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If you knew you had 37 days to live, how would you spend them? Moshe could have devoted his time to private contemplation and life review. Instead, he delivers his parting communication to the entire nation.
And Moshe went…strange opening. If this is Moshe’s farewell address, why does the Torah take time to describe his footsteps? As with the rest of the Torah, his physical steps are not the main point. Though in his last moments he could be focused on more supernal planes of existence, he chose to spend his final days, leaving a message and a legacy to those who are both his disciples and descendants- in other words to all of Israel. In order to connect with the people, Moshe had to go forth from his unworldly level where he was preparing for an intense encounter with G-d, in order to address the people in a way that they could relate.
Another context of a communal message is the mitzvah for a Jewish king to gather the whole nation on the Sukkot of every seventh year. This mitzvah is called ‘Hakhel’ which literally is the command form of the word gather, or collect, like the meaning of the name of the book Kohelet, Ecclesiastes, which is read or studied on Sukkot. The Talmud relates that everyone was meant to attend- men, women, and children, and that the parents were rewarded for bringing their infants. Why asks the rabbis, if both parents were coming they would naturally have to bring the children. They answer that bringing the children to a holy place, even when they are too young to understand, is still a cause for reward, and should not be taken for granted. Rabbi Yehoshua, who is the author of this notion, is the sage who says in Pirkei Avot that the most important thing in life is to have a good friend. The commentators explain that this refers to his mother who used to bring him to the study house as an infant, or some say even when she was pregnant, so he would be positively influenced by the holy atmosphere.
Thus this parsha is very much about passing on a legacy, both in practical life and especially in relation to G-d. This is a primary obligation upon teachers and parents. Waiting till kids grow up to provide them with life skills and values, means that there will be other factors shaping their values that aren’t necessarily positive influences.
In the case of Moshe, his primary ‘living will’ is expressed in this parasha by his writing a Torah scroll for each tribe, and a 13th one to be placed in the holy ark. This legacy is of so much importance throughout the Torah. If we connect the 13th scroll to the tablets of the Ten Commandments in the ark, we can get a deeper sense that his writing was not merely about leaving a memento or even just some personal writing. The mystics tell us that there are 600,000 letters in the Torah which correspond to 600,000 root souls in Israel. Thus the emphasis that each individual is connected to a particular Torah letter. When the Torah is lifted up during services, we are meant to look not just at the scroll but at the letters themselves. Perhaps our personal letter will radiate our soul’s bond to us. Now this is a very uplifting connection; if we are linked to the letters in the Torah, then, just as a Torah scroll in invalid if even one letter is missing, then the totality of the Jewish people is deficient if even one person falls by the wayside. However, even if some souls seem to be lost, it cannot be forever.
Rabbi Wolfson, Z’L wrote a lot about this idea. He explained how the details of each holiday convey this concept. There is a ‘great Shofar’ that each soul will eventually hear, as in the verse, “On that day the great Shofar will be blown, and those lost in Ashur (affluence which creates material over-attachments) and those cast off in the land of Egypt (challenges of deprivation such as poverty, illness, war) will come and bow down to G-d in the holy mountain in Jerusalem.” Ashur and Egypt can also refer to spiritual wealth and impoverishment, one lacking humility and the other self-confidence.
Then on Yom Kippur we start off Kol Nidrei with a declaration, ‘we permit ourselves to pray with sinners.’ (Even those extreme ones, barring probably known dangerous people) and we end Neila with everyone crying out ‘Shema Yisroel,’ the ultimate declaration of the unity of both G-d and Israel. Moving through Tishrei, we come to Sukkot, about which the sages tell us, ‘All Israel are fit to dwell under one Sukkah’ and we wave the four plant species all together as one, even the willow people who seem to be lacking in good qualities and who merit special distinction on Hoshana Rabba. Finally we come to Simchat Torah, where there is no distinction about who is ‘allowed’ to dance, where folks circle the empty space reflecting the divine hidden presence.
When October 7th happened after Sukkot, some default critical reactions by the ‘spiritually wealthy’ were the thoughts- ‘What were all those young people doing anyway on Simchat Torah, indulging in irreligious dances?’ I also remembered the previous week where on Yom Kippur there were some ‘spiritually poor’ anti-religious people who tried to stop some observant Jews from conducting the most significant prayer service of the year. People talk about unity abstractly but on the ground level, instead of Rebbe Nachman’s attitude of finding the good points in each Jew, they honed in on what seems negative about others. Even if those divisive attitudes remain merely in thought, they are bound to have a contentious effect, leading to discord both between people and with G-d.
Similarly, there is well-known prediction in this parasha. When troubles come upon our people, they will say, ‘Because G-d is not in our midst, these troubles come.’ G-d then responds, ‘I will conceal my face on that day.’ The word ‘conceal’-Hastir (from which the name Esther comes) is repeated twice. The Baal Shem Tov explained that the deepest concealment is when the concealment itself is concealed! People then may go about their lives without a thought of why they are in this world, thinking their material goals are all that matter.
There is a famous Hassidic story about a rabbi who came across a little boy hiding near a tree and crying. When questioned, the boy tried to explain among profuse tears, my friends and I were playing hide and go seek. The rabbi asked, ‘so why is that a reason for you to cry?’ The boy continued sobbing, ‘I did my part by hiding, but I’m waiting and waiting but my friends forgot to look for me.’ Now the rabbi’s eyes filled with tears, ‘It’s the same way with G-d. Hashem is hiding and waiting for us to look for Him, but we’ve forgotten for so long to really look.’
On the anniversary of 9/11 I kept thinking of the date in relation to the teaching in Pirkei Avot, ‘The world was created with ten sayings.’ Some of the sages point out, ten but not nine; ten but not eleven. The mystics explain that each saying represents a layer on the infinite light of creation. If there were eleven, that would represent too much of a concealment for us to be able to find Him, but if there were nine, that would mean too little of a concealment to make it a challenge for us to look for him. To maintain the balance of meaningful choice, and the possibility of actually discovering G-d. Ten, like the idea of the anthropic principle of the earth being in just the right place for life, is the number ten that represents just the right amount of distance for the ‘game of life’ to be viable.
As I referenced last week, in the hostage Omer Shem Tov’s conversation with G-d in the pits of hell, he asked G-d, ‘what can I do for you?’ If G-d were to answer, He most probably would say, like the little boy, ‘I’m doing my part; I’m hiding, but people forget to look for me.’ The opening line in the Haftarah on the day after Rosh Hashana, begins ‘Seek out Hashem where he can be found; call out to Him when he is near.’ Let’s begin this New Year 5786, which is the numerical equivalent of ‘KETER ELYON’- EXALTED CROWN- by emulating Omer Shem Tov’s longing to find out what we can do for G-d. If we could say so, perhaps it would be to try and wipe away the divine tears that are part of this harsh exile, and seek out ways to find divine sparks even in the most unexpected places, to coax the transcendent aspect of the divine, to bring the ultimate revelation where there is no more concealment of the hidden light of creation. The Shabbos before Yom Kippur is higher than any other of the year. It contains the Teshuva- return- for all the past Sabbaths. Every weekday during the Ten Days of Penitence can rectify the weekdays of the past year. But just as the closeness to the Divine is higher on Shabbos than on the weekdays, so is this coming Shabbos the loftiest of all. Let us all rise to the occasion and make the final shofar of Yom Kippur the one that signals the release from exile both for the hostages and for the entire world.
