Vayelech: The Next Phase

The word that starts this parsha, and the word it  is named for is וַיֵּ֖לֶךְ, vayelech.  This  font does not capture the picture of the word. Lamed is the letter that extends the highest above all other and the end chaf is the letter that goes down the lowest. Calligraphically it is a full stop, a barrier, a word of great significance. The word is translated: and (Moshe) went. 

Rashi's comment on the word is quite brief, possibly cryptic: 

וילך משה. וגו':

This וגו is a contraction. The standard meaning is et cetera. What could that mean? Why would Rashi, so sparing in his words, so selective in his comments, write etc.? In a sense, every vayelech implies an et cetera, a series of events that follow. Vayelec, like its calligraphy implies mean the end of one phase and, hence, the beginning of another. 

Another fundamental meaning of vigomer, the implied word of the contraction  וגו, is completion. Rashi could mean that now Moshe is completing his mission, his life is coming to an end, Moshe an Israel are going on to the next phase. This is the essence of the interpretation of  Ibn Ezra and Ramban. 

Sforno brings other examples vayelech used to mean that an individual (or group) roused himself to action. He brings the example of Moshe's father marrying his mother despite the barriers and the Egyptian edict of infanticide

 כמו וילך איש מבית לוי

like a man from the tribe of Levi arose.

The word vayelech here  is not related to physical travel,  it means that an action of consequence was undertaken, there will be an et cetera following, anticipate a completion. 

This is a time of transition. The seasons are changing. It is a new year. The new journey begins. The possibilities are dazzling. The dangers are terrifying.  

The vayelech of the parsha sets out guard rails. It delivers guidelines  in the form of the Torah. It introduces a song that will not be forgotten, full of references to future tragedies and ultimate triumph. Every generation will recognize itself in this song. Vayelech tells us to awaken and take the step. 

My son, Yitzchok Moredchai, Jack, told me an interesting insight into the Torah. The first two chapters, Genesis and Noah, deal primarily with the world and humanity as a whole. In the third parsha, לך לך,  Lech Lecha, it begins to deal with individuals.  In lech lecha, the story of Abraham begins. 

Today's parsha, Vayelech, is the third from the last. The root word, לך, that full stop, that et cetera, is the same.  In Lech Lecha, Abraham does not know exactly where he is going, but his faith allows Gd to take him on a tour of the promised Land, and his faith convinces Gd to bestow the blessings of great nation and an inheritance upon him. The remainder of the torah is Abraham's et cetera. 

Vayelech introduces Moshe's last day. Moshe is passing out of the scene and he is leaving a legacy, an et cetera. Now the Torah story is coming to a completion, but its message continues. The story moves from the adventures of Moshe to the saga of the Jewish people. 

Soon, we will start the Torah again, anticipating another completion.

גמר חתימה טובה, וגו

Gemar Chathimah Tovah, vigomer

My you be sealed for a good (life), etc.

 Nitzavim: Taking a stand for truth

The parsha opens with:

אַתֶּ֨ם נִצָּבִ֤ים הַיּוֹם֙

You stand this day

This is a special day in our family. It is the yahrzeit, the anniversary of the death, of my father, Shmuel Chaim. It is the Shabbath before Rosh Hashana. Yisroel Arye Treiger, Karen and Louis' father, was born on Rosh Hashana. In seven years, our grandson, Yisrael Arye (aka Theodore, aka Srulik) Goldberg will be Bar mitzvah on this Shabbath. 

Nitzavim does not mean an incidental erect posture. It does not mean that a person happens to be standing. It means they are standing for something.  The word nitzavim implies  purpose.  In this week's parsha the purpose is given: 

לְעׇבְרְךָ֗ בִּבְרִ֛ית יְ

 to enter into the covenant of your G-d.

This has some poignancy on the Shabbath before Rosh Hashana. During the 10 days of penitence we  hope to benefit from that covenant and we realize that we did not always keep our side of the contract.

During this week leading up to Rosh Hashanah and continuing through Yom Kippur we recite selichoth, prayers for forgiveness. These prayers are built around a formula, the thirteen attributes (or paths) that Gd revealed to Moses when Moses sought forgiveness for the sin of the golden calf. We recite  parts of two verses (Exodus 34:6,7).  The first is descriptive, a series of adjectives. The second verse describes Gd's forbearing actions.  The first verse ends with וֶאֱמֶֽת, "and truth.": The ultimate descriptor of Gd's way is truth. The men I remember today were men who stood up, נִצָּבִ֤ים, for the truth.

