Nitzavim-Vayelech Artscroll P.1086 | Hertz P.878 | Soncino P.1138
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16 September 2017 25 Elul 5777 Shabbat ends London 8.00pm Jerusalem 7.20pm Volume 29 No. 51 Nitzavim-Vayelech Artscroll p.1086 | Hertz p.878 | Soncino p.1138 In memory of Chaya Rachel bat Moshe Ben-tzion “I call heaven and earth today to bear witness against you: I have placed life and death before you, blessing and curse; and you shall choose life, so that you will live, you and your offspring – to love the Lord, your God, to listen to His voice and to cleave to Him, for he is your life and the length of your 1 days…” (Devarim 30:19-20). Sidrah Summary: Nitzavim-Vayelech 1st Aliya (Kohen) – Devarim 29:9-28 5th Aliya (Chamishi) – 31:7-13 On the last day of his life, Moshe gathers every Standing in front of the nation, Moshe tells member of the nation, of all ages. He enters them Yehoshua not to be afraid. Moshe writes the into a covenant with God, which will be binding entire Torah and gives the scroll to the Kohanim for future generations too. Moshe warns them and the elders. Moshe instructs the people in a against idolatry. Forsaking the covenant will result new mitzvah, known as hakhel – just after the end in the Land being destroyed and the nation being of every seventh year of the agricultural cycle exiled. (shemitah), on Succot, all the people are to gather in Jerusalem, young and old, to hear the king read Question: which type of labourers are specified parts of the Torah. as being included in those who entered the Point to Consider: why was just after the covenant? (29:10) Answer on bottom of page 6. shemitah year the chosen time for hakhel? (Levi) 2nd Aliya – 30:1-6 6th Aliya (Shishi) – 31:14-1 If the nation does indeed stray and finds itself in God calls Moshe and Yehoshua to stand by the exile, it will return to God wholeheartedly. God will entrance to the Tent of Meeting (ohel moed), have mercy upon the people and bring them in where He tells them that the nation will turn from wherever they have been ‘scattered’. against Him to other gods. God’s anger will flare against Israel, and he will ‘hide His face’ from (Shlishi) 3rd Aliya – 30:7-14 them, as if He is unaware of their sufferings After Israel’s ‘return’ to God, His wrath will turn (Rashi). He commands Moshe to write the Song upon those enemies which persecuted her. God of Ha’azinu, next week’s sidrah (Rashi). will bless the nation like He blessed their forefathers. The Torah is not hidden, nor is it so 7th Aliya (Shevi’i) – 31:20-30 far away that it is inaccessible. Rather it is ‘very God continues with His message; excessive close’ to us (see p.3 article). enjoyment of the Land's abundance will lead the nation to idol worship. Reading the Song of 4th Aliya (Revi’i) – 30:15-31:6 Ha’azinu will remind them that they were warned God has placed ‘life and good, death and evil’ in of the consequences of rebellion. Moshe finishes front of the nation, who are urged to ‘choose life’. writing the Sefer Torah and tells the Levi’im to That means loving Him and walking in His ways. place it next to the aron (ark). Heaven and Earth are called to bear witness to this decision and its consequences. Haftarah Taken from the book of Yeshaya, this is the last of Parashat Vayelech starts with Moshe reminding the seven ‘haftarot of consolation’ read after Tisha the people that he is not going into the Land with B’Av. The redemption will come, with the nations them, but that Yehoshua (Joshua) will lead them of the world recognising Israel’s splendour. and that they will conquer their enemies in the Though sullied by the blood-stains of the same way that God allowed them to defeat the struggles of exile, the nation should always be mighty kings Sichon and Og. aware that God loves them and is guarding them. United Synagogue Daf Hashavua Produced by US Living & Learning together with the Rabbinical Council of the United Synagogue Editor: Rabbi Chaim Gross Editor-in-Chief: Rabbi Baruch Davis Editorial Team: Ilana Epstein, Michael Laitner, Sharon Radley Available also via email US website www.theus.org.uk ©United Synagogue To sponsor Daf Hashavua please contact Loraine Young on 020 8343 5653, or [email protected] If you have any comments or questions regarding Daf Hashavua please email [email protected] 2 How America Got Its Name by Rabbi Yoni Birnbaum, Hadley Wood Jewish Community At 2.00am on 12 October relationship with the Torah. If one approaches the 1492, Christopher Columbus’ study of Torah with the view that their own ship finally collided with land. principles are always correct, then the Torah will A young sailor shouted “Land! seem as if it is “on the other side of