The seventh year in which the land must lay fallow, a sabbatical year if you will, has many layers of depth to be understood. Rabbi Kirzner presents the complex system that connects G-d, the Jewish nation, and the Land of Israel together, and explores how shemittah is the deciding factor that allows us to keep our lease of the land for the next six years.
The portion of punishments that is read in this week's Torah portion reads like a nightmare. What happned to turn our loving G-d into a brutally punitive Diving being? Rabbi Kirzner's insightful understanding of Diving communication, and the care which accompanies the sometimes painful exchange goes a long way in helping us make peace with the negativity which crops up in our lives.
The grand formation in which the Jews traveled in the desert, according to their unique flags is interesting - but seems to be only that. What was it so necessary to have the elaborate arrangements they followed? Rabbi Kirzner speaks of a great desire to have a connection to spirituality that is constant and strong. How does appreciating our individuality within the framework of a common direction help us achieve that?
The response to seeing an unfaithful woman's punishment was to become a Nazir - abstaining from wine, haircutting, and various other things to preempt him from following the same path. But wouldn't we assume the reaction to witnessing such gruesome consequences would in itself be a deterrent? Rabbi Kirzner discusses the far ranging effects what we see has on us, and the Nazir's underlying lack of appreciation of physical and spiritual synthesis.
The Jews that lived to be freed from Egypt and subsequently wander in the desert were known to be the greatest generation that ever lived. So how can we understand their strange request for meat, and their desire to eat it even when it promised death? A great man's desire to achieve ethereal spiritual levels through his own hard work, without any help from G-d seems to make sense, though we may be far from it. How can understanding that it is the wrong path to take hold the key to understanding where they went wrong?
As we grow spiritually, we run into a great challenge. Won't following G-d's instructions to the letter cause a loss of identity and self? The paradoxical answer we learn from the story of the spies - although not understanding the full depth of what we're doing may seem to be a denial of individuality, in truth it will bring us in touch with our more developed self. How is this so?
Korach's debate with Moshe went far deeper than the text would have us believe. This genius of a man stumbled due to his incredible level of intelligence. Is it possible to approach Judaism solely from an intellectual standpoint, as Korach claimed? Why was Moshe's stance of the necessity to know we can't understand it all an integral piece Korach was missing?
Moshe's sin at the waters of Merivah is perplexing - after all, he tried speaking to the rock and it didn't respond. What was wrong with following his previous experience and hitting it to release water? Rabbi Kirzner develops a novel answer that probes the depths of Moshe's faith, and how a miniscule lack of perfection in that area led to his anger, and his mistake.
It was the last point in the desert journey, with the Land of Israel beckoning on the horizon. The people had reached the tremendous spiritual heights necessary to leave the desert, and their terrible downfall with the Golden Calf behind forever. And then they fell in a terrible way - again. How did their agonizing spiritual tumble shake the faith of their rock-steady leader Moses, and permanently demolish his chance of ever being able to enter the Holy Land?
Moshe could have delayed the war with Midian to delay his imminent death - why didn't he? Do we see physical threats as greater than spiritual ones? Sure we do. But perhaps we should look again. Physical death still leaves the next world as a possibility to continue living - but spiritual death means death on all levels. How does this view hold the key to Moshe's choice, as well as connect to the Three Weeks of mourning that fall out at this time?