Dvarim 5772 - An opportunity of a lifetime

Dvarim
Don't miss the lifetime of your opportunity

1. This week we begin Sefer Dvarim ( book of Deuteronomy).  The majority of the Sefer is a speech given my Moshe to the people before they enter Israel. Moshe begins by recalling the incident of the spies.


2. Why does Moshe bring up the spies if he is addressing a different generation? The very people who were involved with the spies were not allowed to enter Israel because they cried during the spies report and had all died by this time. The event of the spies occurred on Tisha B’av.


3.  Moshe is teaching a valuable lesson regarding missed opportunities.  The reason he started with the cautionary tale of the spies is because it is what defined the previous generation who had to wait and  missed the opportunity of a lifetime. This generation was now at the same point preparing to enter the Holy Land.


4. Moshe is warning the people who are about to go into the Holy Land that they need to realize what a unique opportunity they have infront of them. Don’t let your life be defined by missed opportunities.

“Look, if you had, one shot, or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted-One moment
Would you capture it, or just let it slip?”  -Marshal Mathers

*The Diving bell and the butterfly was written entirely by a man confined to his bed , blinking one letter at a time . Jean-Dominique Bauby is the author and he suffered from locked in syndrome.  He could only move his left eye the rest of his body was paralyzed. He was the former Editor and chief of a French magazine and because of his condition he could only communicate thru blinking.


In one story he is told about a fix in a horse race and he tries to make it to the track to place a bet on Mithra-granchamp. He missed placing the bet for his entire office.


“The memory of that event has only just come back to me, now doubly painful: regret for a vanished past and, above all, remorse for lost opportunities. Mithra-Grandchamp is the women we were unable to love, the chances we failed to seize, the moments of happiness we allowed to drift away. Today it seems to me that my whole life was nothing but a string of those small near misses: a race whose result we know beforehand but in which we fail to bet on the winner.”
―Jean-Dominique Bauby

Shabbat Shalom U'mivorach,
Daniel

Bonus Question: What is the connection between this story and Tisha B'av?

Matot-Masei 5772

Matot- Masei 5772 Chazak Chazak Venischzek- The power of Chizuk  1. This week we finish Sefer Bamidbar. In parshas Matos Reuven, Gad and half of Menashe  ask if they can stay on the east side of the Jordan and settle the land. Moshe chastises the people for the request and compares them to the spies.  2. What is the connection to the two events and why such a harsh rebuke from Moshe?  3. Both cases involved groups of people making comments that lower morale. This can be incredibly damaging to any organization or endeavor. When these tribes mentioned they did not want to go in to the land this could have had a corrosive affect on the attitude of the entire nation. Moshe understood the potential severity of the situation as he had experienced a similar case.  4. At specific moments in everyone’s life they can be more or less susceptible to outside influences. If you went on an interview at a firm and the secretary said this office is corrupt this would greatly influence your opinion. This is what Moshe was worried about and this is a key lesson. 4.  A new generation of Jews were ready to go into Eretz Yisroel, they were impressionable, in a fragile state. What they needed was words of Chizuk, which Moshe delivered to them in Sefer Dvarim.  Sefar Bamidbar teaches us our words can be very powerful and influential on others. We should continually give each other Chizuk. It is a great form of Chesed that has no cost and no limit.  *         Once a famous author was walking along the east river promenade and he was very depressed. He contemplated his life and his work , if it had any value and wondered why it was all worth it, he considered jumping over the railing and committing suicideJust as he was about to walk over to the railing and jump in someone walked up to him and excitedly exclaimed” Are you Christopher D’antonio, the writer?  I hope you don’t mind me saying this but I just had to tell you what a difference your books make in my life. They have helped me an incredible degree and I want to thank you. He turned to the stranger and said “ No my dear it is I who have to thank you” He turned around and walked home. Shabbat Shalom U'mivorach, Daniel