Vayelech

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Vayelech, Vayeilech, VaYelech, Va-yelech, Vayelekh, Va-yelekh, or Vayeleh (וילך — Hebrew for "then he went out", the first word in the parshah) is the 52nd weekly Torah portion (parshah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the ninth in the book of Deuteronomy. It constitutes Deuteronomy 31:1–30. Jews in the Diaspora generally read it in September or early October. With just 30 verses, it is the shortest parshah.

The lunisolar Hebrew calendar contains up to 54 weeks, the exact number varying between leap years and regular years. In years with 54 weeks (for example, 2008, 2012, and 2015), parshah Vayelech is read separately. In years with fewer than 54 weeks (for example, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, and 2014), parshah Vayelech is combined with the previous parshah, Nitzavim, to help achieve the number of weekly readings needed.

1 Summary
2 In classical rabbinic interpretation
- 2.1 31:10–13 — reading the law
3 Commandments
4 Haftarah
5 Further reading
6 External links
- 6.1 Texts
- 6.2 Commentaries

[edit] Summary

[edit] "Be strong and courageous"

Moses told the Israelites that he was 120 years old that day, could no longer go out and come in, and God had told him that he was not to go over the Jordan River. (Deut. 31:1–2.) God would go over before them and destroy the nations ahead of them as God had destroyed Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, Joshua would go over before them, and the Israelites would dispossess those nations according to the commandments that Moses had commanded them. (Deut. 31:3–5.) Moses exhorted the Israelites to be strong and courageous, for God would go with them and would not forsake them. (Deut. 31:6.) And in the sight of the people, Moses told Joshua to be strong and courageous, for he would go with the people into the land that God had sworn to their fathers and cause them to inherit it, and God would go before him, be with him, and not forsake him. (Deut. 31:7–8.)

Ark of the Covenant (bas-relief at the Cathedral of Auch)

[edit] Reading the law

Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who bore the Ark of the Covenant and to all the elders of Israel, commanding them to read it before all Israel at the end of every seven years during Sukkot, when all Israel was to appear in the place that God would choose. (Deut. 31:9–11.) Moses told them to assemble all the people — men, women, children, and strangers — that they might hear, learn, fear God, and observe the law as long as the Israelites lived in the land that they were going over the Jordan to possess. (Deut. 31:12–13.)

[edit] Writing the law

God told Moses that as the day of his death was approaching, he should call Joshua, and they should present themselves in the tent of meeting so that God might bless Joshua. (Deut. 31:14.) God appeared in a pillar of cloud over the door of the Tent and told Moses that he was about to die, the people would rise up and break the covenant, God’s anger would be kindled against them, God would forsake them and hide God’s face from them, and many evils would come upon them. (Deut. 31:15–18.) God directed Moses therefore to write a song and teach it to the Israelites so that the song might serve as a witness for God against the Israelites. (Deut. 31:19.) For when God will have brought the Israelites into the land flowing with milk and honey, they will have eaten their fill, grown fat, turned to other gods, and broken the covenant, then when many evils will have come upon them, this song would testify before them as a witness. (Deut. 31:20–21.)

So Moses wrote the song that day and taught it to the Israelites. (Deut. 31:22.) And God charged Joshua to be strong and courageous, for he would bring the Israelites into the land that God had sworn to them, and God would be with him. (Deut. 31:23.) And when Moses had finished writing the law in a book, Moses commanded the Levites who bore the Ark of the Covenant to take the book and put it by the side of the Ark so that it might serves as a witness against the people. (Deut. 31:24–26.) For Moses said that he knew that even that day, the people had been rebelling against God, so how much more would they after his death? (Deut. 31:27.)

Moses called the elders and officers to assemble, so that he might call heaven and earth to witness against them. (Deut. 31:28.) For Moses said that he knew that after his death, the Israelites would deal corruptly and turn away from the commandments, and evil would befall them because they would do that which was evil in the sight of God. (Deut. 31:29.) And Moses spoke to all the assembly of Israel the words of the song. (Deut. 31:30.)

