This week's Dvar is not
for the Shabbat parasha reading for Chol Homoeid Sukkot but rather for V'zot
Habrakha, Deut. 33:1-34:12, which is read on Simchat Torah.
Parashat V'zot Habrakha
If Not Now, When?
Rashi understands Moshe's final words to the people as an expression of Hillel's philosophy of self-examination, quoted in Ethics of the Ancestors.
Overview
Moses addresses the Israelites one last time,
recounting the giving of the Torah and blessing them tribe by tribe. The
Israelites are standing on a mountain overlooking the Jordan Valley from the
east, but Moses will not be allowed to enter the Land of Israel with the rest of
the people. He dies, and is buried; the story of the Torah is now finished, and
the story of the judges and prophets begins.
In Focus
"And this is blessing by which Moses, the man of
God, blessed the Israelites before his death." (Deuteronomy 33:1)
Pshat
The penultimate chapter of the Torah contains a very
condensed history of the Israelites since Sinai, and a specific blessing for
each of the 12 tribes.
Drash
I want to focus on the subtle observations of the
greatest darshan (commentator) of them
all, Rashi. I've tried to show how close readings of the Torah text enable us to
find layers of meaning that a quick glance cannot reveal--and nobody does this
better than our friend from medieval France. Rashi notices every word: in the
verse above, he seems to be picking up on the apparently unnecessary phrase,
"before his death." (After all, could Moses have blessed the people after his death?) Thus, Rashi's explanation, based
on earlier sources:
"before his death"--"before" [Hebrew lifney] means close to his death, for if not now,
when?
In his usual terse manner, Rashi hints at the
urgency of Moses blessing, imagining that Moses felt that his death was imminent
and this was his last chance to impart any final words of wisdom to the people
he had shepherded for forty years. Moses could put off no longer any words which
he longed to speak, for this opportunity was fleeting.
Now, if we stopped right here with Rashi's midrash,
we'd have a powerful reminder that words between intimates cannot be postponed
indefinitely, for no one knows the day of his or her death. If you want to bless
your loved ones, or say anything else of significance, do so now, for you might
not have the warning that Moses received that his days were soon ending. This is
solid wisdom, often repeated, and still true for the repeating.
Yet Rashi hints at something else, as well. The
phrase "If not now, when?" was almost certainly known to him as part of a larger
statement in the name of Rabbi Hillel, from the section of the Talmud called Pirkei Avot ["Ethics of the Ancestors"]:
If I am not for myself, who is for me? When I am for
myself, what am I? If not now, when? (Pirkei Avot 1:14)
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