My father is one of the 60 survivors of Treblinka, the death camp that gassed, murdered and burned 875,000 Jews. He was in that small group of men that staged the Treblinka uprising. Twelve men survived the uprising. They were נִצָּבִ֤ים nitzavim. They confronted their hopeless situation and weighed it against the alternatives.  My father survived because he confronted the truth and stood up to impossible odds. 

A few years ago, reading a novel by Philip Roth, I realized that there was another episode when my father stood up for the truth in a very significant way.  After my mother died, my father and I would take a trip every year to Israel to visit her grave. One of those years, I was able to contact  Eliyahu Rosenberg. Mr Rosenberg was a Treblinka survivor who organized events that other Israeli Treblinka survivors would attend. He organized a luncheon for the 6 remaining Israeli survivors. At that luncheon, I saw Mr. Rosenberg and the others pressure my father to testify at the Demjanjuk trial. 

John Demjanjuk had been a Nazi guard. He had been captured in Detroit and extradited to Israel to stand trial for the cruelties of Ivan the Terrible, a notorious, murderous Treblinka guard. Rosenberg and the others pressured my father to testify. "Surely you remember his footsteps," they told him. My father said that he  could not identify this octogenarian as the guard he had seen more than 50 years ago. After the meeting, I was a confused, maybe embarrassed, by my father's reluctance to help the anti Nazi cause after so much encouragement by his fellow survivors. 

Many years later I learned that the inconsistencies in Rosenberg's testimony was part of he reason that Demjanjuk was acquitted.  I discovered this while reading a novel by Philip Roth, The Shylock Project , and confirmed it. It was subsequently discovered, from Russian evidence, that Demjanjuk was never at Treblinka, but he had been a sadistic guard at Sobibor and was convicted in a German court. 

I married the daughter of a man of truth. Irwin Treiger was a pillar of the Seattle Jewish community. By his work as a fund raiser, he supported numerous important Jewish causes. He was a founder of  the Samis foundation, an organization that is  critical to Jewish education in Seattle. He made his reputation as a pre-eminent  attorney  through a quality that exceeded normal honesty. He would confront the truth.  This standing up to reality is a way to understand  the  נִצָּבִ֤ים that introduces today's parsha.  It is in the spirit of the season.

 All through Elul, as we recite selichoth before sunrise. we say 

 וַיֵּ֤רֶד יְ

בֶּֽעָנָ֔ן וַיִּתְיַצֵּ֥ב עִמּ֖וֹ שָׁ֑ם וַיִּקְרָ֥א בְשֵׁ֖ם יְ

And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord.

Vayithyatzev, and he stood, comes from the same root as Nitzavim.  It is a significant standing.

 

The scene described in selichoth is the unique appearance of Gd to the human Moshe, declaring the thirteen axes of forgiveness that are available. Moshe is asking for forbearance for the golden calf, the graven image created by the Israelite community in Moses's absence. This was a violation of both commandments that the Israelites heard, with their own ears from Gd. No excuse is possible, but somehow the thirteen attributes find a way. They are the formula that Gd taught Moshe and we use to find our way back to Gd's grace. At the center of that formula is אֱמֶֽת, truth.

The parsha instructs to come to this difficult, confrontational truth. The hayom, today, in the verse  refers to the day when  you realize  what is said at the end of the parsha: 

כִּֽי־קָר֥וֹב אֵלֶ֛יךָ הַדָּבָ֖ר מְאֹ֑ד בְּפִ֥יךָ וּבִֽלְבָבְךָ֖ לַעֲשֹׂתֽוֹ

For the matter is extremely close to you; in your mouth and in your mind to fulfill it.

The Torah, its truth, is close to you. Recognize it. Stand with it. Let it confront you. 

 Ki Thavo: Arriving

The annual Torah cycle brings us to Ki Thavo in the fall, as the calendar year fades, as the high holidays approach. In the Northern hemisphere, the natural world shows signs of aging: the leaves have their fall colors, animals prepare for hibernation.  The seasons are a cycle, but fall, as the days become shorter, feels like the beginning of the end. It is the threshold of the final arrival. 

Moses knows that he will die when Israelites enter the promised land. He delivers his strongest prophecy, predictions of destruction and glory, that have palpably come to pass. 

