Dear Friends;
I hope you’ll enjoy the following Parsha summary followed by a Dvar Torah on the Parsha and Simchat Torah;
” Parasha in a Nutshell “
Parashat Vezot Haberacha begins by Moshe blessing the tribes of Israel before he passes away. Each tribe gets its own blessing, just like Yakov blessed each tribe individually. Reuven is blessed with life, Judah with success in battle, Levi with serving in the Temple and being teachers of Torah, Benjamin is beloved by G-d, Joseph is blessed by sweet fruits on his land, Zevulun with success in trade, Issachar with success in Torah studies, Dan with a might of a lion, Naftali with fertile land and sea and Asher with sons.
After blessing the people, Moshe goes up Mount Nebo and G-d shows him the entire “Eretz Yisrael”. Then Moshe passes away at the age of 120. He is buried by G-d, and until today, nobody knows his burial place. The Jews mourned for Moshe for 30 days, and then Joshua became the new leader, who was respected by the entire congregation, just like Moshe.
The Parsha, and the entire Torah, ends with describing Moshe’s greatness. ” There arose never again a prophet in Israel like Moshe, whom G-d knew face to face……. and the great awesome things which Moshe did before the eyes of the Egyptians and all Israel.”
” Dvar Torah “
Every year, Parashat VeZot Haberacha, which is the last Parsha of the Torah, gets swallowed up by the Festival of Simcha Torah. It doesn’t have its own designated Shabbat like all other parashiot, and the Chag on which it is read, is so packed with activities such as singing, dancing, eating and drinking, that no one pays much attention to what is going on in the Parsha. Compared to the rest of the Parashiot in the Torah, you can find the least amount of commentaries, since most commentators are busy writing about Simcha Torah or Parashat Bereshit.
But why didn’t the Chachamim designate a Shabbat to the last parsha? How could they miss to comment on the last chapter of the Torah? For those of you who are book lovers, know for a fact that the last chapter of any book is by far the most exciting one of them all. Everyone is anxious to know what happens at the end! What will happen to the Hero? The excitement is overwhelming. Just before starting the last chapter, you feel the jitters in your body! Once you start reading the last chapter, there is no way you can put down the book until you have read the very last word. And then, you feel the ultimate satisfaction– which could be a feeling of accomplishment, excitement, joy, or even a feeling of sorrow. So, how come, we and the commentators, can’t reach the same level of excitement with our Holy book of Torah? After all, our Torah is a true-story book with its’ author being the G-d Almighty himself, and has Moshe Rabeinu as its hero. So, how can it be less exciting than any other book? Most of us don’t even read the English translation of the Parsha! Don’t you think it’s a little absurd? Don’t we want to know what will happen to Moshe at the end and how does the Torah end??
The answer is quite simple my friends. We don’t feel the excitement of the last Parsha of the Torah, because we believe that the Torah never ends!! That’s what Simcha Torah is all about! As soon as we finish reading the last sentence of the Torah, immediately, without a break, we start to read the first chapter, Parashat Bereshit. Apparently, there is no beginning or an end to Torah. It seems that the Torah is just one continuous book! Once you realize that there is no ending, then there is no excitement to read the last chapter! We believe that every chapter of the Torah is as important as the other and we should feel the excitement at all times throughout the year when we read the Torah. The celebration that we do on Simcha Torah, is not because we have finished or started the Torah, but rather, the celebration is because Hashem has given us another year to review this wonderful book.
But all being said, I still feel the urge to say a few words about the last chapter of the Torah. So, towards the end of the Parsha, which is the last few hours of Moshe’s life, we see that Hashem finally reveals his emotions. He talks so highly of his beloved servant, Moshe Rabeinu. He tells us that never again we shall see such a Prophet who can talk “face to face” to the Almighty, who can perform Hashem’s miracles with such greatness. Unlike all other prophets who could only communicate with Hashem in a vision, Moshe talked to Hashem face to face at anytime he wanted. To Hashem, Moshe was not just another human being; he was someone very dear to him. Not only Hashem talked to Moshe constantly, but He also consulted with him, He argued with him, He taught him, He listened to him, he punished him and he praised him. In the mortal world, it seems that Moshe was Hashem’s best friend; his buddy so to speak. The Torah finally tells us that the time has come for Moshe to die and be gathered to his people. How do you think Hashem felt at that time? Yes, we believe that once a person dies, his soul will go to “Olam Haba”, a place which the soul gets closer to Hashem; but as a human being, as a flesh and blood, he had to say goodbye to his best friend. The Halacha says that when a person passes away, the closest relative is responsible to do the burial. In the case of Moshe, Hashem felt that he was his closest family, and that’s why the Torah says that Hashem buried Moshe himself. It makes you wonder how painful it was for Hashem to bury his best friend?!?!
Yes, our hero dies at the end, but there is no reason to be sad, because Moshe left this world with dignity and pride as the best prophet of all times. A person who we still talk about him after 3000 years, is not considered dead! Moshe’s name is mentioned in nearly every Parsha of the four out of five books of the Torah. In “Pirkei Avot” its written “tov shem mi shemen tov”, which means a good name is better than a good oil since it lasts for much longer time. Moshe, was loved and respected by G-d because he in turn loved the Benei Israel so much that he was ready to give up his life for them! His love and devotion for his nation earned him the title of “the greatest prophet of all times”!! Anyone who has been loved by Hashem so much, should be adored by us too! May he rest in peace. What a great zechut we have to be a part of a nation who had Moshe Rabeinu as its leading prophet!
Although, Hashem punished Moshe severely for the only mistake of hitting the rock instead of talking to it, it did not take anything away from the love and respect he had towards him. And this is the greatest lesson we can learn from Hashem. Sometimes our children might do something that they are not suppose to, and we may end up punishing them. But that should not take away, by no means, from the love and respect that we have towards them. We punish our children because we love them and we want them to improve, and not because we don’t like them, G-d forbid!
So remember my friends, Simcha Torah is the celebration of continuing with the Torah. The Torah is our life; without it, we can not live! That’s why we keep reading it in a circle without interruption. The Torah is often compared to light. In today’s modern times, it’s electricity which gives us light at nights. Electricity is a flow of electrons around a circuit. You cut the circuit, there is no light………. You cut the Torah, there is no life!!!
Chag Sameach, Shabbat Shalom & Regards;
Martin