[edit] In classical rabbinic interpretation

[edit] 31:10–13 — reading the law

The Mishnah explained how the Jews of the Second Temple era interpreted the requirement of Deuteronomy 31:10–13 that the king read the Torah to the people. At the conclusion of the first day of Sukkot immediately after the conclusion of the seventh year in the cycle, they erected a wooden dais in the Temple court, upon which the king sat. The synagogue attendant took a Torah scroll and handed it to the synagogue president, who handed it to the High Priest's deputy, who handed it to the High Priest, who handed it to the king. The king stood and received it, and then read sitting. King Agrippa stood and received it and read standing, and the sages praised him for doing so. When Agrippa reached the commandment of Deuteronomy 17:15 that “you may not put a foreigner over you” as king, his eyes ran with tears, but they said to him, “Don’t fear, Agrippa, you are our brother, you are our brother!” The king would read from Deuteronomy 1:1 up through the shema (Deuteronomy 6:4–9), and then Deuteronomy 11:13–21, the portion regarding tithes (Deuteronomy 14:22–29), the portion of the king (Deuteronomy 17:14–20), and the blessings and curses (Deuteronomy 27–28). The king would recite the same blessings as the High Priest, except that the king would substitute a blessing for the festivals instead of one for the forgiveness of sin. (Mishnah Sotah 7:8; Babylonian Talmud Sotah 41a.)

Sefer Torah

[edit] Commandments

According to Maimonides and Sefer ha-Chinuch, there are two positive commandments in the parshah.

To assemble the people to hear Torah after the end of the Sabbatical year (Deut. 31:12.)
For every Jew to write a Torah scroll (Deut. 31:19.)

(Maimonides. Mishneh Torah, Positive Commandments 16 and 17. Cairo, Egypt, 1170–1180. Reprinted in Maimonides. The Commandments: Sefer Ha-Mitzvoth of Maimonides. Translated by Charles B. Chavel, 1:23–25. London: Soncino Press, 1967. ISBN 0-900689-71-4. Sefer HaHinnuch: The Book of [Mitzvah] Education. Translated by Charles Wengrov, 5:430–43. Jerusalem: Feldheim Pub., 1988. ISBN 0-87306-497-6.)

[edit] Haftarah

Isaiah

When parshah Vayelech is read separately, the haftarah for the parshah is Isaiah 55:6–56:8.

When parshah Vayelech coincides with the special Sabbath Shabbat Shuvah (the Sabbath before Yom Kippur, as it does in 2008 and 2012), the haftarah is Hosea 14:2–10, Micah 7:18–20, and Joel 2:15–27.

When parshah Vayelech is combined with parshah Netzavim (as it is in 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, and 2014), the haftarah is the haftarah for Netzavim, Isaiah 61:10–63:9. That haftarah is the seventh and concluding installment in the cycle of seven haftarot of consolation after Tisha B'Av, leading up to Rosh Hashanah.

[edit] Further reading

The parshah has parallels or is discussed in these sources:

[edit] Biblical

Jeremiah 30:1–3 (God's instruction to write).

Josephus

[edit] Early nonrabbinic

Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 4:8:12, 44. Circa 93–94. Reprinted in, e.g., The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged, New Updated Edition. Translated by William Whiston, 117, 123–24. Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Pub., 1987. ISBN 0-913573-86-8.

[edit] Classical rabbinic

Mishnah Megillah 1:3; Sotah 7:8. Land of Israel, circa 200 C.E. Reprinted in, e.g., The Mishnah: A New Translation. Translated by Jacob Neusner, 317, 459. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988. ISBN 0-300-05022-4.

[edit] Medieval

Deuteronomy Rabbah 9:1–9. Land of Israel, 9th Century. Reprinted in, e.g., Midrash Rabbah: Leviticus. Translated by H. Freedman and Maurice Simon. London: Soncino Press, 1939. ISBN 0-900689-38-2.

Maimonides

Rashi. Commentary. Deuteronomy 31. Troyes, France, late 11th Century. Reprinted in, e.g., Rashi. The Torah: With Rashi’s Commentary Translated, Annotated, and Elucidated. Translated and annotated by Yisrael Isser Zvi Herczeg, 5:319–28. Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 1997. ISBN 0-89906-030-7.
Maimonides. Mishneh Torah, Intro.:2. Cairo, Egypt, 1170–1180.
Zohar 3:283a–86a. Spain, late 13th Century. Reprinted in, e.g, The Zohar. Translated by Harry Sperling and Maurice Simon. 5 vols. London: Soncino Press, 1934.

[edit] Modern

Thomas Hobbes. Leviathan, 2:26; 3:33, 42; 4:46. England, 1651. Reprint edited by C. B. Macpherson, 319, 418, 548, 687. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Classics, 1982. ISBN 0140431950.

Dickinson

Emily Dickinson. Poem 168 (If the foolish, call them "flowers" —). Circa 1860. Poem 597 (It always felt to me — a wrong). Circa 1862. In The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Edited by Thomas H. Johnson, 79–80, 293–94. New York: Little, Brown & Co., 1960. ISBN 0-316-18414-4.
Martin Buber. On the Bible: Eighteen studies, 80–92. New York: Schocken Books, 1968.