Vezos Habracha – Inheritance

We finish another cycle of reading the Torah in just a few hours. But as we have been taught the Torah is a dynamic living entity with no beginning or end and so we immediately start from בראשית again to show that the Torah is one unit, like an amazing ride going around and around.

The Pasuk says תורה צוה לנו משה מורשה קהילות יעקב. This word מורשה only appears only one other time in the Torah, and it is at a time that could not be more opposite from the scenario where it is mentioned when we read it on שמחת תורה. Here, Moshe is addressing a full nation, millions of people who are about to enter the Promised Land with Hashem Himself leading them. The other place where this word appears is in פרשת וארא at the worst moment in the slavery of Egypt. Hashem sends Moshe to proclaim to the Jews that Hashem the God of their fathers is here to redeem them. He says I will redeem them and take them as My people, ונתתי אתה לכם מורשה אני יהוה… והבאתי אתכם אל הארץ. I will bring them into the Land that I promised to Avraham Yitzchak and Yakov and it will be an inheritance to them. But his words fall on deaf ears and crushed hearts, the Jews can’t even comprehend what he is saying and they dismiss Moshe as a looney. So, what is the meaning of this word that shows up in two diametrically opposite places?

The word מורשה means inheritance, but not in the typical sense of inheritance, the word for that is ירושה. This word is an inheritance from the “father’s” point of view. It means something that will be given over, and obviously anything that is given over is also received but the point is that the point of view is different. Rashi explains in פרשת וארא that because the people in Mitzrayim would not be the ones to enter the land therefore the Pasuk uses the word מורשה, since they would be “giving over” the inheritance of the land to their children. However, in our פרשה the Jews who were hearing these words had received the Torah and had not yet given it over, so why is the word מורשה used?

I think that this word teaches us our responsibilities to each other. In this week’s פרשה the word is referring to the Torah being an inheritance and in פרשת וארא it is referring to the Land of Israel being an inheritance. And I think that both of these are facets of our relationship with Hashem in this world. The Torah is literally how we connect to Hashem, the תורה שבכתב is His word and the תורה שבעל פה is our words connecting to His words. And Eretz Yisrael is the place on this world where Hashem’s presence is felt, the place where people plant patiently instead of partying and expecting immediate satisfaction. It’s a place where things aren’t taken for granted, where you need to turn on a dud before you can enjoy hot water. A place where even taxi drivers have incredible אמונה.

What is the secret to attain these things? To realize that they are inheritances, but not just a passive inheritance, it’s a proactive inheritance. It is each of our responsibilities to make sure that our children, or those that depend on us are able to receive and appreciate the gifts that Hashem gave us. We are meant to feel empowered and important in the role of Jewish history, we are not just bystanders, we are involved in the transmission of the Torah and the course of our nation’s history. And if you wake up and it doesn’t feel like that, always know that your ancestors before you also had crushing burdens on their backs and couldn’t either internalize the concept of מורשה when Moshe told them. But that didn’t stop Hashem from stepping in and redeeming them, and many of those people themselves and all their kids stood a mere 40 years later at the bank of the Jordan and heard the concept of מורשה again, and this time it penetrated their hearts and brought a smile to their faces.

As we dance with the Torah this year and hear the beautiful words of חתן תורה, let’s daven that soon we will be dancing through the streets of ירושלים with all our Jewish brothers.