Nitzavim:Vayeilech – Hashem is close regardless of sins

If you had an employee like משה רבנו, how would you bid him farewell upon completion of his missions? Moshe did an extraordinary job of leading the people. Yes, he was reluctant to take the mantle at the burning bush and he argued there for 7 days, but after that he did what needed to be done. He successfully carried out the plagues against Egypt. He successfully led the people to הר סיני (which was the original litmus test for success that Hashem told him at the bush). He maintained a spiritual level where he could live in שמים without food or water for 40 days and nights. And he then goes on to lead the nation through the desert to the border of the Land, and he even destroyed the armies of סיחן and עוג and captured their land. Yes, he won’t make it into the Land but all said and done he has done what most would call a remarkable job. And even if he didn’t do the best job, if it was your employee’s last day at work, you would try to focus on the positive and try to have him leave on a good note.

The last real speech that Moshe gets from Hashem is the exact opposite. It sounds like something that would make Moshe feel like all his energies were to waste since the people are going to stray when they get to the land. Moshe, הנך שוכב עם אבותיך וקם העם הזה וזנה אחרי אלהי נכר הארץ. Moshe, you are going to lay eternally with your forefathers and this nation will get up and stray after foreign gods. And it doesn’t end. Hashem goes on to describe in detail how the people will turn to idols instead of their true God and that Hashem will let His anger flare against them and He will hide His Face from the people, terrible sounding stuff. And to think that this is the last piece that Moshe is given by Hashem seems terrible. Why would Hashem choose to tell Moshe this as the final goodbye? It seems cruel and very morbid. And the strangest part is Moshe is unfazed. He simply passes along the message to Yehoshua. How do we understand what this message was?

I think the answer lies in a few subtle points in the Pesukim which change the way Moshe took the entire goodbye speech.

Hashem lays out exactly what will happen and says that the Jews will say this: ואמר ביום ההוא הלא על כי אין אלהי בקרבי מצאוני הרעות האלה: ואנכי הסתר אסתיר פני ביום ההוא. The Sforno explains that the people mistakenly assume that Hashem is not among them, and Hashem is telling Moshe, I will always be among them. They can commit the gravest of sins and I will still be there at there side. I may hide My Face but I will be right there next to them. Why will it be this way? The next Pasuk answers that question for us. למען תהיה לי השירה הזאת לעד בבני ישראל, Hashem tells Moshe to teach the Jews the Torah as a beautiful song. This will ensure the we always will have the Torah and as Hashem says a few Pesukim later, כי לא תשכח מפי זרעו, their children will always remember the Torah.

The message that Moshe saw in this farewell speech from Hashem was that yes, the Jews are a stubborn nation and they inevitably will turn away from me, but their biggest mistake will be to think that I am not right there with them no matter what.

Moshe then writes out the full Torah from בראשית through וזאת הברכה and tells the לווים to place the Torah next to the ארון as testimony. There is a book written about a group of Rabbis who were summoned by the Dalai Lama to advise on how a nation is to survive in exile, we have been doing so for over 2 millennia, what’s the secret? And these Rabbis said that there is a commandment for the ארון that houses the לוחות to have poles attached to it which enabled it to be carried and it is forbidden to remove the poles, regardless of how long the ארון will be stationery for. For the hundreds of years that the בית המקדש stood the ארון had its poles waiting to be carried, but no other כלים of the בית המקדש had this law, why is that? And the answer is that the ארון which houses the לוחות and the Torah is meant to be portable and sadly able to be taken to exile with us. Hashem knows we aren’t perfect and that we will likely end up in גלות, but He set us up in a way that we will be able to carry our holiest vessel with us at all times.

This is the encouraging underlying message that Moshe heard the day of his death from Hashem and that is why he was not discouraged.

May we be zoche to carry our own personal לוחות through all our exiles and always know that although Hashem may be hiding His Face from us, He is always right next to us ready to accept us back with love.