SimchaTorah: Deuteronomy 33:1 to 34:12 and Bereshith 1:1 to 6:8

Simcha Torah


The last word in Deuteronomy is Yisrael. Story finished right? After all, the scroll is complete. The Israelites are about to enter the Promised Land.

Not quite though. What happens is this. On one level, the Haftorah portion Joshua keeps us marching forward in the here and now. On another level, the physical roll of the Torah from Deuteronomy to Bereshith solidifies the march towards consciousness. Earthly or heightened, there is absolutely no doubt that Tanach emphasizes unity of all perspectives… beyond life and death and within our community. As Rashi comments… when there is a unified group there is peace and God is King…but not when we are in strife.

In other words, it not only bodes well to remain unified, we must.

I think one challenge to our unification presents itself after the seeming death of Moses. Some say Moses doesn’t die. Some say his grave was set at creation .

In any case, sad as it is, the death of Moses is not the issue. The issue is how we can envision Moses and his death so that we see the inter-dependency of Yisrael and Bereshith. And act on it. In other words we want to stay unified not only during the untiring work of Moses (for the sake of God) but when Moses isn’t visibly here (for the sake of God).

I’d like to relate a personal story. I grew up about forty minutes northwest of New York City in a town called Harrison. Meanwhile, I had relatives on Long Island. I remember quite clearly the long rides out to Woodmere during the holidays. They were very long rides. You see, my mother and her two sisters-in-law (my father had two brothers) did not get along too well. Still, despite their conflicts (of which there were many) they would somehow get it together every year to please Grandpa Herman and Grandma Evelyn. That’s what it was all about. My grandparents. Then they died. Then the gatherings stopped. Just like that.

In Exodus we read and the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them the way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light. In Talmud this is a verse further used to explain the connection between Deureronomy and Bereshith.

Whether day or night, whether young or old, whether in life or in death, there is a continuity and a recycling of the expanse and intimacy of God. Torah begins with an act of benevolence (God’s clothing of Adam and Eve) and ends with an act of benevolence (God’s burying of Moses) . With or without our prophet, with the expanse of the beginning and the point at the end, with all of the vibrations in the blessings, God is there to lead us.

So, even though Moses has spoken to us time and time again…and even though we rightly cling to the memory of our matriarchs and patriarchs … what’s important is that our unity is not a manifestation of the energy of any one life, rather the reflection of a beyond life/death radiance. Our responsibility to remain unified carries on beyond the life of Moses beyond his death and beyond the grave that we can’t see and don’t know. Our unification is carried into a beginning and the breath before the beginning.

It has been said that God did not create water. God also did not create the community. He split the water there previous and created earth. He took the unification there previous and created man. He told man to be fruitful and multiply but as a commandment (Talmud) not as an act of creation. And while hitting a rock with a stick does not nearly reach the level of consciousness necessary to raise a body of water…small actions as well can’t raise up the body of unification. Rabbi Nachman writes about this beautifully. We need to propel our intention from our minds-eye as well as from our hands. If we want water we have to focus our divine sparks like rain sticks to the heavens.

Therefore, as we continue to reach to community may we rejoice in the cycling of Torah and be the mitzvoth and be the unified Israelites even before the beginning. May we take the Torah and with our hands roll it and with our minds-eye, be it. May we look at our community and with our voices and hearts, roll it as well. Roll it together into one esoteric and real parchment. May we raise the body of the community with our rain sticks and breathe life into the dead connections. Then, unified, may we march right into the Promised Land.