Transforming fate into destiny
Beha'alotcha
Numbers 8:1-12:13
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ‘Make two trumpets of silver; make them of hammered work. They shall serve you to summon the community (edah) and cause the camps (mahanot) to journey (Numbers 10:1, 2)…. And when you shall come to wage war in your land, against the enemy who is oppressing you, you shall sound the broken staccato, sighing, weeping sound (tru'a) with your trumpets…and on the day of your rejoicings, on your festivals and your new moons, you shall sound the firm, fixed, exultant sound (teki'a) with your trumpets.…" (10:9, 10)
Our biblical portion this week uses two distinct words to describe the assemblage of the Israelites and two distinct words to describe the sounds that are to emanate from their trumpets: the trumpets shall summon the "camps" (mahanot) of Israel as well as the "community" (edah, literally "the group bearing witness") of Israel, and in time of war they shall sound the broken, weeping tru'a sound whereas in times of festival they shall sound the firm, exultant teki'a sound.
My revered teacher Rav J.B. Soloveitchik distinguished between the encampment of Israel, which herded the Israelites together as a form of protection against warring enemies and difficult climatic and topographical conditions and the edah or community of Israel, which suggests a positive commonalty of purpose, testimony, or mission to the world. Similarly, the tru'a, a broken, weeping sound, signals fear whereas the teki'a, a firm and exultant sound, resonates resolve and victory.
These different terms — and realities — hark back to two biblical covenants that formed our national and religious being as a distinct people: the Covenant between the Pieces and the Covenant at Sinai. The Covenant between the Pieces (Genesis 15) established the nationhood of Israel, guaranteeing Abraham progeny and delineating the boundaries of the homeland that his descendants would inherit. It comes following a war, contains an element of great, fear (15:12), foretells a period of servitude and affliction in a foreign land — but guarantees eternal survival and eventual occupation of the Promised Land. This is what Rav Soloveitchik calls the "covenant of fate." After all, an individual neither chooses the family or nation into which he/she is born nor the persecution he/she may suffer. The familial solidarity and the haven of secure boundaries of a national state will ensure survival despite external challenges and obstacles.
The Covenant at Sinai (Exodus 19, 20) inspired our nation with a singular purpose and goal, a system of commandments that would enable us to serve God and eventually bring the world to peace and redemption. This Covenant was not imposed upon us; indeed, it is only when we voluntarily cried out that we would perform the laws that the Almighty ratified this second covenant. (Exodus 24:7, 8)
The first covenant was our covenant of fate, the formation of the encampment of Jacob, the fearful, trembling sounds of the tru'a, which encourages us to seek refuge in the solidarity of a family-nation-state united against forces threatening our destruction. The second covenant was our covenant of destiny, the formation of Israel as God's witnesses, the exultant, victorious sounds of the teki'a, which express the commitment of a people imbued with a divine mission, united to perfect the world in the kingship of the divine.
We can understand the initial definition of the Rosh Hashana sound of the shofar as "a day of the broken, weeping sound" (Numbers 29:1), since Rosh Hashana — the anniversary of the world's creation — brought us into an incomplete, imperfect, and not-yet- redeemed world, replete with suffering. On Rosh Hashana we take the exultant teki'a sound from the promise of the Jubilee year, which serves as our metaphor for world redemption (Leviticus 25: 8-10), a reminder that by means of our repentance we have the mandate and the ability to perfect the world under the kingship of the divine.
Rav Soloveitchik maintains that in national and personal terms, our greatest challenge is to transform fate into destiny, to develop our persecuted encampment into a nation of God's witnesses dedicated to redeem the world with love and peace.
These two covenants are not separate and distinct; they are, rather, interrelated and even interdependent.
The Holocaust tragically proved to us that we cannot exist as a religion alone without the backing and protection of a nation-state with secure boundaries and an Israeli Defense Force. It is only through the medium of a nation-state that we can tackle poverty and unemployment, peace and war, democracy and despotism, and that we can ever hope to fulfill our ethical mission of teaching the world the importance of universal freedom and peace. It is for this reason that the biblical introduction of the divine revelation at Sinai reads: "And now if you will hearken…to my voice and observe my covenant, then you shall be for me a treasure amongst all nations, since I am concerned about the entire earth. And [then] you shall be for me a kingdom of priest-teachers and a holy nation." (Exodus 19:5, 6)
It is our mission as a nation not merely to be a nation like all nations but rather to teach the message of peace and freedom to all nations.
All rights reserved