In our technologically saturated era it is sometimes hard to peel back our memory only a few decades to the world of the telegram. The telegram was a mindful teacher that shared the wisdom of how pricey every word is. It also taught the art of minimalism and deconstruction, wed with the gift of music of but a few words.
There is a famous tale of a young man who many years ago sets out on a journey and runs out of money, not even having enough to get home. Knowing of his father's love of him he decides to send him a telegram, asking for money so that he could return home. He sets out to the post office with a vision of a warm home-coming.
He writes: "Dear father, I am far from home and I need your help to return since I have run out of money. Please send money. Love, David." When the clerk explains how much sending such a wordy telegram will cost, he begins to chisel his message. He says to himself: "My father knows that he is dear, and he knows he's my father - I can erase 'Dear father.'" Then he says, "My father knows that I am far from home, and why else would I be writing to him, if it not for my desire to come home, with no ability to do so?" and with this he erases "I am far from home and I need your help to return since I have run out of money." He reads the words one more time and says, "My father surely knows that I love him" and out goes 'Love'.
As a true artist in the school of minimalism David sends a telegram that says: "Please send money David".
David's father receives the telegram later that day. He reads: "Please send money!!! David". He is furious: "What is this? No 'Dear father'? No 'Love'? Only a demand for money? Has my son forgotten how to speak to his father? I will not send him a penny!" David's mother is distraught, missing her son and wanting no more than to see their son safe again at home. She tells her husband that he must be reading the telegram incorrectly and takes it from his hands. She reads: "Please... send money... David..." and begins to cry: "Our son is in trouble, he is begging for help and he needs some money to come home, we must help him..."
It is in such a way that we can read God's response to Moshe beseeching Him to enter the Land of Israel in the opening verses of our Torah portion.
Moshe recollects:
"And I besought God (va'etchanan) at that time saying, Oh Lord God You have begun to show your servant your greatness... I pray to you, let me go over and see the good land... But God was angry with me... and would not hear me. And God said to me, let it suffice you / enough (rav lach), speak to me no more of this matter" (Dvarim/ Deuteronomy 3:23-26)
The sages of the Talmud read Moshe's beseeching, and therefore God's response - 'rav lach' with the music and intonation that David's father read the telegram:
"Another tradition: 'rav lach' - that they should say how strict / hard-hearted is the teacher (rav) and how beseeching / requesting is the student" (Babylonian Talmud, Sotah 13b)
The Talmud is silencing Moshe, giving voice to God's anger in a form that we are familiar with, when reading "But God was angry". The Talmudic voice reads the word 'rav' in the pasuk (verse) in a Midrashic form - as we use the word Rav today, as teacher. It hushes Moshe, so that God doesn't appear, God forbid, deaf or cruel regarding Moshe's pleas. 'Rav lach' now reads not as 'enough' but rather as 'I am your Rav / teacher and there fore I am demanding of you to stop asking.'
Yesha'yahu HaNavi (Isaiah the prophet) after seeing a vision of destruction, as we read in the haftara just last Shabbat (Yehsha'yahu, chapter 1), returns to us this Shabbat with the first of seven prophecies of consolation, that we will be reading for the next seven haftarote:
Be consoled / comforted, be consoled / comforted my people, says your God. Speak upon the heart (comfort the heart) of Yerushalayim and call out / cry to her" (Yesha'yahu 40: 1-2)
Yesha'yahu reads our verses in the Torah as David's mother read his telegram. It is with compassion and softness that God says to Moshe, 'enough crying, enough beseeching. It is true that you will not enter the land, but let me at least take you up to the top of the mountain so you can see with your own eyes the glory of the Land" (Dvarim/ Deuteronomy 3:27). God tells Moshe, "Be consoled / comforted, be consoled / comforted my people" i.e. Moshe. He then says to him: "Speak upon the heart (comfort the heart) of Yerushalayim and call out / cry to her" - If Yerushalayim seems close to you - speak to her, if she appears from the top of this mountain as far - call out to her.
There are situations that "NO" is indeed God's response to our calling out, to our beseeching. And no matter what language we use, God's answer remains "NO". What can change is the music in which we read and hear the "NO". We can read / hear it as "NO!!!" or we can read / hear it as "NO..." Can we hear God consoling us as He says, "NO"? Can we see Him cry as He says "NO"? The voice of our traditions has left us with both options to choose from - the voice of Sotah 13b and the voice of Yesha'yahu 40:1-2.
May the music of "Nachamu, nachamu ami - Be consoled / comforted, be consoled / comforted my people, says your God" sooth our hearts this Shabbat.
Shabbat shalom.