Devarim
Pausing on the Path
Rabbi Shefa Gold
The beginning of
the Book of Devarim-Deuteronomy
places us at the border of The Land of Promise after a lifetime of journeying.
We pause now to look back at the path we have traveled thus far in order to
understand its meaning, receive its lessons, and embrace the wisdom and love
that we have received through grace and diligent practice. It is indeed a
blessing to come to this place of such wide perspective and calm discernment.
The Torah tells
us that by linear calculations our journey should have taken but eleven days.
How did it take a lifetime - forty years - to arrive here? Our calculations
must rely on a different kind of sense.
Our journey
through the wilderness has not take the form of a straight line, but rather a
series of breath-taking spirals that drop us again and again at the same point
in a cycle, each time at a new level, with an added dimension of awareness. The
blessing of Parshat Devarim is the expanded awareness that comes from the attainment of a wide
perspective - the ability to see our own lives from the vantage point of
dispassionate clarity. From here we look back on our defeats and our victories,
gleaning the blessings of both.
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