Rabbi Daniel: Thoughts on Torah

Dear friends, 

Our tradition advises us to study Torah with a teacher.  This doesn't mean that we can't study Torah on our own as well.  As we read last week, 'Torah is not far/out of reach from you."  Moses' song that we have in parshat Ha'azinu is poetry in motion, but with interpretive tools (both of our own minds and with works of commentary alongside) we can study and appreciate the meaning of the many analogies, metaphors, allegories, and symbolism.   Moses says in verse 2 of chapter 32:

יַעֲרֹ֤ף כַּמָּטָר֙ לִקְחִ֔י        תִּזַּ֥ל כַּטַּ֖ל אִמְרָתִ֑י כִּשְׂעִירִ֣ם עֲלֵי־דֶ֔שֶׁא        וְכִרְבִיבִ֖ים עֲלֵי־עֵֽשֶׂב׃

May my discourse come down as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, like showers on young growth, like droplets on the grass. 

We can probably discern that Moses is praying that his words soak through us like rain and that the stories and lessons are distilled within our hearts.  What we might not know is that a couple verses from Isaiah 55 bring this exact understanding:  
"For as the rain or snow drops from heaven and returns not there, but soaks the earth and makes it bring forth vegetation, yielding seed for sowing and bread for eating, so is the word that issues from My mouth: It does not come back to Me unfulfilled, but performs what I purpose, achieves what I sent it to do."

What do we make of a later prophet elucidating the implied metaphor used by Moses?

The frequent comparisons between Torah and water make it very possible that two prophets would be speaking the same poetic language.  It could also support the idea of a Divine hand working through the various human authors of the Tanakh.  For now, let's find awe in the recurrence of such powerful imagery in the mouths of our prophets.  For generations prophets, judges, kings, and rabbis, have all preached of the ability of Torah to drench the individual willing to, so to speak, stand in the rain.   

In Peace, 
Rabbi Daniel