Eleh HaDevarim

Its amazing that in this week's parsha, we find hints to events that are happening now, plus major mussar. I am bringing specific commentary on Parshas Devarim from the Or HaChaim, Rabbi Chayim Ben Attar (whose yarzeit was July 10, see The Ohr HaChaim and the Song of Shlomo )

Eleh HaDevarim

(these are the words):

"only these are the words Moses spoke of his own volition, none other."*

The only time Moses included the entire people in an address consisting primarily of words of admonition is in Sefer Devarim. This is why the Torah here stresses: "to the whole of Israel."

Moses tried to incorporate in a short verse all the principles of reverence for G-d and the various virtues which have to be practiced by all the people who adopt the teachings of Torah as their lifestyle. These comprise a total of nine middot, virtues, characteristics.

• One has to adopt the virtue of Abraham of whom the Torah testified that he was HaIvri "on the other side," in a moral class all by himself, he did not run with the pack.
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• He should always be conscious of a sense of self-imposed humility as a response to rebelliousness. Our sages in Brachos 7 claim that it is better for a person to harbor a single such feeling of self-imposed humility rather than to endure 100 chastisements imposed upon him by others.
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• The virtue of modesty, humility. Our sages in Erchin phrased this as follows: "Man should always view himself as if in a wilderness."
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• The humility we speak about should be of a positive nature; it should not consist of a person looking upon himself in a derogatory fashion. Maimonides explains this in chapter 5 of his treatise Hilchot Deyot: "Another aspect of true humility is not to fail to admonish people whom one observes committing sins on the basis of one's thinking to oneself: "who am I to admonish others who are of greater stature than I" One has to carry out the commandment of calling people to order - mutual responsibility of one Jew for the other.
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• We are told in Avos 3:1 that if one wants to restrain oneself from sinning one should look at three phenomena: one's origin (from dust), one's ultimate destiny (to dust and worms), and the fact that one will have to render an accounting for all one's deeds before the heavenly Tribunal.
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• He should be in a constant state of concern lest he had become guilty of transgressing one of G-d's commandments inadvertently. Perhaps he had only been remiss in serving the Lord with less than all his faculties.
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• The kind of person the Torah envisages is the one who has a pure heart as David prayed in Tehillim 51:12 where he pleaded with G-d to fashion a pure heart for him. At the same time such a person must not hate other people, nor be jealous of them or feel himself to be in competition with them.
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• The ideal personality is engaged in Torah study on a permanent basis like Yaakov Avinu whom the Torah describes as a dweller of tents.
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• The ideal personality should not be engaged in chasing after transient values, possessions of this world. Anyone who engages in the pursuit of these values thereby voids part of his service to the Lord. Man must learn to do with the essentials for survival in this life.

* All other pronouncements of Moses were by Hashem