Dvar Torah Parashat Vayelech - Yom Kippur

Dedicated Leilui Nishmat and in Loving Memory of

Yachoua & Alice Beyda A"H

By Charles and Renee Beyda & Family

________________________________________________________

Parashat Vayelech - Yom Kippur

The Jealousy Of Moshe Rabbenu

This week, in Parashat Vayelech, Hashem informed Moshe of the sad news that “The day of your death is approaching (31:14).” Moshe Rabbenu did not want to die, and on that last day, he wrote 13 Torah scrolls, one for each tribe plus a master copy that would remain in the Ark. Moshe reasoned, “Since I am occupying myself with Torah which is the source of life, the day will pass and the decree that I am to die will be nullified.”

Rabbi Frand quotes a midrash that says that Hashem instructed Moshe to call Yehoshua. Moshe offered Hashem a deal. “Let Yehoshua take over my role and lead the Jewish people but allow me to live.” Hashem responded, “If so, you will have to relate to Yehoshua as he related to you. He will be the leader, and you will be his disciple.” Moshe agreed to this offer. He went to Yehoshua’s house (as opposed to the former arrangement that Yehoshua came to him). From there they both went into the Tent of Meeting – Yehoshua as the Rav and Moshe as the disciple. The Shechina descended and spoke to Yehoshua. When the Shechina left, Moshe asked Yehoshua “What Word came to you?”

Asking such a question for the first time in his life must have been a most humbling experience for Moshe. Yehoshua answered, “When the Word came to you, did I know what was spoken to you?” This was a very gentle way of telling Moshe “It is none of your business. I am the Rabbi, and you are the disciple now.”

The midrash concludes that at that moment, Moshe began to scream, “Let me die 100 times rather than suffer this pang of jealousy that I am now feeling.” He was envious of Yehoshua. How is that possible? We are taught that a person is jealous of everyone except for his son and his student (Sanhedrin 105b).

Chiddushei Harim says that if I am a Rabbi and my son becomes a Rosh Yeshivah, I will not be jealous; I will be proud of him. If he becomes far more successful than I ever was, I will take it in stride and with pride. However, if he takes MY job, if I am forced into retirement, and he takes over my congregation or my yeshivah, that is hard to take, even from a disciple and or a son.

Rabbi Frand continues, saying that Moshe Rabbenu was 120 years old, about to die. And yet, he, himself, felt that he was being gripped with envy. He himself admit that the emotion he felt was worse than one hundred deaths. We see from here that if anyone ever claims, “I am too old to be jealous,” or “I am above that already” – don’t believe him. We are never finished with the challenge of being jealous – until we are in the grave. At least Moshe recognized it and admitted it. He was sensitive enough and wise enough to feel it and to declare “I don’t want any part of it!” We must be strong like Moshe Rabbenu, not just to pretend to overcome jealousy, but to admit to it and try to run away from it.

The Children Shall Learn

Parashat Vayelech continues, “Gather the people—men, women, children, and the strangers in your communities—so that they may hear and learn to revere your G-d and to observe faithfully every word of this Teaching. And their children … shall hear and learn to fear Hashem, your G-d, all the days that you live on the land to which you are crossing the Jordan, to possess it (31:12-13).”

Shouldn’t the Torah say, “all the days that they live on the land?” Why does the Torah tell the adults to teach the children for all the days their parents live on the land? Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky explains that we learn here that children must be trained and taught not for post-parental existence but rather “all the days that you live.” We must teach them to practice while we can enjoy the nachat! Torah is a living entity, not only to pass from dying embers to rekindle new flames but to pass a vibrant torch with leaping flames onto the youth whose boundless energy will inspire new generations!

The King is Amongst Us

Czar Nicolai would often dress as a peasant and mingle with his subjects to hear their thoughts on the kingdom. He gathered four men at local tavern and asked them if the king would grant you anything you wish for, what would you request?

One man asked for one million dollars, another asked for a mansion, and the third asked for a bank. The fourth man rolled his eyes and said, “I request you leave me at peace. You are asking foolish questions, and you cannot grant me anything.”

When the king returned home to his palace, he wrote letter to each of the four men. As requested, he sent one man one million dollars, one man received a mansion and the other a bank. To the fourth man he wrote, “You wanted to be left in peace, your wish is granted I will do so.”

In the upcoming days, it may be hard to be in shul for many hours. During this Holy time the king is amongst us! He is waiting to hear what we want. Let us strengthen our emunah that Hashem can give us anything, we just have to ask.

Letters of Our Souls

Have you ever wondered why Viduy is written in the order of the aleph-bet? Why do we ask for forgiveness each letter, “Ashamnu, Bagadnu….” all the way to the end of the alphabet?

R' Chaim of Volozhin explains. Every single Jew is a living Sefer Torah. Just like a Sefer Torah has 248 mitzvot asei—positive commandments, we have 248 limbs. And just like it has 365 mitzvot lo saaseh—negative commandments, we have 365 sinews and veins. The mitzvot are written into us. The holiness of the Torah is inside us.

When a person chooses to go against the will of Hashem, something awful happens. The kedushah that rested in the part of the body that violated the mitzvah begins to fade. The letters connected to that mitzvah are no longer written inside. They become detached, hovering in the air, waiting. The "Sefer Torah" becomes pasul. Something is missing.

But Hashem, in His infinite mercy, gave us Viduy, the gift of confession. We say our sins to help us return to Him. And so, we do teshuvah, cry to Hashem with bitterness of the heart, and recite Viduy in the order of the aleph-bet. Letter by letter, step by step, we go back and collect the letters we lost. We pull them back from the air. We call them home. With every word, we bring our kedushah back. With every tear, we write ourselves again. Until the holy Sefer Torah that is our soul becomes whole once more.

