"Mistakes" in the Torah?

What can a loving parent do for a suffering child?  Of course whatever they can to alleviate the suffering, but beyond that, what helps the child most is the parent’s presence.  Imagine you are taking your young child to the doctor for their shots.  The child is crying in fear and in pain from the shot, and to add to this, the parents themselves are actually causing the pain.  The parent knows that the shot is necessary, so they hold the child in their arms and comfort them.  If the child had to endure this experience on their own, it would be much more difficult.

 

This helps explain a verse in this week’s Parsha, which contains a seeming grammatical mistake.  As always, what seems to be a mistake is actually a deeper message for us in our service to Hashem.  There are many layers of meaning to every word in the Torah, and often a word or letter appears misplaced in order to teach us something, and it is the Oral Torah that illuminates its meaning.

 

“Then, the L-rd, your G-d, will bring back your exiles, and He will have mercy upon you. He will once again gather you from all the nations, where the L-rd, your G-d, had dispersed you.” (Devarim 30:3.)  This is referring to the redemption from exile and the ingathering of all our people back to the Holy Land.  There is a slight problem with the terminology though.  The grammatically correct way to say “the L-rd… will bring back” would be “Veheishiv Hashem,” the word Veheishiv meaning He will bring back.  The words that are actually used are “Veshav Hashem” which means that G-d will come back, not bring back.

 

Our Sages teach that this is deliberate.  Instead of “Veheishiiv Hashem et shevutcha,” which would mean simply that Hashem will bring back your exiles, the words are “Veshav Hashem et Shevutcha,” implying that “Hashem will return with your exiles.”

 

Yes, we are in exile.  Yes we have suffered horribly throughout the thousands of years with untold pain and fear.  Yet, the Torah is telling us, Hashem has not forsaken us.  Like the loving parent holding the suffering child, Hashem is holding us in His embrace throughout the millennia of exile.  It is comforting to know, though we can’t understand why Hashem allows us to suffer, that His presence is with us, giving us comfort at all times.

 

As the new year approaches, consider that Hashem is indeed close to us, and ready to accept us as we turn to Him in preparation for Rosh Hashanah.  And we pray that even before the end of this year, we will see the fulfillment of the promise, that Hashem will return us, and return with us, to our Holy Land in freedom and peace and holiness.