D'var Torah Parsha V'zot Ha-B'rachah: Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret, and Simchat Torah

Here we are at the grand finale of the High Holy Days. For seven days we sit in temporary structures called sukkot doing ritual with etrog and lulav, a remembrance of our people in the desert living in temporary structures for 40 years. On Shabbat during Sukkot, we read Exodus 33:12-34:26 plus a series of readings from Numbers including Numbers 29:17-29:34. In Exodus we remember the giving of the tablets and the giving of covenant by HaShem. Numbers outlines the sacrifices to be made at the temple for each of the seven days of Sukkot. On Shemini Atzeret, the eighth day of assembly in Temple times, we read Deuteronomy 14:22-16:17 describing tithes of produce to be offered on that eight day of the festival. Also, Numbers 29:35-30:1 speaking to these sacrifices. These passages have been read over the past year, so I won’t do much detail for them here.

This brings us to Simchat Torah, where the final parsha, Parsha V’zot Ha-B’rakha is read, as well as from some of Bereishit, Genesis to signify the beginning of a new Torah cycle. First the final parsha is read, then another scroll retrieved to read from Bereishit. There is great celebration and dancing with the Torah.

So now about V’zot Ha-B’rakha. It contains the blessings of Moshe to all the tribes of Israel. One midrash says it well. According to midrash P’tirat Moshe: “All my life I have scolded this people. At the end of my life, let me leave them with a blessing.” Etz Chaim commentary goes on to liken it to Yaakov’s (Jacob’s) blessing his sons at the end of Bereishit, so Moshe does at the end of D’varim. (Deuteronomy.) He blesses each for their attributes as well as the land they will occupy. Of course, Moshe has also prophesied that the people after entering this new land would stray.

After the blessings, Moshe goes to the top of Mount Nevo, where HaShem shows him the promised land, a land where he would not enter. There he views the land, seeing territories that would live in peace and war per Rashi. There is a eulogy for Moshe as he dies and he is buried in an unnamed place upon Mount Nevo.

Now what a place to end the five books of Torah. Not with Joshua entering the land. It’s akin to finishing a book without the ending. Indeed, on Simchat Torah we then read passages from Bereishit where we start all over again. Now as I read this ending, I feel such sadness for Moshe, who after confronting Pharoah, leading the people across the Reed Sea, climbed upon Mount Ararat to receive the Torah from HaShem, led the people for 40 years in the desert, but could not enter this promised land. Rabbi Shimon Felix alludes to climbing up on Mount Ararat as if heaven descended to meet Moshe and now once again Moshe climbs a high place to die and pass on. In the desert Torah was given, and the ideal of Torah was lived, but as the people prepare to enter the land, so ends Torah and so also the people prepare to enter the reality of the history we all live out. A place where we study and learn but filled with the imperfections of daily life. Just as according to Rabbi Felix, the tablets were smashed in the desert because of idol worship, the ideal of living Torah overlooked by HaShem, in leaving the desert the people become independent actors.

So back to the ending, the ending that is more like the middle. In the next book after the five books of Moses, Joshua enters the land. Why not end our story in Torah after that? Instead, we begin back at the beginning. Per Rabbi Sacks of blessed memory, it ends a bit like an unfinished symphony. He suggests and I agree, as I often do it seems, that it is because the story of the Jews is unfinished. Our history is a part of us. Each year we relive the story through our Torah reading, Haftorah selections, and our holidays. It is part and parcel of who we are. Just as Moshe left the story incomplete, none of us will complete the story either. But we can do our part. Per Rabbi Sacks, “Biblical narrative has no sense of an ending because it constantly seeks to tell us that we have not yet completed the task.” Like Moshe, Rabbi Sacks says we stand upon Mount Nebo, unable to finish what must be done. However, that does not absolve us of our responsibility to continue the story, doing our part.

So, as we dance with Torah, prepare to relive again our journey, each of us can do our part in the coming year. With chesed (loving kindness), tzedakah (charitable giving), and tikkun olam (healing the world), we can all do our part to move our story forward. Sacks reminds us of the wonderful poem by Robert Frost, “I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep.”

Chag Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret, Simchat Torah Sameach! May we bring blessings to this new year!