Beckoning Destiny
Do you remember the feeling you had a few minutes before embarking on a journey? The morning of your Bar-Mitzvah, wedding, etc.? Collecting your last thoughts, you quickly re-check all the essential things you mustn't forget and prepare yourself emotionally for the dramatic change.
Crossing the Jordan river was more than a topographical change of scenery for our forefathers. The letters of the river's name, Hayarden, can also spell Har-Din, the mountain of stern judgment, for by crossing it they were passing from a strict relationship with The Divine to a more personal, loving one. This renewal of the marriage covenant required a new voluntary mutual commitment to stick together through thick and through thin.
Like a limb that has life-blood coursing through its veins, a soul that is connected to the Living G-d is as eternal and limitless as He is Himself. The crossing of a nation as a whole from being temporal to being eternal was thus not one to be taken lightly. Just as when a Sefer-Torah is placed in the Ark the wood its made of becomes sanctified, so the Jewish Nation was about to embibed with eternal existence. Although they were destined to sin and separate themselves from this Holiness, the separation would be only superficial. When the king read the Torah to the assembled nation he re-awakened the eternity implanted deep in the hearts of the young and old alike, for it's light was already sealed deep in their hearts, and would always cast away the shadows of doubt that appear like cobwebs in seldom used corners.
Am Yisrael Chai is not just a reality, it was an event that occurred with the entering of the people into the Chosen Land.
Adapted from Rabbi Vali's book on Dvarim. Questions and subscriptions can be mailed to: the Yeshiva