the ocean”. Land!” from the mast head, In contrast, studying Torah with an open mind, having sighted what we now enables us to see the world through the eyes of call the Bahamas. Columbus the Torah, a world where people are held to a believed that India should be higher moral and religious imperative, a world in about 4,375 miles west of Spain and that he had which we are beholden to an Omnipotent God discovered an island off the East Asian coast. So Who demands constantly higher standards of us. he called the island the West Indies and its inhabitants Indians. Columbus stuck to this belief Moshe’s vital lesson was that in the study of for the rest of his life. Torah, as with some of the greatest discoveries of all time, success is often reserved for those A few years after Columbus died, a less well- who are able to think beyond their own initial known Italian explorer named Amerigo Vespucci frame of reference. Yuval Noah Harari observes also visited the New World. But unlike Columbus, in his best-selling book, Sapiens (2014), that Vespucci subsequently wrote two papers arguing there is something remarkable in the fact that a that Europe and India were in fact some 12,000 quarter of the world’s land mass was named miles apart and that the ‘West Indies’ were in after a little-known Italian man, whose sole claim fact part of an entirely new continent. In 1507 to fame was simply to ask the open-minded the respected German cartographer Martin question, ‘perhaps there is a new continent out Waldseemüller produced an updated world map, there after all…?’ showing these new lands for the first time, not as part of Asia, but as a new continent. Rather than naming them Columbo, he named them America, after Amerigo Vespucci. This little-known story of how America got its name is important not only because it belongs to a country that plays a central role in world affairs. It also reveals the difference between someone (i.e. Columbus) who could not think beyond their mistaken first premises, and another person (i.e Vespucci) who was able to go beyond the ‘givens’. In one of the most stirring lines of Moshe’s parting words to the Jewish people, he exhorts them to internalise the fact that the Torah is fully accessible. It is neither “in the heavens” nor is it “across the sea” (Devarim 30:13). Accessibility can be interpreted in a literal sense; anyone can access the wisdom of the Torah. Close up of the Martin Waldseemüller map Yet it can also be understood as referring to the showing South America and the word mindset required in order to develop one’s "AMERICA", 1507 In memory of Yocheved bat Berl Dov 3 Bein Adam Lechaveiro Part 14: Tzedaka: Some Background by Rabbi Daniel Fine, Community Rabbi, Stanmore & Canons Park United Synagogue Jews have historically excelled Chafetz Chaim (Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan, d. 1933) in philanthropy. Whether in his introduction to his work on the Laws of individual donations to Charitable Giving (Ahavat Chesed) lists all the projects, consistent financial episodes of kindness in the Torah. packages of support, or general upkeep of communal With these principles in mind, we can understand funds, we have a sensitivity that acts of kindness are not simply 'feel-good' to utilising our money and acts which help others. They tap into our very resources to support important causes. In our identity, as forged by the avot, and they emulate introduction to the mitzvah of tzedakah (charity), it the prime trait of our Creator. is interesting to ponder the reasons for this excellence. The more a commodity is used in a society, the more it is linguistically differentiated: there will be Sefer Bereishit is replete with the impressive different words for its different varieties. There are stories of the avot (patriachs) and the imahot many different words for 'snow' in Arctic societies, (matriarchs). However, Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer as snow is such a dominant feature of everyday Dessler (d. 1953) notes that the avot were life. It is said that the (democractic) West has many not simply role models who performed actions more words for varieties of blue than red, whilst which continue to inspire us. The avot actually the (formerly communist) East has more words for established our national makeup. Actions which shades of red than blue. Indeed, given that we they performed became entrenched in our excel in doing acts of kindness, it is appropriate national consciousness. We excel in doing acts of that Judaism has different words for giving, kindness, such as charity and hospitality, because different types of giving and various different laws Avraham made this his focus.