Ever since the yearly cycle of Torah readings was standardised towards the end of the Second Temple era, and the fixed calendar as calculated by Hillel II (Hillel ben Yehudah, Nasi or head of the Sanhedrin) was adopted in 4119 (359 C.E.), we have read Parashat Vayeilech on the Shabbat either directly after or directly before Rosh Hashanah.
When Parashat Vayeilech is the Shabbat directly after Rosh Hashanah (as this year 5786), we read it alone; when it is directly before Rosh Hashanah on the final Shabbat of the year, it is combined with Parashat Nitzavim as the double Parashah Nitzavim-Vayeilech.
Parashat Vayeilech is the shortest Parashah in the Torah, consisting of just 30 verses (all of Deuteronomy 31), just 553 words:
“וַיֵּלֶךְ מֹשֶׁה, Moshe went and spoke these words to all Israel, saying to them: I am a hundred-and-twenty years old today, I can no longer come and go, and Hashem has said to me, ‘You will not cross this Jordan’; it is Hashem your G-d Who will go before you, He will destroy these nations from before you…” (Deuteronomy 31:1-3).
Moshe is beginning to take leave from the nation whom he loved, whom he had cherished and led for 40 years, whom he had fought for over and over again, whom he had nurtured from a nation of slaves, terrified of their erstwhile slave-masters and unready for independence, to a free and proud nation, able to fight for its homeland and independence therein.
The entire Book of Deuteronomy is saturated with Moshe’s passionate love for the Land of Israel, his yearning to enter it, and his devastation at Hashem’s decree that he would only gaze at it from across the River Jordan but never actually enter it.
Having publicly handed leadership over to his faithful servant and disciple Joshua, (31:7), Moshe had little left to do in this world.
There were still two final Mitzvot to give the Children of Israel: the Mitzvah of Hak’hel, assembling the entire nation to hear the Torah being read on Sukkot following the Sabbatical Year (vs. 10-13), and the Mitzvah for every Jew to write a Sefer Torah (v. 19) - which these days we can fulfil by buying mechanically-printed Torah-books, studying them, and lending them to other Jews (vide Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 28:2).
These two Mitzvot guarantee Jewish continuity to future generations.
Moshe was still instilling his love of the Land of Israel into the entire Jewish nation, continuing all his orations throughout the Book of Deuteronomy.
Last week, in Parashat Nitzavim, Moshe had reassured the nation:
וֶהֱבִיאֲךָ ה' אֱלֹקֶיךָ אֶל־הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר־יָרְשׁוּ אֲבֹתֶיךָ וִֽירִשְׁתָּהּ וְהֵיטִבְךָ וְהִרְבְּךָ מֵאֲבֹתֶֽיךָ:
“Hashem your G-d will bring you to the Land which your forefathers inherited, and you will inherit it; and He will benefit you, and He will make you more numerous than your forefathers” (Deuteronomy 30:5).
Of course Moshe was speaking about their entering the Land of Israel in just a few weeks. But was this also a coded reference to events thousands of years in the future? Is it just coincidence that this is the 5,708th verse in the Torah? Is this an oblique reference to the year 5708, the year corresponding to 1948, the year that Israel became independent?
In this week’s Parashah, Moshe again reassures the nation of their victory over the nations who occupied Canaan in the impending war to conquer their Land:
וְעָשָׂה ה' לָהֶם כַּאֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה לְסִיחוֹן וּלְעוֹג מַלְכֵי הָאֱמֹרִי וּלְאַרְצָם אֲשֶׁר הִשְׁמִיד אֹתָם:
“Hashem will do to them as He did to Sihon and to Og, kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when He destroyed them (31:4).
Again, Moshe was speaking about their entering the Land of Israel in just a few weeks. But was this, too, a coded reference to events thousands of years in the future? Is it just coincidence that this is the 5,727th verse in the Torah? Is this an oblique reference to the year 5727, the year corresponding to 1967, the year that Israel defeated the combined might of Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Kuwait, Tunisia, Sudan, and Pakistan in the Six Day War?
And is it just coincidence that the gematria (numerical value) of this verse is 3,681, the same as the verse,
וְשָׁלַחְתִּי לְפָנֶיךָ מַלְאָךְ וְגֵֽרַשְׁתִּי אֶת־הַֽכְּנַעֲנִי הָאֱמֹרִי וְהַֽחִתִּי וְהַפְּרִזִּי הַחִוִּי וְהַיְבוּסִי:
“I will send an angel ahead of you, and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivvite, and the Jebusite” (Exodus 33:2)?
Hashem admonished Moshe that when the nation of Israel would forsake Him, He would exile it from the Land of Israel:
“My anger will flare against them on that day; I will abandon them, and I will conceal My face from them… and it will say on that day, Is it not because my G-d is not in my midst that these evils have befallen me?” (Deuteronomy 31:17).
How do we get Hashem to dwell in our midst?
As G-d Himself commanded us decades earlier:
וְעָשׂוּ לִי מִקְדָּשׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּי בְּתוֹכָם:
“They will make for Me a Sanctuary, and I will dwell in their midst” (Exodus 25:8).
Not that when they build the Sanctuary G-d will dwell in it, but that He will dwell among them, among the entire nation. Only when they had built the Sanctuary could they be worthy if having G-d dwell among them.
“Is it not because my G-d is not in my midst that these evils have befallen me?”
Indeed it is. When we rebuild the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, we will be worthy of having Hashem dwell among us, and then these evils no longer befall us.
The Ba’al ha-Turim (Rabbi Ya’akov ben Asher, Germany and Spain, c.1275-1343) suggests that the word וְשָׁכַנְתִּי, “and I will dwell”, is an oblique reference to both Holy Temples:
The word וְשָׁכַנְתִּי implies וְשָׁכַן ת"י, “He will dwell for 410”, referring to the first Holy Temple which stood for 410 years.
And the letters of the word וְשָׁכַנְתִּי rearrange to form שְׁנֵי ת"כ, “420 years”, referring to the second Holy Temple which stood for 420 years (commentary to Exodus 25:8).
And maybe - just maybe - the word וְשָׁכַנְתִּי could be an oblique reference to the third Holy Temple: the gematria of וְשָׁכַנְתִּי is תשפ"ו, or (5)786, the year which has just now begun.
Thanks to sea-changes in Israel in recent years, thanks to sterling efforts by countless Jews, thanks to the courage and determination of organisations like the Machon ha-Mikdash and some of our braver political leaders, Jewish worship on the Temple Mount is now more firmly entrenched than it has been for centuries; Jews pray more often and more freely on the Temple Mount than any time since the Romans destroyed the second Holy Temple.
תָּחֵל שָׁנָה וּבִרְכוֹתֶיהָ!
Let the year תשפ"ו with its blessings begin!