SURVIVING THE GOODBYE
Every person has surely gone through the process of bidding farewell, of saying goodbye, to someone they care about. It could be something small, like saying goodbye to children going away for a weekend. It could be saying goodbye to a grandparent, or other relative, after an enjoyable visit for a few days. It could be a child leaving home for an extended time. And so forth.
It could also be a farewell for good, a real goodbye, to someone about to leave this world whose time has come.
The degree of emotion and sentiment in parting from someone depends, obviously, on the circumstance. The situation also dictates what would be shared between those who are taking leave of each other.
And sometimes it may be too difficult to share anything, as the reactions may be too much for either party.
On September 11, when those on the doomed planes as wells as those on the top floors of the World Trade Center realized they have but a short time to live, several managed to speak with, or email to, their loved ones. Most of the sentiments involved how much they loved the person they were addressing, amid a final goodbye.
It is almost impossible to imagine being faced with such a compelling moment: the emotions, the memories, the feelings, and so forth. Even more, are there any sage words to be shared, aside from the emotional “I love you”? Can anyone really think at highly charged times of leave-taking, let alone at times like that?
While no one may ever know how to answer this quandary – and may no one ever have to be in such a quandary, either – the Torah, in this week’s portion, “Vayielech,” does share the words and the actions of Moses, on his final day on this earth.
Three general themes categorize the final day of Moses, divided into the final three portions of the Torah: 1) instruction and action, 2) admonishment, and 3) blessings.
The admonishment, which takes up the bulk of next week’s Torah portion, is in a song format, to make it easier to remember. The blessings, appearing in the final Torah portion, are directed to the distinct tribes. Those are the words Moses shared with all the Jewish people during his final hours.
This week’s Torah portion centers, mainly, around the actions Moses took on his final day. And all the actions were concentrated upon the Torah and its Mitzvos, its instructions.
First, he addressed all the people and shared with them that he could “no longer go before you and bring you back.” (D’varim (Deuteronomy) 31:2.) According to the Chassidic masters, he was saying that he had attained the highest spiritual plane possible for a human being. As this was only possible on his final day, he could no longer lead the people towards more lofty spiritual goals.
Upon completing this speech, Moses wrote a Torah scroll, and handed it to the priests and the rest of the Levite tribe. He told them that, once in seven years, when all the Jewish people, men women and children, assemble at the Temple, this Torah should be read, as a reminder for them to observe it. (10-13.)
The next step was a prediction that the Jewish people would be enticed not to follow and observe the Torah’s commandments, and thedire consequences to which this would lead. (14-18.)
And then there is the commandment – the final commandment of the Torah – that each person must write their own Torah, “as a witness to the children of Israel.” (19.)
Finally, Moses instructs the Levites to place the Torah scroll he had written, “Beside the Ark of the covenant of G-d, your G-d. And it will be there as a witness.” (26.)
Moses cared about the Torah and its unique relationship with the Jewish people. The Jewish people are called the “People of the Book,” since the Jewish people are not bound to a specific culture, language or land (Jewish people have adopted any language and still remained Jewish, and the Holy Land has been devoid of the entire Jewish people much longer than it had the entire people, yet the Jewish people and Judaism have continued for millennia.)
The Jewish people are a nation, bound together by a single common denominator: The Torah and its commandments. It is the unwavering and stubborn observance of Shabbos, Jewish festivals, Kosher, prayer, and so forth, that has caused the Jewish people to continue as a people and a nation.
On January 1, 2000, the New York Times ran a Millennium edition. It was a special issue that featured three front pages. One had the news from January 1, 1900. The second was the actual news of the day, January 1, 2000. And then they had a third front page projecting future events of January 1, 2100. This fictional page included things like a welcome to the fifty-first state: Cuba as well as a discussion as to whether robots should be allowed to vote. And so on. In addition to the fascinating articles, there was one more thing. Down on the bottom of the Year 2100 front page was the candle lighting time in New York for January 1, 2100. Nobody paid for it. It was just put in by the Times. The production manager of the New York Times – an Irish Catholic - was asked about it. His answer: “We don’t know what will happen in the year 2100. It is impossible to predict the future. But of one thing you can be certain: in the year 2100 Jewish women will be lighting Shabbos candles!”
Moses understood the power of the Torah better than anyone. He was so enmeshed with the Torah that the Torah itself attributes it to him: “The Torah which Moses commanded us…” (33:4.) On his final day, as he was preparing to say goodbye, his actions included the emphasis on the Torah: He wrote one, he instructed that everyone should possess one, he asked that it be treated as a testimony, and he instructed that his scroll be placed inside the Temple’s holiest spot, the Holy of Holies, right by the Ark. This would ensure that everyone would always appreciate its significance and its cornerstone as the future of the Jewish people.
The above explains the law regarding the placement of the Torah of Moses “Beside the Ark of the Covenant.” There is a debate in the Talmud (Bava Basra, 14) as to where precisely this scroll was placed. Was it inside the Ark, “beside” the Tablets, housed inside the Ark, or literally “beside” (next to) the Ark. The final ruling: It is to be placed on a shelf protruding from the Ark.
The Torah scrolls of today are an exact copy of the one Moses wrote. The Torah contains relative detail instructions, together with stories of historical and instructional importance. The Tablets, on the other hand, contained the Ten Commandants, which are concise and limited to a handful of words. True, the handful of words pack great and mighty revelations of Divine energy and information, but practically speaking, they were very general.
The Tablets represent a more intense and Heavenly representation of the Torah and its instructions. The Torah scroll, with its many more details and words, represents a more down-to-earth exemplification of the divine Torah.
Similarly, the Holy of Holies, represented Divinity in its most sublime manner possible on this physical earth. The rest of the Temple was not as intense.
The ruling of where to place the Torah provides an important lesson about the Torah: The Torah, represents the wisdom of the Almighty. It epitomizes the most intense wisdom available to mankind.
Moses desired, though, that this wisdom, while housed in, and affiliated with, the most intense G-dliness, be accessible to every single person. The Torah was, therefore, placed on a shelf protruding from Ark, but it was not placed inside it.
On Moses’ final day on this earth, he was in complete control, and understood how important his farewell would be. His final action, then, was to have this Torah placed inside the Holy of Holies, but in a visible manner. It was as though the message was: Never forget the origin of the Torah, yet, at the same time, never forget how the Torah is accessible to everyone, as it is the one thing that will continue to allow the Jewish nation to survive.
The Torah of Moses continues to live, and continues to be the one thing that makes the Jewish the resilient, the committed, and the enduring nation it is, and will continue to be.
SUMMARY: On his final day, Moses did what he could to emphasize how vital and essential the Torah is to the very survival of the Jewish people.