Judaism is like marriage. You need to leap into it. Dabbling will get you nowhere. Ultimately, you need to make a commitment. And once you do, your entire outlook will change.
That’s essentially what Moshe intimates in this week’s parsha when he tells the Jewish people that they are about to “pass over into the covenant of Hashem” (Deuteronomy 29:11). Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch points out that Moshe doesn’t say “enter.” He says “pass over.” For accepting the Torah is like crossing a Rubicon. Everything after you take that step is different.
“[I]f you want to enter the covenant with G-d,” writes Rav Hirsch, “you must leave the whole standpoint you had hitherto, you must pass over everything else, must renounce everything else to enter quite exclusively into the relation to G-d. … Having entered into the covenant with G-d, you stand on quite a different mental point of view than before.”
To accept Hashem’s Torah means to look at the world in a completely different manner. Some people look at the world through rose-colored glasses. We look at the world through Torah-colored glasses. What does Hashem think about me eating right now? Watching this YouTube video? Voting for this politician? What does He think about my relations with my family? What does He think about the fight in my community? What does He think about my nation’s direction?
The Torah is a blessing. It’s a divine guide to every aspect of life. But it must be embraced in toto. One must “pass over” from one’s own dimension into the Torah dimension. In “Matrix” terminology, one must take “the red pill.”
It’s a leap that will forever alter your life. But it’s a leap into ultimate truth.
Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888) - head of the Jewish community in Frankfurt, Germany for over 35 years - was a prolific writer whose ideas, passion, and brilliance helped save German Jewry from the onslaught of modernity.
Elliot Resnick, PhD, is the author/editor of 10 books, including “The Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch Dictionary.”
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