Today a photojournalist came to the new Chabad Center on behalf of a local media site in preparation for an article about the grand opening we will be celebrating in ten days. I had last seen him in April when he came to our home for a Pesach photo-op and as we greeted each other in masks he commented “I hoped we would be past all this by now!” True. In April most of us thought that by August we would not be walking in public masked up and plenty of experts were predicting the same, but here we are in the midst of the pandemic, making the best of it and growing wary of predictions. In this week’s parsha Moshe speaks with the people about the nations they were preparing to conquer. The Canaanites were pagans steeped in superstition, witchcraft and sorcery who would divine through sticks, devise omens on premonition and consult with skulls about the future. G-d prohibits us from imitating these practices in any shape or form. Although the details of their divinations sound primitive, foolish and downright disgusting, their culture developed out of a basic human craving for knowing the future. There are numerous sources in Jewish tradition acknowledging that these practices were effective and the future could be divined through them, but they are off limits to Jews. “Be wholesome with G-d” Moshe concludes. Don’t try to obsessively divine the future. Instead, trust in G-d completely and accept whatever comes your way. G-d provides us with prophets in every generation who communicate the future to us when necessary, but we are compelled to live our lives based on G-d’s instructions elaborated in the large corpus of Torah literature available to us. Predicting the future is a comfortable way of making decisions in the present. Investors buying stocks want to be sure they will grow and politicians pay fortunes to pollsters and analysts to predict where the political winds are blowing and who their voters are. Philanthropists commission studies costing in the six digits to determine the next big initiatives to save the world and millions consult with shrinks on the streets holding crystal balls. Judaism provides us with a context for life that fits every era and every location and by following the Torah guide book for life we know we are doing the right thing. And about the future - our prophets have already ensured us that the purpose of everything happening today is to prepare our world for the era of redemption when there will no longer be war, hunger, illness or jealousy and peace and tranquility will reign for all. It is up to us to shape that future as quickly as possible through learning more Torah, doing more Mitzvot and sharing this truth with everyone we can reach.
Chaikel wrote...