Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 23 Elul, 5784
Parsha Nitzavim/Va-Yelekh– “Standing Firmly/He Went”: (Deuteronomy 29:9 – 30:20/ Deuteronomy 31:1 – 31:30)
Fifth Portion: Deuteronomy 31:7 – 31:13

Good morning! It is one week away from Rosh Hashanah and the new moon!  What are the intentions we want to set for 5785?  This is the question we can reflect on to determine how things will go.

I have learned to shift from expectations to intentions. It’s made a significant difference!

Let’s dig in as we look at the transition of power from Moses to Joshua. This is the time. The transition of power in our lives.

7And Moses called Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous! For you shall come with this people to the land which the Lord swore to their forefathers to give them. And you shall apportion it to them as an inheritance.

8The Lord He is the One Who goes before you; He will be with you; He will neither fail you, nor forsake you. Do not fear, and do not be dismayed.”

Ok. So we get Moses telling ALL of Israel, Joshua is the new leader. Follow him. He will not fail. Imagine how challenging that would be.  To have put all your faith in Moses’ leadership, only to be told Joshua would bring us home? How would you react?

Imagine a trusted boss. And they leave for a new job. How are you feeling about THAT?  I feel like that might be CLOSE to what the Children of Israel might have felt.

9Then Moses wrote this Torah, and gave it to the priests, the descendants of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel.

Um. Let’s just pause here. “Then Moses wrote this Torah.”

How. Long. Did. That. TAKE??????

Like. We get one line. Moses wrote this Torah.

So. This is interesting. Moses announced Joshua as the leader and went behind the scenes to write the Torah.

Then he gave it to the priests. Did he read it to them? Or just hand it to them?

How long did this take?

Part of me thinks this gave Joshua time to get settled into leadership. That makes some sense to me.

10Then, Moses commanded them, saying, “At the end of [every] seven years, at an appointed time, in the Festival of Succoth, [after] the year of release,

11When all Israel comes to appear before the Lord, your God, in the place He will choose, you shall read this Torah before all Israel, in their ears.

Moses gave a new commandment. Every seven years at the sabbath year, read the Torah at Sukkot – which is the Holy Days after Yom Kippur.

BTW – the next Sabbath year? 5789 (September 20, 2028).  In case you were wondering.

And here is how the reading should go:

12Assemble the people: the men, the women, and the children, and your stranger in your cities, in order that they hear, and in order that they learn and fear the Lord, your God, and they will observe to do all the words of this Torah.

13And their children, who did not know, will hear and learn to fear the Lord, your God, all the days that you live on the land, to which you are crossing the Jordan, to possess.

I love this idea. The community was meant to hear the entire Torah read every seven years.  Why? Because we forget. And? The children would hear. Because every seven years is a new chance to hear the Torah and start anew.

These are my thoughts. What are yours?

Here are my thoughts from last two years:

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 21 Elul, 5783

Today’s double portion is a little sad.  It is a reminder that even though we are about to enter the promised land, Moses is leaving us, we will have a new leader Joshua, and – eventually? We are going to end up back in Egypt.

Greeeeeat.

And Hashem gives us hope. Don’t beat ourselves up for this cycle…in 5784, we will discover NEW egypts in our lives. And new opportunities for Hashem to free us.  In a sense – this is really a good thing right?  Knowing we are never going to be done. Knowing we will never be perfect and get it fully right?

I am sitting with this idea of just relaxing, being, and trusting Hashem.  Instead of dragging an anchor around with us – we can rest and trust Hashem’s guidance.  What do you think?

From the year previously:

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 3 Tishri, 5783

Good morning! Today we move from the Coronation of the King on Rosh Hashanah (the Head of the Year) to a time of introspection over the next eight days leading us to Yom Kippur. The question should be; now that we have decided who is going to be King, what do we need to ask for forgiveness for and change about our lives from this past year?

What intentions can we set that May liberate us as we enter the promised land? That’s where we need to focus our attention.

We are not expected by Hashem to be perfect. He created us to be human. He created us to have needs. That is the design. This is all part of the process. I know I have hurt people this past year.

A friend shared this with me; it’s a Hawaiian practice of forgiveness and I share it with you. I have found it to be a very healing process in asking for and accepting forgiveness. Forgiving ourselves can be one of the most difficult parts of our liberating and freeing journey:

https://graceandlightness.com/hooponopono-for-forgiveness/

But let’s dig into the Torah portion! As we mentioned Sunday, we are in Parsha Va-Yelekh. This literally means “he went.” Sunday we discussed Moses telling the people he wasn’t going with them. It was God who was going to take the people across to the promised land. Joshua would be the leader to do it; not Moses.

We have some catching up to do as the last two days we’ve been in the Rosh Hashanah passages. So let’s dig in;

Moses continues to explain what God is going to do:

God is going to do to the people in the promised land what he has done to other enemies of Israel . They will be destroyed. Moses tells the people not to be afraid. To be strong and courageous. God isn’t going to let go of us.

How interesting that on the precipice of entering the promised land the Israelites would still be scared. Moses has to remind them God is with them.

Next, Moses calls Joshua to him. In front of all of Israel. Moses tells Joshua the exact same thing he told the people. God has Joshua and will take care of him.

Next, we read that Moses THEN writes the entire Torah. He recounts all five books and hands them to the priests. This is interesting because God gave the Torah to Israel (through Moses) on Shavuot (which we learned about this summer). But the entire Torah was written down here. Right before we enter the promised land.

Todays portion closes with this:

Moses commanded them, telling them at the end of seven years – in the year following the sabbatical year (which by the way; 5782 was a sabbatical year- so we probably should pay attention to what Moses is telling us). So over the next year…

Moses tells them;

At the end of seven years (in the year following) the sabbatical year, during the holiday on the Festival of Tabernacles (Sukkot) when all Israel comes to appear before God, your God, in the place that He will choose:

(The king) should read this Torah before all of Israel, in their ears.

Assemble the people-the men, the women, and the minors, and the convert in your cities-in order that they will hear, and in order that they will learn and fear God, your God, and be careful to observe all the words of this Torah. Their children, who do not understand, will hear and learn to fear God, your God, all the days that you live on the land, of which you are crossing the Jordan to take possession.

So; on Sukkot (which starts sundown on October 9th) we are called to read the Torah. To pay special attention. We should get spiritually ready for this. This is the end of the Torah cycle – the last day of Sukkot runs into Simchat Torah- when we roll back the scroll and start over back in Genesis; beginning again!

To close, the Chumash I am reading from has this spiritual vitamin:

The common denominator that binds all Jews together, and serves as the basis for Jewish survival, cannot be considered in terms of territory, language or other cultural and social factors, since all these have changed over the course of history. The only things that have not changed in Jewish life are Sabbath observance, kosher food, tefillin, and all the other commandments of the Torah, both the Written Torah and the Oral Torah. The more your daily life and conduct adheres to this pattern of Jewish living, the more you are attached to the Jewish people.”

The question becomes – just how attached do we want to be to the Jewish people?

What are your thoughts?