey in the Desert which was full of ups and downs, challenges, and failures.
It was indeed in the same geographical location, however there was a choice of how to frame the place. With a positive spin or a negative one.
We too, can look at previous experiences and revisit them with a positive spin. This tool of “reframing” can deflate the raging feelings of guilt and anxiety.
This becomes even more liberating when we realise that all past experiences are part of G-d’s plan. He has been our guide throughout all our life. Hashem had and has a plan. We trust his plan, and feel confident about our life’s journey, without disruptive deep guilt and regret.
While we do mourn the past of Tisha Bav, we also look and hope for a bright future. We hope and pray for the end of the exile, when “G-d will wipe away all tears from saddened faces.”
Wishing everyone a Shabbat Shalom and an easy, meaningful fast.