Vayelech

With God's help, you and I begin to study the weekly portion Vayelech, and we will read chapter 31 of the book of Devarim. In the previous weekly portion, you and I read that Moshe gathered the people of Israel and a kind of re-making of the covenant took place, a renewal of the covenant before the entry of the people of Israel into the Holy Land. Moreover, Moshe gave instructions as to how to renew the words of the covenant, to repeat the making of the covenant for the people upon entering the land of Israel. And with this he ended his speech before the whole assembly of the people of Israel.

In chapter 31, at the very beginning of the weekly portion Vayelech, we read:

Apart from the fact that Moshe gathered all the people at a general assembly, at the end of this speech he went through all the tribes, through the families, he went through the whole people of Israel. One must understand that a generation had grown up that had not known a change of ruler, of potentate. For forty years Moshe had governed everything. A whole generation had grown up without knowing another leader. Of course, for the people it was a shock, a trauma, a stress that someone else could come in place of Moshe, and, worst of all, that Moshe himself could disappear somewhere. And the people needed comfort and reassurance, because Moshe was a reliable, constant mediator between the people and the Most High. We know from the oral Torah that there was a lot of criticism of Moshe, that people looked askance at him, we know all the accusations that were voiced against him. But, on the other hand, we know the testimony of the Most High (which outweighs everything) that Moshe is a faithful servant in the house of God. And, as a faithful servant, Moshe takes care of what will become of the people after he departs.

I am a hundred and twenty years old today could be understood as I have become old, I have become decrepit, but we know that Moshe did not become decrepit and did not weaken, did not become dim-sighted, a little lame, that is, he did not become weaker than he was.

Why then can Moshe no longer lead the people, including in the military sense – to go out to battle and to return from battle, and in general to begin and to finish any operation, any undertaking? He is a hundred and twenty, he is the oldest, the most experienced, the elder of elders. If he has not become decrepit, then what is the reason? And Moshe explains: “The LORD said to me: you will not cross the Jordan. I will no longer be able to lead the people not because I am not capable, but because the LORD decided so. And this means that everything remains in the hands of the Most High. You must remember this: everything that happens, happens by the will of the Most High.” And, as he departs, Moshe takes care that the people understand and grasp precisely this as the foundation.

That is: “Remember that all this time it was not I, but the LORD who went before you. A terrible battle awaits you, but remember that I am not a military victory talisman, it was not by my merit that you were victorious. The LORD God – He goes before you, He will destroy these nations, and He does not disappear anywhere. Just as I stood before you, led you by the word of the LORD, so too Yehoshua will lead you by the word of the LORD. And if the LORD stands behind this, then there is no difference – Moshe or Yehoshua. You saw the LORD behind me, see, remember that He stands behind Yehoshua too.”

We read (in chapter 20 of our book of Devarim) the commandments about war, about how to deal with conquered nations.

Lachazók (chizkú) – this means to be strong. But having strength is not enough, one must also le'emótz (imtzú), be bold in using this strength, understand that you can win. It happens that a person is strong, but he is afraid to use this strength: what will people say, what and how will it be perceived by them? That is, he is afraid simply because he is afraid. And here, in this whole chapter, and in the book of Yehoshua ben Nun there will constantly be such encouragement: you are strong, receive the strength of the Most High, but, receiving it, understand that you must use it, must have ométz (boldness, daring) to use this strength. The LORD will not make you weak, He will not take away from you the strength that He gave you. This is the instruction that Moshe gave as he went through all of Israel.

Moshe sees in Yehoshua partly the very same problems that he sees in the whole people of Israel: there is strength, there is no boldness. And Moshe encourages Yehoshua (as the Most High will also encourage him) to be strong and bold, strong and daring, not to be timid and to boldly use his strength.

So, the Torah is handed over for safekeeping. But not simply for storage, like some publication or like some record, but in order to pass it on and to teach. Of course, it will be kept by the ark, as the instruction will also be received. But apart from this, Moshe did not appoint some people who would put it there for safekeeping; he appointed, he set up the kohanim and the elders, so that they themselves could know this Torah and teach others, decide all questions with its help. And further on we read about this.

