Parasha Thoughts
By Rabbi Chaim Saidian
This week’s Parasha begins with Moshe’s request to enter the land. Rashi suggests that the opening word in our Parasha, Vaetchanan, has the connotation of a free gift – a gift that is not based on merit. Although tzadikim could base their requests on their good deeds, they still ask Hashem only for free gifts. We need to understand Rashi better since he seems to imply that this is the only way Hashem would answer Moshe’s plea.
Rav Moshe Feinstein asks this question, and he answers as follows: We must say that even though Moshe could not claim anything in return for his good deeds, he still could only have requested what he did from Hashem as a free gift, a special act of kindness. However, we must understand that Hashem’s acts of benevolence fall into two categories: gifts he bestows upon people because they love him and are faithful to him, and gifts that he provides for people from his mercifulness, with no justification or reason. Moshe could have argued that he be granted his request based on his good deeds and be counted in the first category mentioned. But we see that Moshe didn’t ask Hashem to enter the land based on his merits. Instead, he relied on Hashem’s pure mercy which requires no reason or justification and based his request on the second category.
This is what Rashi meant by a “free gift.†Everything Hashem gives man is a free gift since according to strict justice, Hashem owes us nothing. One normally gives gifts to those he loves and from whom he derives some kind of pleasure. Moshe, however, took the path of tzadikim and threw himself completely on Hashem’s infinite mercy, asking Hashem to do him this favor without reason or rationalization.
May we all merit to benefit from Hashem’s endless mercy, and for Hashem to continuously bestow his benevolence upon us.
Shabbat Shalom