Parashat Pinchas contains one of the saddest, but most touching, moments in the Torah, God reconfirms that Moses will not be permitted to go into the Promised Land. Even though he already knew of the punishment, imagine Moses' disappointment at being reminded. God throws Moses a bone by permitting him to climb a mountain and actually see the land.

 

In truth, sometimes seeing something from a distance is better than being close up. How many of us have climbed a mountain, or a building, and looked out over the horizon and been awestruck by the beauty of the land, or the skyline, in the distance.   From far-off, one does not see the inevitable blemishes that exist anywhere.

 

From the vision of Manhattan from the hills in Montclair, one might imagine that the city is a The Garden of Eden; it appears to be a place of perfection. Tall gleaming buildings silhouetted by the blue sky behind it. However, by the time you cross over the George Washington Bridge, you notice the dirt, the potholes, and the graffiti. So, perhaps God gave Moses a gift; He gave the prophet the gift of being far-removed from the object of his desire.

 

I am assuming that most of us have known things in our lives that were fine when viewed from a distance, but once we got closer, they were not what we had envisioned or were not what we were hoping for. In some instances the close-up might have been harmful.

 

This leaves me to pose the following question for you to ponder over Shabbat. Would it have been better to have stayed at a distance and not experienced the close-up? Or was the up-close encounter something that needed to be experienced.

 

I'd love to know your thoughts.

 

Shabbat Shalom - Rabbi Michael S. Jay