Historical records have become increasingly detailed. When the Torah was written, the parchment and scribal services were so expensive that only sparse details could be preserved. Printing expanded the view. The camera and the movie brought immediacy. The film footage of the holocaust does not capture the scope of the horror; most of the abuses and murders were hidden. The viewer needs to multiply the visualized horror by an unfathomable factor.  Now, with AI's ability to create images, there is a significant danger of deception - and multiplying the deception out of habit. 

The first chastisement is confusion. The detailed description is introduced:

אֶת־הַמְּאֵרָ֤ה אֶת־הַמְּהוּמָה֙ וְאֶת־הַמִּגְעֶ֔רֶת

The curse, the confusion and the ….

הַמִּגְעֶ֔רֶת ( Hamigereth) is a unique word that appears only once in the canon text (a hapax legomenon).

Rashi translates

המארה  (hama’eyrah) means PAUCITY and המהומה   (hamihumah) A TERRIFYING SOUND.

Rashi does not translate הַמִּגְעֶ֔רֶת. (Hamigereth)

Targum translates the word: מְזוֹפִיתָא  (mizofitha): frustration, vexation.  Perhaps this is a reflexive translation. It  reflects the frustration of translating a word that appears only once.

This ambiguity of the word begins to convey the horror. After a curse and confusion, there is something bad, probably worse, coming and what it is... is unclear. Obscurity and uncertainty add to the dread. Trepidation is possibly the worst emotion I have felt. 

This is the season of apprehension. The world is changing around us. It gets colder. The leaves fall.  The weather is more unpredictable. We begin selichoth, the extra prayers begging forgiveness for what we have done  and what we have failed to do.  We use this prayer formula because we are not sure that we remember or recognize all of our errors and failings. We do not understand how Gd  answers our prayers.  Will we suffer for our own good? How will we fit into the Big Plan?

The degradation and destruction and desolation described in the parsha is national, not individual. Personal suffering is subsumed into the collective. Is there an obligation for  the individual to move the nation toward good? It would seem so.  Failure leads to personal pain and the torture of watching others suffer. 

For me, the GOOD is confusing. Torah is a nationalist treatise that favors the Israelite although it affords some rights to most other peoples. I grew up in the USA. I was taught that the tolerance value: respect for all people is the saving grace... and my family was the beneficiary of that grace. As I have learned more, I am skeptical  about the practice of that tolerance value... and in the current era, it seems to be dying. To me, tolerance remains an appealing value...something to fight for. 

The curse is presented as a progression. It starts with natural disasters – drought and disease  - and  progresses to defeat , exile and subjugation. The atrocities described evoke the holocaust. It is distressing that this ancient text, describing the most repulsive scenes Moshe can imagine,  does not quite equal the reality of Poland in 1942.

How did this text prepare the Jews in the Eastern European exile?  When the persecution came, did they see it as the expected fulfillment of the prophecy? Did the passage, heard (by many) innumerable  times since childhood, add a sense of familiarity to the persecution? Was there some comfort in the prediction? Did it make the nation more cooperative and thus help the evil enemy?

Today's daf yomi (Horayoth 12a) relates to the parsha. One of the last kings of Judea, יְהוֹאָחָז, Yeho-ochaz, was anointed, presumably with the anointing oil  that Moses had formulated and has been preserved for such occasions. But the gemarrah argues that the authentic anointing oil had been sequestered: 

But isn’t it taught in a baraita: When the Ark of the Covenant was sequestered, the anointing oil, and the jar of manna (see Exodus 16:33), and Aaron’s staff with its almonds and blossoms (see Numbers 17:23), and the chest that the Philistines sent as a gift to Israel, were all sequestered...

And who sequestered the Ark? Josiah, king of Judea, sequestered it, as he saw that it is written in the Torah in the portion of rebuke: “The Lord will lead you, and your king whom you shall establish over you, unto a nation that you have not known” (Deuteronomy 28:36). He commanded and the people sequestered them,...

The prophetic prediction of the downfall of the Jewish monarchy motivated the removal of the equipment needed for its validated continuation. Was this an act of hope for a better, but distant, future? Was the anointing oil hidden to prevent the recognition of pretenders to the throne? 

I worry that the current crest in the cycle, the glory period, is ending. I always enter this season: selichoth, fall, end of the year - with trepidation.  This year, quite a bit more. 

