Moses’s prayer to be allowed to enter the Land of Israel epitomises the pain of all the unanswered prayers of those who left behind unfinished projects and unrealised dreams, whose life’s projects were cut short and whose visions remained unfulfilled,
We must ask ourselves: was his prayer not answered, or was he answered in an unexpected manner?
The Mishnah teaches that one cannot pray for events that have already been set in motion, even when we do not know its outcome, stating: “One who prays to change the past, offers a vain prayer” (Berachot 9:3).
If one saw a plume of smoke coming from the direction of one’s house, one would be tempted to pray: “Please, let in not be my house!” However, whoever’s house is burning, is already has already been fixed in time, which cannot be altered.
Moses was told multiple times that he would not enter the land but die in the wilderness. This was a situation that could not be reversed. However, he was granted his prayer to see the land before he died.
According to the Midrash he even saw more than he had asked for, as God showed him the entire scope of the land, geographically as well as historically; showing him the land as it would be in the future in times with moments of prosperity and peace as well as tragedy.
Yet he had prayed to see the “good land”. Perhaps, by calling the land “good”, he voiced a wish for a prosperous, peaceful land, not a land frequently assailed by war and tragedy.
For Moses, who had led his people through many ups and downs in the wilderness, such a prayer would have been unrealistic. Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk suggests therefore that, knowing that the land could not always be “good” and peaceful, Moses prayed for the ability to always see the good in the land of Israel, despite its failings.
Moses’s prayer remained not unanswered, and it is also ours. On this Shabbat Nachamu, the Shabbat following Tishah b’Av, the fast marking the greatest tragedies in our history, we too seek out and support all that is good in the land of Israel, despite its many failings, from tragedy to peace.
