Parashat Vayelech - Insights and Questions
Read the biblical text and try to understand it on your own, before reading the commentary.
Parashat Vayelech is a short parasha, yet there is something almost cinematic in it: Moses knows that his days as a leader are about to end. He will not enter the land. Joshua will lead in his place. And instead of the parasha turning into a sad farewell story, Moses does an amazing thing - he is busy with the future.
At a hundred and twenty years old, Moses stands before the people of Israel and tells them that the journey with him is coming to its end. But his central message is not “I am leaving”, but “you are continuing”.
He strengthens the people ahead of the entry into the land, and then does something every great leader is tested by: he publicly strengthens the one who will replace him, Joshua son of Nun.
The Torah says:
“chazak ve’ematz” - “Be strong and courageous” (Deuteronomy 31:7).
Moses does not leave behind only a leader. He leaves a whole system that will go on even when he is not there: the Torah is written and handed to the priests and the elders, and the commandment of Hakhel is set so that a whole people - men, women, children and strangers - will hear the Torah again and again. Later comes also the painful knowledge that Israel may drift away from God, and so the song is given, to accompany the people and remain in its memory even in hard times. This whole structure sits in Deuteronomy chapter 31, which is the content of Parashat Vayelech.
And now to a few insights hiding beneath the surface.
1. Moses’ last test is not whether he knows how to lead - but whether he knows how to let go
This is an insight and interpretation drawn from the course of the parasha.
Moses could have stood before the people toward the end of his life and turned the farewell into a story about himself. Instead, he turns the gaze toward Joshua.
And this is perhaps one of the greatest lessons in leadership: a true leader does not build a world that cannot exist without him. He builds a world that can go on after him.
Even the phrase “be strong and courageous” is said to Joshua before the eyes of all Israel (Deuteronomy 31:7). That is, the encouragement is not only personal. It is also a public transfer of authority.
2. The fear does not disappear - but one can walk together with it
Notice: Moses does not promise the people that there will be no enemies, hardships or dangers. On the contrary. They stand before the entry into the land and before the confrontation with the peoples living in it.
And exactly there it is said:
“chizku ve’imtzu al tire’u ve’al ta’artzu mipneihem” - “Be strong and courageous, do not fear and do not dread them” (Deuteronomy 31:6).
Insight: courage in the Torah here is not described as a state in which there is no fear. It appears precisely where there is reason to fear - and still one goes forward.
3. One of the amazing ideas in the parasha: for the Torah to survive, children must be inside the story
In the commandment of Hakhel the men, the women and the little ones are named explicitly (Deuteronomy 31:12).
Insight and interpretation: the Torah does not plan the future only through scholars and leaders. It brings the small child, too, into the national experience.
He may not yet understand everything. But he hears. He sees. He is there.
Sometimes identity begins long before understanding.
4. And the most unsettling part, in my eyes: Moses parts from the people knowing that they will still fail
The parasha does not end with the illusion of “and they all lived happily ever after”.
Moses receives in advance a hard picture: there will be periods of drifting away, of hiding of the face, of troubles and crises (Deuteronomy 31:16-21).
And still - the Torah is written. Joshua receives the mission. Hakhel is set. The song is taught.
And this is an insight and interpretation: the Torah does not describe here a people that does not fail, but a people that may fall and drift away - and still the Torah and the song go on accompanying it from generation to generation.
Perhaps that is why the name Vayelech, “and he went”, is so strong.
Moses goes.
Joshua begins to go.
The people go to the land.
And the Torah must go on going from generation to generation.
Tavo versus tavi: one letter, two conceptions of leadership
There is one novelty in Parashat Vayelech that one can read the parasha dozens of times without noticing - and once you see it, it is hard to “unsee”.
Moses strengthens Joshua and says to him:
“ki atah tavo et ha’am hazeh” - “for you shall come with this people” (Deuteronomy 31:7).
But a few verses later, when the Holy One commands Joshua, the wording changes:
“ki atah tavi et bnei Yisrael” - “for you shall bring the children of Israel” (Deuteronomy 31:23).
Did you notice?
Tavo versus tavi. “You shall come” versus “you shall bring”.
One letter changed - and suddenly the whole conception of leadership changes.
Rashi notices exactly this. On Deuteronomy 31:7 he explains that Moses says to Joshua:
“The elders of the generation will be with you; everything according to their view and their counsel”
And later in the same comment Rashi adds that, unlike the words of Moses, the Holy One says to Joshua:
“Bring them, against their will; everything depends on you”
And he concludes:
“One leader for a generation, and not two leaders for a generation”
Rashi on Deuteronomy 31:7, following Sanhedrin 8a.
And here comes the amazing part.
Tavo, “you shall come”, means, along this line, that you enter together with them. You are part of the journey. You listen to the elders, consult, make room for others.
