5784/2023
A Striking Pasuk!
Devarim 31:21 is a potent Pasuk we ignore at a great loss. This Pasuk stunningly guarantees the Jewish people will not forget the Torah. Rashi explains, “This is a promise that the Jewish People will never forget the Torah entirely1.”
Torah Predictions
There are multiple reasons why this Pasuk is of monumental importance. First, it is one of many Torah predictions (many of which appear in Sefer Devarim) of entirely unexpected events but has nonetheless materialized. Examples include Hashem’s promise to Avraham Avinu (Bereishit 12:3) that his descendants will bring blessings to the world. The Jewish people have fulfilled it as a whole and as individuals. Yet the Torah (Devarim 4:27) predicts that Jewish people will remain small in number during their Exile. In addition, the Torah (Devarim 4:32-33) prods later generations to consider whether there has ever been a nation that even claims revelation before an entire nation and an entire nation removed from the midst of another nation with great miracles. Indeed, no other nation makes this claim. The Torah (BeMidbar 23:9 and Devarim 33:28) describes the Jewish people as “dwelling alone.” This phrase accurately portrays our destiny as always being somewhat isolated from the rest of humanity. The Torah correctly predicts the land of Israel being desolate after our Exile from the land (Vayikra 26:32-35, Devarim 29:13 and 24). Finally, the Torah forecasts our Exile (Devarim 4:37) and our eventual return (Devarim 30:3-4).
The Torah’s guarantee (in Devarim 31:21) that there will always be some Jews learning Torah and its fulfillment adds to the list of fulfilled predictions. These fulfilled predictions add yet another reason to believe in the Torah as Hashem’s revealed word. How else could the author have accurately predicted these events? The counter-argument that it is a self-fulfilling prophecy is fallacious. These predictions include the harsh pronouncements of the Tochacha (Devarim Perek 28), which we have painfully experienced throughout our Exile, and especially during the Holocaust, very much against our will.
Torah Observance and Torah Learning Miraculous Survival – The Chanukah Model
The second marvelous impact of Devarim 31:21 is heralding our miraculous spiritual survival. Many note the miracle of the physical survival of the Jewish people. Even an avowed secularist such as David Ben Gurion said, “In Israel, to be a realist, you must believe in miracles.” Implicit in Israel’s declaring independence under the threat of invasion by several Arab armies was the understanding that Hashem would intervene to ensure Am Yisrael’s eternity.
However, Ben-Gurion did not recognize that Hashem also guarantees the spiritual survival of the Jewish People. It is said that Ben Gurion exempted yeshiva students from army service only because he expected in short order for there to be no more Yeshiva students. Ben Gurion was hardly alone in this expectation. Sociologists of the time (as I heard reported by Rav Aharon Lichtenstein) predicted the end of Orthodox Jewry. Powerful cross-cultural forces worldwide were driving mass abandonment of Torah learning and observance. Orthodox Judaism, as during the time of Chanuka, seemed not to stand a chance!
However, Ben Gurion and the sociologists did not grasp the eternal bond between Am Yisrael and the Torah. They would never have believed what has happened in our times - more than a hundred thousand full time-Yeshiva students. Orthodox Jews are the only Jewish community growing in numbers. The non-Orthodox versions of Judaism are marching headlong into oblivion.
Torah is flourishing once more, with the great yeshivas of Europe re-established in Israel, America, and all over the world; the great pre-war European Yeshivot of Ponivezh, Mir, and Gur are alive and thriving once again. The Sephardic Torah world, which in the post-World War Two era was tiny and centered only on Jerusalem’s Yeshivat Porat Yosef (then a very small and struggling institution), is now flourishing and growing by leaps and bounds. Yeshiva University’s president, Rav Dr. Ari Berman, told me in September 2022 that record enrollment at Yeshiva University required adding massive amounts of new chairs to its Batei Midrash.
On Purim, we celebrate the miracle of the physical survival of Am Yisrael. On Chanuka, by contrast, we celebrate the realization of Devarim 31:21 promise, the equally extraordinary wonder of the spiritual survival of Am Yisrael, its Torah.
Rav Saadia Gaon famously teaches “Ein Umateinu Umah Ela B’Torata,” we are a people only by our Torah. Our people’s eternity is inextricably bound with its commitment to Torah. While we are not guaranteed that every Jew will follow the Torah, the Torah does ensure that some Jews will always observe it. Moreover, Jews who do not obey the Torah, in a matter of a few generations, typically no longer identify as Jews. Thus, Jewish long-term physical survival is linked to Jewish long-term spiritual survival.
A Response to Secular Academics
A third powerful aspect of Devarim 31:21 is its powerful response to secular explanations of the origin of the traditional Jewish belief in the divine origin of the Torah. Secularists typically claim that a charismatic personality arose who convinced our people that our ancestors experienced a national revelation. They claim the Torah had been forgotten due to a catastrophic event. The charismatic leader, in turn, has come to restore our heritage of a divinely revealed document to our nation.
The Torah’s prediction that it will never be forgotten precludes the possibility of its fraudulent introduction as a lost document. Devarim 31:21 defeats the secularists’ claim. We would summarily reject a charlatan claim of a forgotten tradition of the Torah as a divine document. We would have responded to such a charlatan - how can you claim it is a divinely revealed document if it says our people will never forget it?
Sephardic Selichot
Sephardic and Yemenite Jews often mention our Pasuk. In the Sephardic Selichot, said in the forty days leading to Yom Kippur (including Yom Kippur), as well as on Mondays and Thursdays, זכור נאמת עדות לא תשכח מפי זרעו - state the following phrase (Ashkenazim mention during Mussaf on Yom Kippur – after the recounting of the Avoda). We ask Hashem to recall His testimony that all Jews will not forget the Torah. Sepharadim invoke Devarim 31:21 in a most appropriate context – in the section asking Hashem אל תעש עמנו כלה to refrain from destroying us even if we deserve it (as we did in theory for worshiping the Eigel HaZahav). We argue to Hashem that since He promised we would survive forever, we cannot be destroyed since we are needed to execute the promise of at least a portion of Am Yisrael observing and studying Torah.
Conclusion – An Authenticity Test: Standing the Test of Time
When people ask me how we can tell if a style of Torah observance is authentic, I respond that a crucial test is whether it stands the test of time. Torah, as taught by Devarim 31:21, lasts the test of time. The Samaritans, Sadducees, and Karaites each rose and made much noise for a time. However, each deviationist form of Judaism became extinct or near extinct. Devarim 31:21 teaches that a true form of Torah lasts forever. It is not an authentic expression of Hashem’s will for His special nation if it does not.