Beth Israel Aruba
In these final chapters of Deuteronomy, we find Moses saying goodbye to his people, leaving Joshua as his successor to lead them into the Promised Land. Before leaving, he tries to summarize and conclude the work of his life, with thoughts and words that may guide them in their long peregrination through the different and dramatic cycles they might face in the future.
It is not surprising, then, that Moses orders them to write the chant: “Therefore, write down this poem and teach it to the people of Israel…” (Deut. 31:19) According to the interpretation of the wise men of Israel, this verse indicates the obligation for every Jew to write down their own copy of the Torah. Even if the person has inherited a Torah scroll from an ancestor, he must write down his own.
After the invention of printing, it was accepted that this mandate could be fulfilled with the purchase of the printed Torah for each personal library.
The question of who receives the inheritance of the books of Torah has been posed. Would a large and rich collection of books of Torah passed down through generations be more valuable than the acquired copy by each individual?
Do the People of the Book –like our people have been known- value the “yerushah” or inheritance above what each person obtains individually?
Regrettably, what happens with these legacies in our times is that even though they are real treasures, they often become museum pieces, only displayed on special occasions.
We have seen it in the lives of so many families… how easily something inherited becomes a relic; this is not what should happen with the Torah. On the contrary, the Torah should be a part of our daily life and serve as guidance and inspiration.
The greatest challenge for the preservation of Judaism as “Torat Haim” or doctrine of life, is to achieve a balance between the inherited wealth of the past and the ever-present value of its teachings, the legacy of tradition on one side and its updated message on the other.
The words of Moses resound strongly in each era, emerging through time and space, urging us to perpetuate the legacy, to pass it on generation to generation, for it is “our lives and the extension of our days.”
Shanah Tovah umetukah!
Rabbi Daniel Kripper
Beth Israel Aruba
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario