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This week is Shabbat Chazon, the Shabbat before Tisha b’Av, named for the “vision” of destruction that the prophet Yeshayahu saw. Yet, it is also Shabbat Devarim, the Shabbat of “words.” We open Sefer Devarim with Moshe’s final address to the Jewish people as they stood on the eastern bank of the Jordan, ready to enter Eretz Yisrael at last. The Torah tells us: “These are the words that Moshe spoke to all Israel” (Devarim 1:1). This opening is striking. Moshe does not begin with miracles or laws, but with words. Words that reflect, words that rebuke, words that teach. He reminds the Jewish people of their missteps, including the moment that changed the course of history: “You murmured in your tents and said, ‘Because of God’s hatred for us He brought us out of Egypt…’” (Ibid., 1:27). It was words—grumbling, complaining, distrust—that turned a short journey into forty years of wandering. Moshe’s message is clear: Your words have weight. They can keep you from the land you long for.
Shabbat Chazon deepens this message. We are not only standing on the banks of the Jordan with Moshe; we are standing at the edge of Tisha b’Av, peering into the abyss of Jewish history. Chazal teach that the Second Beit HaMikdash was destroyed because of sinat chinam—baseless hatred expressed first and foremost in speech: gossip, mockery, and slander between Jews. The Chofetz Chayim writes: “It is hard to imagine that any religion would make such a dramatic claim—that God Himself has left His home on this earth and has been in exile for two thousand years because of the words that come out of our mouths.”
What a terrifying thought—and what an empowering one. If words were powerful enough to drive away the Shechinah, then words are powerful enough to bring the Shechinah home. If destructive speech exiled us, then careful, compassionate, and holy speech can redeem us.
This is the call of Shabbat Chazon: to see—to see the ruin of our past and the potential for our future. And it is the call of Shabbat Devarim: to speak—to speak with care, with kindness, with courage. The words we choose at our tables, in our homes, and in our shul are the very tools with which we either break or build the next Beit HaMikdash.
As we enter Tisha b’Av, we are asked to feel the absence of God’s home, to sit in the quiet of loss. But this Shabbat reminds us that the story does not end in silence or in ashes. Redemption begins with words—words of Torah, words of prayer, words of compassion. If we truly guard our tongues and lift our speech toward holiness, then perhaps the Shabbat of words will become the Shabbat of redemption, and Tisha b’Av will at last be transformed into a day of joy.
Shabbat Shalom!
-Rabbi Dan
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