The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

The Last Lecture is based on a famous inspirational lecture by Randy Pausch. (If you have never seen it, watch it here. Its somewhat long, but very worth it.) In the lecture, Pausch, who had just been diagnosed with terminal cancer, goes through how he achieved his childhood dreams and lived his life. The clip went viral and the book became a #1 national best seller. The reason I read The Last Lecture this week was in preparation for my sermon for the shul I am interning with over the summer. Parshat Devarim begins Moshe's last lecture. The leader that had taken them out of Egypt and led them through the desert for forty year, only to bring them to the Promised Land but not enter himself, is to speak for the last time. I imagine this was an inspirational moment for both Moshe and the people to hear their leader and his dying words. When he starts, the beginning is completely underwhelming. He begins by speaking about how he asked Israel to appoint judges. Ummm what? Moshe's last speech and he's talking about judges? Pausch on the other hand begins about how he fulfilled his dreams! what is going on here?

While thinking about this, I was reminded of a speech Yehuda Rothner (director of Camp Stone) once gave to the staff. He held a tissue box over his head and proclaimed that tissues were the most important thing in the Beit Knesset. He explained that you may want to get the kids to pray, but you have no chance if the room isn't set up correctly. Without tissues, it is unreasonable to assume that the kids will stay inside. For things to work a system needs to be set up. They don't just happen. Perhaps, this is what Moshe was trying to get across. The Jewish people's goal is to create a just society in Israel, but that can't happen until it is set up to be one. Judges create a framework where this can happen. This may explain why Moshe changes the story. In Yitro, it is Yitro who comes to Moshe about Judges and Moshe who finds them. Here Moshe says that he told Bnei Yisrael to find judges and they did. So why the change? Soon Moshe won't be around to set things up to work for the people, they are soon going to have to find judges and create a just society on their own. (Pausch actually does speak about this same idea but I will let you watch him say it.)

In this same story in Dvarim, there is one pasuk sung to the tune of Aicha which we read on Tisha Be'av. The connection may be just this same point. Its hard to mourn for something that happened such a long time ago. Its even unreasonable for someone to just feel bad for the burning of the Temple in the way someone is upset about a death. Therefore, we have created ways to set ourselves up to be sad on Tisha Be'av. We don't eat, drink, bathe, or wear leather shoes. This all enables us to get into the spirit where we can mourn the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash. 

Over the past three weeks I have gotten many questions in the form of "Can i do ___ or is ___ allowed". These are valid questions as they try and understand what the Halacha (or minhag) is. To some extent, though they miss the point. There are ways you can get around just about all of the minhagim. Have a siyum every night, and you can eat meat. listen to acapella or even say recorded music is fine. These all might be legitimate in their own right, but they are so not. Are we trying to just "follow" Halacha, or are we trying to accomplish its goals in feeling a sense of loss? When we fast tomorrow we have two choices (and the grey area in between of course). We could spend our day sleeping and watching TV, and if we did you would be following the letter of the law, or we could spend our day getting into the mourner's mindset. We may not be able to bring the Beit Hamikdash to us by doing this, but we surely can bring us closer to te Beit Hamikdash. 

(adapted from my Sermon at Shaare Tefillah in Teaneck)