"And Moshe went and spoke these words to all of Yisrael. 'I am 120 years old…'" (Devarim 31:1). It was the day of Moshe's death. All of Yisrael had passed before Moshe to enter the covenant and then returned to their tents. So now on his last day "Moshe went." He left the camp of Levi and went to the camp of Yisrael to console them. He could have spoken to them about his death when they were standing before him but instead he waited so that he could come to them in their dwelling place. He honored Yisrael like a friend who asks permission before departing. (Ramban and Rabbeinu Bachya)
"Be strong and brave. Gd your Lrd is the One Who is going with you" (Devarim 31:6).
Hashem will not let you go - hold on. He will not let you fall or be wrenched away from Him. Remain firm. Do not let yourselves be overpowered for it is the Hand of Gd that holds you fast; if you hold faithfully onto Him, they must overpower His Hand if they want to overpower you" (Hirsch on 31:6).
VaYelech
Reb Shlomo Minyan HarNof
(R. Raphael, email: [email protected])
Behold, Hashem Is With You Even There
"The nation will rise up and stray after alien gods of the land. They will abandon Me and violate the covenant. I will display anger and abandon them. I will hide My face and they will say Gd is no longer with me and that's why these evils have befallen us. On that day I will utterly hide My face because of all the evil that they have done in turning to alien gods" (Devarim 31:16-18).But how can it be? How is it possible that we can survive if Hashem hides His face from Yisrael, Gd forbid? He is our life! We could give an allegory. Sometimes the king sets up a number of walls and partitions to create the illusion that it's impossible to enter his chamber where he's hidden. He even creates illusions of walls of fire and swollen rivers. But a wise person thinks to himself, "How can it be that the king who is kind would not want to show his face to his beloved children?" He realizes that it's all an illusion set up in order to test the son's effort to come to him. But the truth is that there is no hiding and as soon as he dedicates himself totally to passing the river the illusion disappears, and he is able to do it and he overcomes all the obstacles till he reaches the chamber of the king. But there's a fool who fears to begin to pass the boundaries. And there are those who pass the water but give up when they get to walls or fire, and this is all by way of allegory.
One who is able to pass the obstacles reaches to a higher place, a greater closeness than he had before. As it says in VaYigash, "I will go down with you to Mitzrayim and I will bring you up in a way of ascending" (Berashit 46:4). In My fullness I will be with you, in My "deepest self," My "Anochi." And when you will go up from there, I will be with you, so you will merit to go even higher than you were before. As it says, "I will not abandon you nor will I be far even in the hiddenness." Because when we devote all of our attention, He is there in the hiddenness.
And this is like it says in Tehillim: "Behold Your enemies, Hashem, behold Your enemies are lost." This "enemy" means our own inclination to see things as bad. So when our focus is stuck on perceiving evil the advice is to know that Hashem is hidden there - with His mercy and kindness. This is how we should read the pasuk: "When you behold your enemies, see Hashem is there! If you'll do this then you will watch as the enemy is lost." Because our faith that Hashem is there, is itself our salvation. Through our faith that nothing evil comes from Heaven we can see through the evil and overturn the thing for good. We can reveal the hidden kindness in the judgment that appears before us. (Baal Shem Tov 260)
Mitzvot
According to Sefer HaChinuch there are two commandments in parashat VaYelech.
At A Glance