Note that the festival of Sukkot is here too connected with the end of the year. To those who say: why do you have Rosh haShana in the seventh month, in Tishrei (why do you have the new year in the seventh month), I remind that several times in history it is said that the autumn festivals are connected with the end of the year. There are different counts of “years,” but right now the talk is a little bit not about that.

All the people gather and listen to the Torah once in seven years. At least once in seven years, as a minimum, every person, whoever he may be (as we said in chapter 9, from the elder to the water-carrier), comes together with everyone and listens to the Torah. Everyone listens equally, so that someone could not say: “I heard the Torah, and in it it is written such and such,” and another would say: “No, I also heard, and in it it is written such and such.” Everyone gathers and listens together. The Torah is not hidden, it is not kept by some priests who would hide it from the people. No. These priests, the kohanim, have the duty to teach the people the Torah.

Here fear is not in the meaning of fear in terror, as if something terrible is about to happen now. Although, of course, such fear too can move a person. Fear in the sense that they understood His greatness, understood the whole complexity of the universe, understood what they have a relation to. This is more awe than fear.

This is the instruction that Moshe gives to the people of Israel, to the kohanim and to the elders.

There is no drama here at all. Many midrashim tell about what awe, what fear seized Moshe, how he argued with the Most High and said: “If You said that I will not enter, then maybe I will swim in? Maybe I will fly in? Maybe under the ground, maybe through a satellite, maybe some other way?” Here we do not see this. These are, of course, midrashim that may describe some inner dialogue, inner doubts of Moshe. Or else a person describes what he himself thinks. When we say: “The midrash retells something,” one must understand that the author of the midrash is not trying to convince us that Moshe thought so. He models this situation so that the whole depth would be clear to us: and what would we think in his place, what could a simple person think in his place, because Moshe is not a simple person.

Indeed, the people of Israel in the wilderness lived at the expense of the Most High. The people in the wilderness had no connection with nature, with the land. The manna fell from heaven, water was revealed in a wondrous way, and the clothes did not wear out. Everything necessary was there, a person did not have to toil. When he enters the land and works the land, he may have a desire to come to terms with nature, to find some spirits, little gods, some forces of nature which one can worship. Having felt a break, having ceased to be visibly dependent on the Most High, perhaps the people will not see the Most High in its harvest, or in the rain, or in something similar, and will begin to believe that it is the land, or the river, or the sky that gives it rain. A connection with some local little gods will appear, and the people will go after them, and it is the people who will break the covenant, not the Most High.

When a person says: “Maybe it is because God has left me (not because I have left God) that all this befalls me?” then at that moment God hides still further. God will not be for the people of Israel a collector's god from a pantheon. One cannot say: well, let us bow down to this god too, so that everything is fine. At that moment God will hide the face. And only when a person realizes that it is he who went away from God, and not God from him, that it is he who went to worship other gods, only then is reconciliation with the Most High possible. If a person says: “Maybe it is because God has left me?” then this is not yet teshuva.

It would seem: these are the last moments of Moshe's life, one could comfort him, give him hope and say that everything will be good, everything will be wonderful. You are leaving, but the people are in reliable hands, everything will be wonderful, bright and rosy. The Most High says to him: “No! You will leave, and the people may fall even lower than they were, may bow down in that land, in that country, to other gods. The fact that they will enter that land does not yet mean that they will be protected from all temptations.” But right away the Most High says: “I give you, Moshe, the possibility to give the people a medicine for the case when they go away from Me.” The Most High does not say that everything will always be good. The Most High says: “However bad it may be, however bad it may become, everything can be put right.” And this is what He says to Moshe in the last moments of his life.

The LORD will give a song for the people, which must be written down and learned by heart. Wherever a person goes, wherever the people goes, and however low he sinks, if he remembers this song, then in any place, in any spiritual fall, it will be for him a testimony of the Most High, a remembrance of where one must return.

When a person reflects on what is happening to him, it can be hard for him to remember that once, somewhere, we were given some Torah. Here the song is something that is easy to remember, that will constantly remind, testify that the Most High governs the world, that return to Him is the healing of everything. The song is a witness, and it is put into a person's mouth. In Soviet times the Jew Mikhail Matusovsky, in the voice of the Jew Mark Bernes, to the music of the Jew Veniamin Basner, expressed it like this: “Or perhaps it (the motherland) begins with that song that our mother sang to us, with that which, in any trials, no one can take away from us.” Belonging to the people begins with a person remembering this song, keeping it on his lips.

