Shalom Friends;
Our Simchat Torah vort is being sponsored by Simon and Aliza Baum and family of Ramat Beit Shemesh who dedicate this vort Lilui Nishmas in honor of Simon’s Parents: Chaya Miriam Bas Boruch and Simcha ben Yehuda Leib and for the safety of the Chayalim and the liberation of all remaining hostages and their return home home without experiencing any further harm, as well as for the good health and security of kol Am Yisrael. To the Baum family, many thanks for your sponsorship and your continued kindnesses.
You can celebrate a Simcha — a birth, a Bar/Bat Mitzvah, a Chassuna or other Simcha event in your life, or commemorate a Yahrtzeit of a loved one, or for whatever other reason by sponsoring (or as the case may be, co-sponsoring) a Parshat HaShevua.
Please forward to your relatives and friends and encourage them to sponsor a Parshat HaShevua. And please be in contact with me with any questions, or for further details.
Best Regards,
Moshe Burt
olehchadash@yahoo.com
skype: mark.burt3
*******************************
We learn that Sh’mini Atzeres is expressed with a perspective as if one’s entire family, from various venues, are all together and savoring the love, bonding and enjoyment of being together — between each of the parents and their off-spring and their spouses, the siblings with each other and with their parent(s), grandchildren and great-grandchildren as well as families with their friends and with their kehillot.
So when it comes time for the branches of the families, as well as maybe out-of-town friends, to leave to return to their various venues and responsibilities, the elder parent pleads that the offspring, that the family, the guests and all assembled stay together for one more day. And so Hashem Kovei’yokhel (as He is) Calls to His loved ones — the B’nei Yisrael, whereever they reside, to stay with Him for one more day.
And so, on Simchat Torah, we follow the leyning of V’zos HaBracha and the leyning of the seven days of Breish’t in a spirit of bonding with Hashem that is the last day of Yom Tov. And when we make our home in Hashem’s special, designated Land — Eretz Yisrael, the joy of Simchat Torah increases countless-fold as we dance seven Hakafot with Sifrei Torah, for we are with Him in His Very Palace.
Moshe, following the tradition which began with Yaakov just before his passing, gave individual Brachot to each of the Shevatim (tribes) of B’nei Yisrael as conveyed in Parshat V’zos HaBrachot. (As Torah records in Sefer Devarim, Perek 33, posukim 1 – 29)
This author excerpts from one of Rabbi Shmuel Goldin’s vorts, in his Sefer, “Unlocking the Torah Text,” Sefer Devarim (page 365) :
The Midrash discerns a textual nuance connecting these two scenes [Ya’akov’s Brachot to his offspring from his deathbed and Moshe’s final Brachot to his people], centuries apart. Ya’akov’s Brachot close with the statement “V’zot (And this is) what their father spoke to them. ” (Rabbi Goldin citing Sefer Breish’t, Perek 49, posuk 28) Moshe’s Brachot are introduced with the statement “V’zot (And this is) the Bracha that Moshe spoke. (Rabbi Goldin citing Sefer Devarim, Perek 33, posuk 1)
At the close of the Patriarchal era, the Midrash explains, Yaakov turns to his sons and declares: “In the future, a man like me is destined to bless you; and from the place I end, he will begin…” (Rabbi Goldin citing Sifrei on Sefer Devarim, Perek 33, posuk 1)
As this vort is being developed, we are but a few weeks from the one year anniversary of our ongoing War of Simchat Torah.
Recalling the day: how reservist soldiers were activated enmass — often hearing of their Tzav Shemona as they davened in Shul, communities throughout Israel were alerted to be aware of possible terrorist activities throughout the country, Hakafot were abbreviated and often communal tefillot retreated to the Shul’s Ma’amad (safe room) due to sirens indicating possible bombardment of Hamas rockets and UAVs.
After conveying Brachot on each of the Sh’vatim, Moshe conveys a final Bracha on Am Yisrael as a collective before his passing. These posukim are customarily read for the Chassan Torah. Torah records:
“May your borders be sealed like iron and copper. and like the days of your prime, so may your old age be. There is none like Hashem, O Yeshurun; He rides across Heaven to help you, and in His majesty through the upper heights. That is the abode of Hashem immemorial, and below are the world’s mighty ones; He drove the enemy away from before you, and He said. ‘Destroy!’ Thus Israel shall dwell secure, solitary, …in a land of grain and wine, even his heavens shall drip with dew. Fortunate are you, O Israel: Who is like you! O people delivered by Hashem, the Shield of your help, Who is the Sword of your grandeur; your foes will try to deceive you, but you will trample their haughty ones.” (Sefer Devarim, Perek 33, posukim 25 – 29 as rendered to English in the The Artscroll Stone Edition Chumash and in the Artscroll Succot Machzor)
“The Living Torah,” by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, z”l provides a footnote to Sefer Devarim, Perek 33, posuk 29 based on the key word here which seems to be “Yekawchashu” which The Artscroll Stone Edition Chumash and the Artscroll Succot Machzor render as “deceive you.” Rabbi Kaplan, in The Living Torah (page 1042) cites Targum; Ibn Janach; Radak, Sherashim. Kachash is the root word in Hebrew.