Full teshuvah rewrites us. Aleph. Bet. Gimml. Daled... From the beginning ... back to who we really are.

Mrs. Miriam Adler served as a principal at a Bet Yaakov in Yerushalayim. Her son, Shmuel, was born with significant brain damage. After rounds of tests, the doctors told Rabbi and Mrs. Adler the news: Their son was functioning at about fifty percent of what was expected for his age. It hit them hard. The future they had imagined seemed to evaporate in that one sentence.

But once the shock wore off, the Adlers made a decision. Shmuel was a gift from Hashem. They would not only raise him, but they would celebrate him. As he grew, they enrolled him in a school for children with developmental challenges. There, the staff did everything they could to help him learn. One day at a parent-teacher conference, Shmuel's teacher sat across from them and said, "We've tried everything: puzzles, plastic aleph-bet letters, sponge games. But we simply don't think Shmuel has the capacity to learn the aleph-bet."

Mrs. Adler's heart broke. No letters? No siddur? No bentcher? No tefillah? That night, she cried. And the next morning, she got up before dawn and poured her heart into every kapitel of Tehillim. She thanked Hashem for her son -his smile, his voice, his laughter- and she pleaded with Him, "Please let Shmuel learn the aleph-bet."

And she didn't stop. For eight months straight, every single morning, she recited the entire Sefer Tehillim.

Then one Thursday night, she held up a little plastic letter - a tzaddik - and with tears running down her cheeks, said to Hashem, "How can he become a tzaddik—righteous Jew if he can't even read the letter tzaddik?"

The next morning, Shmuel ran into her room, bright-eyed. "Mommy! I finished the puzzle. But I'm missing a letter. Where's the tzaddik?"

“What did you say?”

"The tzaddik," he repeated. "It's missing."

She raced to the living room. Sure enough, he had laid out every single aleph-bet letter in order - perfectly. Every single one. She went to the bakery, bought a bag of fresh croissants, and ran to his school to tell R' Dov Levy, the principal. He was known for believing in every child, and when he tested Shmuel and heard him say every single letter, one after the next, he stated, "It's a Yom Tov today."

He turned to Mrs. Adler. "Go home. Get him dressed in his Shabbat clothing. We're going to make a real celebration." An hour later, Shmuel walked back into school in his finest clothes. The music began. The children danced. They lifted him on their shoulders and celebrated as if a new Sefer Torah had been brought into the world. Because it had.

Two months later, there was another parent-teacher conference. This time, the teacher - not R' Dov - spoke. Her tone was cautious. "Yes, he knows the letters. But he still can't connect them into words. That may not be something he'll ever be able to do."

But Mrs. Adler had learned her lesson. She smiled, thanked the teacher, and went back to what she knew best. The next morning, and every morning after that, she once again opened her Tehillim and cried.

Years went by. One morning during the days of Selichot, as the girls of her school stood in the ladies section of the Zichron Moshe Shtiebach shul for Selichot, Mrs. Adler heard a voice, a voice that was familiar and pure.

She turned to one of the teachers. "Do you hear that voice?" "That's my son, Shmuel," she stated. ''That's my tzaddik."

Tears filled her eyes, not from pain, but from awe. "Every time I hear him lead Selichot," she said, "I hear the letters. The ones we thought were lost. The ones that took years to come home."

The same is with us. Our letters are lost. Because of our sins, we worry that we are no longer the Sefer Torah we once were. But then we do a heartfelt teshuvah and say Viduy. Letter by letter, we return. Aleph ... bet ... gimmel...... And yes, tzaddik. Like a mother arranging plastic letters with her son. If we do it right and from the heart, then slowly, the letters return. And the Sefer Torah that is each and every one of us becomes whole once more.

Over the next few days, please take this opportunity. Don’t wait until the last minute. Pick up the phone and make the call to a family member, a neighbor, or an old friend who might have been hurt by something you said or did. I guarantee you will feel it is the right thing to do. It will also help bring out all the blessings Hashem has in store for you this coming year. 

May we strive to run away from jealousy like Moshe Rabbenu, who gave up going to Eretz Yisrael to not be plagued with such a feeling. May we all appreciate the amazing gift of Yom Kippur and teshuvah that Hashem gave to us. May we take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to get closer to Hashem and make a complete atonement for all our sins. May we all realize deep in our hearts that Hashem is our King and the ultimate judge, but He is also our Father in Heaven who will always be there for us no matter how desperate we think our situation may be. There is no predicament that we as individuals or as a nation can be in that Hashem can't save us from. There’s no financial or health issue He can’t conquer; all we have to do is pray and shed tears that will break through the Heavens, and Hashem will surely answer, inscribing us in the Book of Life, Success and Good Health! Amen!

Shabbat Shalom and Tizku Leshanim Rabot!

Rabbi Amram Sananes, written by Jack Rahmey

This book is a compilation of Divre Torah from the weekly parasha classes from Rabbi Sananes’ teachings over the last 10 years along with my own experiences in those classes which has stimulated my Torah growth. I’ve included many pertinent stories and life lessons to grow from at your Shabbat table. There’s also questions and discussion points at the end of each Parasha to stimulate a Torah conversation at your Shabbat table for the whole family to participate in. Also, included is a holidays section at the end of the book to use for all of our special holidays and Yomiim Toviim.  Now available in all Jewish bookstores and Amazon! Scan the barcode on the right to purchase from Amazon.

Rabbi Sananes and I look forward to hearing your feedback.

Sincerely, Rabbi Amram Sananes and Jack E. Rahmey

AmramSananes@me.com and jrahmey@rahmeyfinancial.com (917-226-6276)               

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