But tavi, “you shall bring”, means: sometimes the leader is not only one who walks with the public. He is the person who must bring the public to the destination.
And that is already a huge difference.
There are moments when a leader must walk with the people.
And there are moments when, if he only walks with them, everyone will get lost.
This is already my own insight and homily following Rashi, not a quotation from a source: perhaps this is why Joshua needs so much encouragement precisely in Parashat Vayelech. His challenge is not only to conquer the land. He has to learn, in a single moment, the almost impossible balance of leadership - when to be with the people, and when to say: now I must lead the people.
And here is one more especially beautiful detail: both times it is said to Joshua in the context of “be strong and courageous” (Deuteronomy 31:7; 31:23). That is, one may expound that a leader’s courage is required in both directions - courage to listen to others, and courage to decide when the decision cannot be left to everyone.
And this turns two tiny letters - tavo / tavi - into a whole lesson in leadership.
Questions on Parashat Vayelech
- Why does the Torah open precisely with the words “and Moses went” - where exactly did Moses go, and why is the place he went to not stated at all? (Deuteronomy 31:1)
- Moses says he is a hundred and twenty years old “today”. Why is it important to stress “today”, and what can be learned from this word about the end of his life? (31:2)
- How can Moses say he can no longer go out and come in, and yet go on acting, speaking, writing and leading until the end of the parasha? (31:2)
- Why does Moses say first that God will cross before the people, and only afterward that Joshua will cross before them? Who really leads Israel? (31:3)
- Why are the people told “be strong and courageous” in the plural, while Joshua is told in the singular? Is there a difference between the courage a public needs and the courage a leader needs? (31:6-7)
- Why does Moses strengthen Joshua precisely before the eyes of all Israel and not in a private conversation between the two of them? (31:7)
- What is the dramatic difference between Moses’ words to Joshua “you shall come” and God’s words to him later “you shall bring”? Does one letter reveal two different conceptions of leadership? (31:7; 31:23)
- Why, precisely at the moment when Moses is about to leave the stage, does he write the Torah and hand it to others? Is this the way a person makes his influence larger than his life? (31:9)
- Why does the commandment of Hakhel take place precisely after the Sabbatical year and on the festival of Sukkot? What is it about this combination that makes it a fitting time for hearing the Torah? (31:10-11)
- Why does the Torah require bringing the little ones, too, to the Hakhel gathering? What is a small child, who may not understand the words, supposed to receive from the event? (31:12)
- Why does a chain of hearing, learning, fearing and doing appear in the Hakhel passage? Is the Torah describing here the way an idea turns into life? (31:12)
- Why does the Torah especially stress the children “who have not known”? Is it sometimes precisely the one who does not yet know who can receive something the adult already finds hard to hear? (31:13)
- Moses knows his days are drawing near to death, and yet he is commanded to call Joshua and present him. Why is the parting from Moses so strongly tied to the building of the next leader? (31:14)
- Why does the transfer of leadership to Joshua take place in the Tent of Meeting and in the presence of the pillar of cloud? What does this say about the difference between a human appointment and a mission? (31:14-15)
- Why, precisely at the festive moment of the transfer of leadership, is such a hard prophecy about the people’s future sins revealed to Moses? Why not let him part in hope? (31:16-18)
- What exactly is the “hiding of the face” in the parasha - is it only a punishment, or is there here a deep description of a state in which a person feels that the Divine has vanished from his life? (31:17-18)
- Why, when the troubles come, do the people say that their God is not in their midst, and yet immediately afterward a continued hiding of the face is described? What is still missing in their recognition? (31:17-18)
- Why is the solution God gives to the people’s future forgetting precisely a song? Why not another book of laws, a speech or a monument? (31:19)
- What is there in a song that can survive in generations in which even the covenant is forgotten? Can music and memory reach a place that arguments do not reach? (31:19-21)
- Why is it said of the song that it will be “a witness”, as if the song itself had the ability to stand before a person and testify about him? (31:19-21)
- The parasha describes a state in which abundance itself may lead to drifting away. Is a greater spiritual danger sometimes found precisely in satiety rather than in trouble? (31:20)
- What is the meaning of the idea that the song “will not be forgotten from the mouth of his offspring”? How can a text remain in the national memory even in periods when people live contrary to its message? (31:21)
- Why does Moses write both the Torah and the song? What is the difference between something that must be written in a book and something that must be in the mouth? (31:9; 31:19-22)
- Why is the Torah scroll placed beside the Ark of the Covenant to be a witness? What is the meaning of placing the words next to the place that symbolizes the covenant itself? (31:26)
- And the question that is perhaps the most unsettling in the parasha: if Moses already knows that the people will rebel and corrupt their way after his death, why does he go on investing in them until the last moment? Does Parashat Vayelech teach that faith in a person does not depend on knowing that he will always succeed? (31:27-29)