Anonymous
Beloved of All
From our Torah portion this week (i.e., Devarim) we read: “But you were not willing to ascend (×•Ö°×œ× ×Ö²×‘Ö´×™×ªÖ¶× ×œÖ·×¢Ö²×œ×ª), but became bitter (מָרָה) against the Word of the LORD your God†(Deut. 1:26). Moses’ rebuke was not that the people were afraid to conquer the land as much as that they had lost heart and no longer desired to take hold of God’s promise. The people gave up their dream; they forsook their hope; and they had lost the “devotion of their youth, their love as a bride, how they followed the LORD in the desert, into a land not sown†(Jer. 2:2). The people’s failure was on two levels: First they lapsed in faith by abdicating trust in God’s word, and second, they had lost the passion of their first love. In light of this, the sages say that the greater problem was that of losing heart, since the heart directs the will to believe in the miracle of God...
Revive us Father, we turn to you, our first love, Amen
Revive us Father, we turn to you, our first love, Amen