 Ki Theitze: Justice

To be charitable, you must have enough for yourself.  A person struggling to survive: hungry, dirty, poorly shod ,cannot afford to give. That model soon melts when we consider the social aspects. In a family, members will sacrifice more to support each other. The parsha talks to people who have more than they absolutely need and instructs them to curb their advantages over the less powerful. This is the religious teaching that feels right and good. It is just what we hoped Gd would say. The worker must be paid in a timely manner; the debtor cannot be made destitute by compound interest, the pawn shop client deserves  a measure of dignity.

To get to that part of the parha we must get through the beginning. The parsha opens with the soldier who  risked his life for the vision of victory and has captured a fantasy; a dream of lust (and perhaps love). A month-long disfigurement ritual is prescribed before the kidnapper  is permitted to fulfill the remnant of that passion. He is given a chance to give up the fantasy before embarking on the next set of consequences, including the abhorred child who cannot be disinherited.

The subsequent verse is what brings us to the comfortable Gd:

וְהָיָ֞ה אִם־לֹ֧א חָפַ֣צְתָּ בָּ֗הּ וְשִׁלַּחְתָּהּ֙ לְנַפְשָׁ֔הּ וּמָכֹ֥ר לֹא־תִמְכְּרֶ֖נָּה בַּכָּ֑סֶף לֹא־תִתְעַמֵּ֣ר בָּ֔הּ תַּ֖חַת אֲשֶׁ֥ר עִנִּיתָֽהּ׃ {ס}        

Then, should you no longer want her, you must release her outright. You must not sell her for money: since you had your will of her, you must not enslave her.

There is a limit to the abuse. This captive, in the end, must be respected. She cannot be transformed into a chattel slave. She is granted personhood. It is an expensive journey for the victim. 

 Power over others leads to consequences, and the human lord is not omniscient. Every act has thousands of consequences. Some of them must be considered; and their unfathomable number should be appreciated

This is a parsha of obligations. People perform  acts and situations arise:   and here are instructions for handling them.  Some obligations devolve from previous decisions: marriage, hiring workers, etc. Others devolve from circumstances: lost objects, disease. Many of these duties are consequences of previous decisions.

The exercise of power effects change, sometimes progress.  One person becomes richer, more powerful, than another. The entitlement that results from this difference in wealth is taken as a ( Divine)  reward by the winner. The (cheated?) people who did the actual production are sidelined. This model of justice is not abandoned in this parsha. There is merely an attempt to limit the damage. 

The text goes on to deal with the problem of two wives, each of  whom has an heir. The lesser wife bears the first born, the child with the right to the double portion.  Love for the  other wife cannot eclipse the actual birth order  (cf Abraham and Isaac [Ishmael]). The rules surpass sensibility. This is a justice that devolves from fate ( or Divine intervention?) 

The next section deals with the wayward child, stoned for  intractability. In the Midrashic interpretation, this is the end result of the captive marriage that opened the parsha. It is what emerges from disregarding the warnings.

The Midrash Tanchuma at this point,  relates the story of  Avshalom.  Avshalom was the son of Maacah,  whom David had taken as a wife as a spoil of war. Avshalom named his daughter  after his mother. Perhaps he carried some of his mother's resentment for her captivity and the slaughter  of her people.  Avshalom  attempted a coup; he would replace his father, David, as king.  There is no greater turning away and rebellion. Absalom, fleeing from David's army, is caught by his hair ( an echo of the hair that the captive woman must shave off?). This rebellion of this son may have stemmed from some allegiance to his mother's tribe and defense of her honor. The rebel son is the offspring of his captive mother.

There is a chiastic structure to the parsha.  The end reflects the beginning.  The parsha opens with a victory against an unidentified enemy.  It ends with the obligation to obliterate the memory of  Israel’s eternal enemy, Amalek.

The Amalek of my parent's generation. the Nazis, tried to annul the material progress the Jews had achieved.  As the Jews were emerging from their oppression of disenfranchisement in Europe, now able to achieve their newfound dreams; just as they were seeing the European enlightenment as an alternate path to the Old Torah that taught them to eternally hate Amalek, the force of cancellation rose (again?) to create another eternal enemy, whose memory must be erased and can never be forgotten.

Now Jew-hatred is fueled by reports that the state of Israel is violating what many of the laws in this week’s parsha have evolved into: human rights. It is such a severe accusation that the attempt to find justification feels uncomfortable. There are tradeoffs. Greater concern for civilians means more soldiers are killed and wounded. Does victory bring a better peace than settlement?  I cannot validate a murderously  antisemitic organization Hamas. I just want it to end. I want it never to happen again. Justice is a dream.