Rabbi Kaplan’s “The Living Torah,” (page 1,045) continues offering alternative understandings of the word “Yekawchashu” from the root word “Kachash” :
“will deny [their hatred”] citing Chizkuni; “will speak falsely” citing Septuagint; or “will renounce their principles” citing Rav Hirsch, or “Hashem will subjugate your enemies” citing Saadia.
The last two phrases of posuk 29, as rendered in both The Artscroll Stone Edition Chumash and the Artscroll Succot Machzor “your foes will try to deceive you, but you will trample their haughty ones” seems to this author to be a foretelling of the years running up to last Simchat Torah as well as the onset of, and conduct of the war itself.
NOTE: Many thanks to Rabbi Eliezer Brodt for his assistance in finding sources regarding Sefer Devarim, Perek 33, posuk 29.
Over the past twenty years, since the Hitnatchut — the expulsion of the Jews of Gush Katif, as well as Jews from certain Shomron Yishuvim, through to the run-up to our War of Simchat Torah, we’ve suffered repeated intermittent Gaza conflicts of various intensities, i.e. ever more sophisticated rockets, fiery balloons, anti-tank shells, etc. which always seemed to end in a matter of days or a week indecisively with a ceasefire brought about by a leftist agendized IDF high command which seemingly has forgotten how to win (if they ever were instilled with such wisdom from jump-street). All the while, Hamas retooled for each of the next rounds.
So who exactly are the foes, the enemies trying to deceive us in our time — during our existential Milchemet shel Torah — the War of Simchat Torah?
Are our enemies only Hamas, or Hezbollah, the Iraqis, Yemen’s Houthies, Qatar, the PA or Iran itself or even Egypt who don’t hide their hate and disdain for us and seek our eradication?
Or are they our enemies within: Israel’s version of a deep state: inherently Leftist media, entrenched ministerial bureaucracies, unrepresentative and undemocratic judicial dictatorship which overrides any Knesset legislative attempts to pass into law any reform measure aimed at strengthening Israel’s hold and sovereignty over Eretz Yisrael? Are they a seeming governmental addiction to American military with its dictates and strings attached — i.e. the constant refrain of the Biden – Kamala Harris administration and their puppet-masters about the bogus “two-state solution
Questions for all Jews to focus on, whether in here in Israel, or throughout the world. But in the final analysis, as posuk 29 ends; “but you will trample their haughty ones,” or as Rabbi Kaplan cites Sa’adia; “Hashem will subjugate your enemies.”
Rabbi Goldin writes in his sefer. “Unlocking the Torah Text” concluding Sefer Devarim (page 382):
The Torah starts with Hashem and ends with man, challenging us to recognize that when all is said and done, the value of Hashem’s Torah depends upon us. The Torah acquires its significance in the world when its lessons and laws shape our lives.
The Torah starts with Hashem and ends with man to teach us that Hashem’s Torah is just the starting line from which man’s real journey begins.
May it be that our Chayalim, regardless of the machinations of their high command, emerge totally victorious — eradicating from the face of the earth Hamas, their terrorist buddies and the so-called “innocent civilians” of Gaza who joined with Hamas in their murderous deeds, that the Chayalim return home whole — physically, mentally and spiritually and that the Chayalim Liberate and bring home all remaining hostages. And may we see the restoration of true unity within Am Yisrael.
May we, the B’nei Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently re-settled in Gush Katif, once the IDF, by the Yad Hashem, destructs and eradicates the wild beasts of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, all other terror entities, and if necessary Iran, and that our brethren be made totally whole — be totally restituted for all that was stolen from them, that the thrice expelled families of Amona be restored to their rebuilt homes and the oft-destroyed Yeshiva buildings in Homesh be rebuilt, as well as the buildings of Yishuv Elchanan, all at total government expense. May our Chayalim return from battle unharmed — physically, mentally and spiritually and may all of the remaining hostages brutally taken by the wild beasts of Hamas be liberated and brought home to their families. Baruch Hashem that our dear brother Jonathan Pollard is now in his fourth year at home in Eretz Yisrael and continues in a new chapter in his life. May Esther Yocheved bat Yechiel Avraham have an aliyah in Shemayim and may her spirit and memory continue to lift Jonathan to at least 120 years. May the MIAs be liberated alive and returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem — as with the return in April, 2019, via Russia, of the remains of Zachariah Baumel, as should the remains of the two chayalim from the Gaza War of ten years ago. May we have the courage and strength to stand up and physically prevent the possibility of Chas V’Challila any future eviction of Jews from their homes and prevent Chas V’Challila the handing of Jewish land over to anyone, let alone to enemies sworn to Israel’s and Judaism’s destruction and eradication. May we see, in 5785, the REAL Jews from the Ukraine and Russia as well as the US and Canada, the real Jews via matrilineal descent, make Aliyah enmass — via thorough review by Misrad HaPanim. And may we soon and finally see the total end to the Communist Chinese Wuhan Lab corona virus pandemic and all like viruses and variants. May we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nei Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha to see the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem Al’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bimhayrah b’yamainu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!
L’Shana Tova, Chag Same’ach! — may all subscribers: enjoy a healthy, happy, sweet and prosperous 5785 and every year thereafter to at least 120!
———————————————————
Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
*********************************************************