Good to see that you-all have made it to the fun side of the high holy-days.  This week we finish up with our new year celebrations, and we also finish reading the fifth and final book that our man Moshe (Moses) transcribed.  Our final parsha (weekly Torah portion), which we read this Thursday (if you are inside Israel and on Friday everywhere else), is called v’Zot haBracha which means, “And this is the blessing.”

Why is our parsha called this?  Because, this parsha is made up of just two things:  the final blessing Moshe gives the tribes, and the death of Moshe himself.

Our parsha begins by telling us that this is the blessing that Moshe blessed the children of Yisrael with.  He begins the blessing by telling the children of Yisrael how haShem (god) came to them from Mount Sinai, and that haShem holds dear nations, and that their holiness is in our hands.  He tells them (and us) that the Torah is our heritage.

Moshe then begins to bless each of the tribes (minus Shimon).  Reuvan is blessed to live and not die, Yehuda (Judah) is blessed that haShem will hear his voice and be brought to his people and have haShem help him.  Levi’s blessing is to teach the people, the priesthood, blessings in possessions, and in his endeavors.  Benyamin (Benjamin) will live securely with haShem around him.  Yoseph (Joseph) is blessed with wonderful land, weather, and produce.  Zvulun is to be joyous in traveling, and Yissachar is to be joyous in his home.  Gad is blessed to judge Israel.  Dan is a lion cub.  Naphtali is blessed with contentment.  Asher gets the blessing of oil and minerals.  The blessing ends by saying that all of Yisrael should be joyous living securely with haShem as shield and sword.

Having finished the blessing, there is nothing left for Moshe to do but go up the mountain where haShem shows Moshe the land his is giving to the descendants of Avraham, Yitzhak (Isaac), and Yaakov (Jacob).  Moshe then dies there by the mouth of haShem, and we are told the general place that haShem buried him.  We are also told that Moshe was 120 and that the people wept for him for the 30 days of mourning.

We are then told that Y’hoshua (Joshua), son of Nun is filled with a wind/spirit of wisdom because Moshe laid his hands on him.  We also learn that the children of Yisrael listened to him and did as Moshe commanded them (see all of this book which we just finished).  Our parsha, and this fifth book, and the Torah itself, ends by saying that no other prophet arose in Yisrael like Moshe, whom god knew face to face, and whom god told to do awe-inspiring things in Egypt, in the sight of Yisrael.

And with that, we are done.

Ok, not really, for we also began reading the Torah again (just the first creation story) on this very same day that we finish reading it, as well as this coming shabbat (the whole first parsha).

The beginning, god willing, I will share in the next day or two.  One thing I will say, though, is that while it might seem like the same beginning, it is really a new beginning that is happening at the same time.

While we read the same story of creation, the world being created is brand new.  It is, on one level, the world with Y’hoshua as our leader, and a world where we can begin to settle on the land promised to us.  We are also a new creation, and hence, as we read about the world being created, it is not the same world we had last week, it is a brand new world.  Why?  Because we are different, therefore the world must be different.

But let’s get back to our parsha.  Tell me, what did you think of the parsha anyway?

I’ll tell you a couple of things I thought about.  One thing that I thought about was the blessing that was given to Yehuda.  In particular, I was struck by the wording that reads, “Listen, haShem, to the voice of Yehuda, and to his people you will bring him…” (verse 33:7 of D’varim/Deuteronomy).

It does not say that the people will come to Yehuda; it says that Yehudah will be brought to the people.  What does this mean?

Well, for one thing, it means that all the people have to come together again.

Before I continue, I want to remind everybody that the meshiach (messiah – literally anointed) comes from the tribe of Yehuda.  So, what this is telling us is that before the meshiach can be brought to us, we must first all come back together.  The tribes of the northern kingdom (the kingdom of Yisrael which split after king Shlomo (Solomon) died), must, once again, be joined together with the rest of us.  How is this possible?  I don’t know, however, if haShem can take us out from Egypt, she can certainly take us out of each of the other nations we are scattered in.

The next question is, how do we know what tribe we belong to?  After all, we can’t know if all the tribes are accounted for if we don’t know what tribe we belong to.

This is the blessing that Moshe is giving us.  You see, Moshe is blessing us with the blessing of who we are now.  So, all we have to do is look and see which tribe sounds like us.

For example, if you feel safe and secure and that divinity sits between your shoulders, you are probably from the tribe of Benyamim.  If you are joyous in going out and traveling, you might be from the tribe of Zvulun; if you are a homebody, you might be from Yissachar.  If you feel contentment all the time, and feel full of blessing, you might be a child of Naphtali, and if you have a thing about rocks and minerals, your great, great grand-dad just might be Asher.  I haven’t mentioned all the tribes, but I am sure you get the idea.

And I hope you get something else out of this:  that each of us is different; that each one of us has a different blessing, a different way of serving haShem, and yet, we are still one family.

And if we want haShem to bring meshiach, then we need to not just act as a family, but be a family.  We need to live together and love one-another, even though we are each a little bit different.  We need to recognize that those differences do not represent a deficiency in the person; rather, these differences complement us.  If we want to be whole and complete (what shalom really means because you only get to peace when you are whole and complete) as a family, we need each and every one of us – complete with each and every one of our different traits – traits that Moshe himself has blessed us with!

I bless everybody with the strength and the courage to welcome home our long lost brothers and sisters with open arms, and with the excitement of receiving the gifts of their experiences and of their blessings – the blessings, that are really our blessing from Moshe rabbaynu (our teacher in Hebrew).

If you want to read what I wrote about this parsha last year, click here.

About the Author

Shmuel Shalom Cohen spent 10 years studying Torah in Jerusalem. Six years ago, he started Conscious Torah to help Jews connect to their tradition in ways they didn’t think possible. Shmuel also started, and is the executive directory of Jewish Events Willamette-valley, a non-profit whose mission is to build Jewish community, pride, and learning. In his free time, Shmuel likes walks in nature, playing music, writing poetry, and time with good friends.