Looking Backward First

The further backward you will look the further forward you will see.” Winston Churchill

Helenus, in the Iliad, was a difference kind of Seer. the son of Priam and Hecuba, he was the cleverest men in the Trojan army. It was he who, under torture, told the Achaeans how they would capture Troy – apparently he didn’t predict that he himself would be captured.

But this is not what distinguished him. Helenus, unlike other seers, was able to predict the past with great precision without having been given any details of it. he predicted backward. Our problem is not just that we do not know the future we do not know much of the past either. We badly need someone like Helenus if we are to know history.

Imagine an ice cube and consider how it may melt over the next two hours while you study with your friends. Try to envision the shape of the resulting puddle.

Then consider a puddle of water on the floor. Now try to reconstruct in your mind’s eye the shape of the ice cube it may once have been. Know that the puddle may not have necessarily originated from an ice cube. The second operation is harder. Helenus indeed had to have skills.

The Breastplate worn by the Kohen Gadol had twelve stones, one for each of the tribes of Israel. The names of the Patriarchs were engraved on the stones, the letters of which would shine and spell out answers to questions asked of the Urim V’Tumim. The Patriarch’s names, the past, were used to provide instructions for the future.

We may fantasize about having the magical Urim V’Tumim to instruct us in exactly what to do in confusing situations: “Should Israel negotiate a peace treaty?” Let’s ask the Urim V’Tumim. “How should Israel respond to the constant missiles fired from Gaza?” Let’s ask the Urim V’Tumim. However, that’s not the way it worked:

The Talmud (Berachot 3b-4a) teaches: After the break of dawn the wise men of Israel came in to see King David and said to him: “Our lord, the King, Israel your people require sustenance!”

He said to them: “Let them go out and make a living one from the other.”

They said to him: “A handful cannot satisfy a lion, nor can a pit be filled up with its own clods.”

He said to them: “Then go out in troops and attack [the enemy for plunder].”

They at once took counsel with Achithofel, consulted the Sanhedrin, and then questioned the Urim and Tumim.

The King had to first decide. His decision was considered by the Sanhedrin. Only after they reached their conclusion, would they consult the Urim V’Tumim.

The Urim V’Tumin would, generally, respond only to someone who had first made a decision. It was not a magical decision maker. God knew that we would be sorely tempted to turn to the Urim V’Tumim as our decision machine. He therefore commanded that each question asked be seen through the eyes of the past, those of the Patriarchs who made their mark by making their own decisions. They succeeded in building the eternal House of Israel by the decisions they made. People flocking to God’s House had to first look backward to their history, the source of their Covenant with God, the eyes of the past, the eyes of the Patriarchs.