The LORD says: “I know the problems of the people of Israel. I know that this is a people with complexities, with a bad character and with bad inclinations. Therefore I give it a song, I put into the mouth something that will be a reminder of Me to it.”

We remember that Moshe did not come alone, he came with Yehoshua ben Nun. And the LORD says to him the same thing He had said earlier through Moshe: “Be strong and bold. Do not be afraid to use your strength.”

That is, including the song, which we will read in the next weekly portion, Haazinu.

A stiff-necked people – this is a people with et-orpechá hakkashe, with a hard nape, stubborn, for whom it is hard to turn back, who repents with difficulty.

Moshe does not gather the people himself here. Before this we read: and Moshe gathered, and Moshe called together. Here Moshe says: “Gather to me.” What has changed? Power has already been handed over to Yehoshua ben Nun, he is already ruling. And Moshe can only ask.

You will leave the road. Not only will you abandon God, but you will do such evil as to enrage, to anger Him (lehach'isó), that is, you will become enemies of God.

In the next weekly portion we will read this song.

There are years when, together with our weekly portion Vayelech (And he went), the previous portion Nitzavim (You are standing) is also read. Let us recall it a little.

So, Moshe gathered the whole people of Israel and announced to them: “Today all of you, from small to great, are standing before the Most High. Both the military commanders, and simply the chiefs, and the very, very simplest workers, the water carriers and the woodcutters, and the little children, and the adults, and the old people – all of you have gathered here today, you are standing before the Most High, and this is like the making of a covenant. And not only you are here, but also those who are not with us today, who have not yet been born, perhaps future souls.” That is how we understand today that every Jewish soul was at Mount Sinai, precisely on the basis of these very words. Moshe gives a speech full of inspiration to the Jewish people gathered before him, who are standing before the Most High.

And suddenly, at the beginning of our portion Vayelech, we read: “And Moshe went, and spoke these words to all Israel. And he said to them: ‘I am a hundred and twenty years old now, I can no longer go out and come in, and the LORD said to me: “You will not cross this Jordan.”’” Moshe is finishing his speech and will soon say the last thing: “Be strong and take courage, do not fear and do not dread them, for the LORD, your God, Himself goes with you, He will not depart from you and will not leave you.” All this looks like a continuation of one and the same speech, which begins in the previous portion, when, as we read, the whole people gathered and stands together: all are standing, no one is absent. Even those who are absent, they too are present. And suddenly we read: “And Moshe went…” Where did Moshe go, why is it written so? Was there any need to go anywhere, or was there somewhere else some people of Israel that needed to be spoken to? Many commentators give different answers. Some translators say that this is simply such a figure of speech – and he continued to speak, and he took a breath and went on speaking. Many different views. Nevertheless, there exists, one may say, a certain inner contradiction between the word to stand before (to stand somewhere or to appear, to bring some results) and the word to go (to move somewhere). Our whole Torah is full of commandments to go: if you walk in My ways, if you follow My commandments, walk in My commandments, he walked before God. And rarely will we find that such-and-such a person stood before God. No, he walked before God, before God one must walk. And the very beginning of Jewish history, the story of Avraham, also begins with the words lech lechá (go for yourself). The first command that the first Jew received is the command to go. And therefore one can see here an indication of an important synergy, of an important harmony. A person constantly stands before the Most High, always knows his level, his responsibility, his task, his position, is aware of what shoulder straps he wears on his shoulders, (simpler or more important), is aware of who he is and what he is meant for. And nevertheless, whatever level he may be at (maybe he is a military commander, or maybe he is a water carrier or Moshe Rabbeinu himself), a person moves on, moves forward, grows, moves after God, goes after God. To be with God is not to stand with God, it is to go with God, to walk with God. And all of us, one may say, have stood before God, stood a while, made the covenant, and we go on, we move: only in motion is coexistence with God possible. Therefore and Moshe went means Moshe went on to grow, already after he had said: “I am already a hundred and twenty years old, I have already attained, I am handing over the reins of government, but I will not stop walking until I stop breathing.” That is the meaning in the name of our weekly portion Vayelech ( And he went).

Read also the portion Nitzavim, the portion Pinchas about Moshe's successor, the talk about the covenants and the weekly portions of the Torah.