In the High Places

Torah Study 3/8 R. Marder

OK so it is the last chapter before Moses dies and he is still trying to give the people a sense of security to go forward into the land.

He is like a general boosting the morale of the troops.

As usual, R. Marder brought in the interpretation of “high places” from the point of view of Rabbi Nahman bar Itzhak in Talmud Shabbat, Samuel Raphael Hirsch, and Hafitz Chyam. And as expected the range of interpretation runs from the physical high places to domination and superiority.

And there was even reference to the Purim story and the question of whether it is appropriate to celebrate one’s enemy’s demise.


Books mentioned:
In the Lake of the Woods (1994) is a novel by Tim O'Brien
Swimming in a Sea of Death (2008) by David Rieff A son's loving tribute to his mother, Susan Sontag.

And we end with an appropriate tribute to Moses and the end of the Book:

Dirge without Music

By Edna St. Vincent Millay

I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.

So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:

Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned

With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.



Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.

Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.

A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,

A formula, a phrase remains, --- but the best is lost.



The answers quick & keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love,

They are gone. They have gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled

Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve.

More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.



Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave

Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;

Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.

I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.



Look forward to our wonderful Siyum and starting once again at Genesis...