Parshas Devarim

This is in the merit of my grandmother Esther bat Mazal. May she have
a speedy and complete recovery.

A note: Comments within double brackets, [[abc]], are notes I write
for myself so that when I look back later on the topics I discussed, I
see all the sources I looked at and how I understood them. Readers are
encouraged to skip them.

If readers have any comments, especially critical ones, they would be
most appreciated.



Order in Thinking


In our Parshah, Moses reviews a tragic point in Jewish history, the
spies who convinced the Jewish people not to want to enter the Land of
Israel. But what went wrong? According to the Netziv, in the following
verses, Moses is pin-pointing the problem:

"I said to you, 'You have come to the Amorite highlands, which God our
Lord is giving us. See! God has placed the land before you. Head
north and occupy it, as God, Lord of your fathers, has told you. Do
not be afraid and do not be concerned.' All of you then approached me
and said, 'Send men ahead of us to explore the land. Let them bring
back a report about the way ahead of us and the cities that we shall
encounter'" (Deuteronomy 1:20-22).

Rashi comments:
All of you then approached me: in a state of disorder. But further on
(Deut. 5:20-21) it says, "You approached me, all the heads of your
tribes and your elders, and you said, Behold [the Lord, our God] has
shown us [His glory and His greatness]." That approach to me was
proper-young people respecting their elders, sending these before
them. Here, however, you approached me all of you, in a state of
disorder, the young pushing aside their elders, the elders pushing
aside their heads.

The Netziv says that Moses is telling us that not only was the spies'
report problematic, the very fact that they were sent was problematic
and reflected a lack of trust in G-d. (This is consistent with Rashi's
approach but the Ramban disagrees.) This insight of the Netziv may
even be supported by the fact that just prior to the disorganized
request for the sending of the spies, Moses told the people "Do not be
afraid and do not be concerned." Still, how does a lack of orderliness
reflect in a lack of trust in G-d?

I believe the answer lies with the fact that, as Rav Wolbe (Alei Shor
2, 319) mentions, orderliness displays a strong will. An orderly
person clearly wants to accomplish something; he has defined and
prioritized his goals and developed a plan on how to achieve them.
Lack of order usually means one has not really thought things through
very well but is rather acting on a spur of the moment.

(Regarding orderliness and one's will, Walter Pauk, in How to Study in
College, page 31, writes "A thoughtfully constructed time schedule can
increase your sense of control in four ways. First, because your
schedule is written down, your plans seem more manageable. You can
start working without delay. Second, you know you'll study all your
subjects - even those you dislike – because you've allotted time for
them in your schedule. There's less of a temptation to skip disliked
subjects when study time has already been allotted for them in your
schedule. Third, a schedule discourages you from being lazy. You've
got a plan right in front of you, and that plan says, 'Let's get down
to business!' Fourth, you can schedule review sessions right from the
start and avoid last-minute cramming for tests." That order stems from
a strong will is also demonstrated in another way. Rav Wolbe (Alei
Shor, 68) says that, perhaps oddly enough, an orderly person is also a
flexible person. I believe that this is because order and flexibility
both stem from an understanding of priorities. The orderly person does
not break with schedule because he knows that whatever he had planned
to do is more important than whatever else he could be doing. The same
person however will quickly break their schedule when something more
important comes up.)

The Jewish people had clearly not thought through all the implications
of " God your Lord is going before you. He will fight for you, just as
you watched Him do in Egypt" (Deuteronomy 1:30). Had the Jewish people
thought through things a bit more, they would have realized that G-d
was totally in control of the situation and they had nothing to fear.
Thus we see that orderliness is an essential component of trusting in
G-d.

[[Emes L'Yaakov says something like this. When it arrives, look it up]]


Biography of Rav Naftali Tzvi Yehuda, the Netziv:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naftali_Zvi_Yehuda_Berlin


Food for further thought and discussion:

Can one be too orderly?
Is there a relationship or trend between orderliness and creativity?

Have a good Shabbas,
Mordechai