Friday, October 4, 2019

Parshas Vayeilech and Yom Kippur Messages 5780

בּ"ה
Parshas Vayeilech and Yom Kippur

And Moshe went (Devarim 31:1)

The Torah doesn’t tell us where Moshe went, and the famous question on this therefore is:  Where did Moshe Rabbeinu go?

Says HaRav Shlomo Yosef Zevin zt”l:  When Moshe reached the end of his days, as the verse says (v. 2), ‘I am one-hundred-and-twenty years old today’, the Torah testified about him that all his days he was going forward:  From one virtuous thing to the next, and from one spiritual level to a higher one. ‘And Moshe went’ -- Moshe Rabbeinu was always going forward and upward.

(LaTorah Vi’LaMoadim)

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At the end of seven years, at the appointed time of the year of the Shemittah, on the Festival of Sukkos.  When all of Yisroel come to appear before Hashem your G-d in the place that He will choose, you shall read this Torah towards all of Yisroel, in their ears. (Devarim 31:10-11)

This is the Mitzvah of Hakhel, where, as we are told, during the Sukkos right after the Shemittah year ended (as Rashi zt”l brings from Rosh Hashanah 12b), all the Jews would come to the Beis HaMikdash, and the king would read to them from Sefer Devarim.  

It is interesting that Hashem chose to make Hakhel right after the Shemittah year ends.  In that vein, HaRav Meir Simcha HaKohen of Dvinsk zt”l explains two possible reasons for this:

#1:  Since everyone was free during the Shemittah from working their field or other certain business things, they would be able to devote fuller attention to learning Torah, etc. during that year.  And therefore, right after it finished, words of Torah they heard would enter into them with a depth of understanding.  

#2:  People often have desires for material and earthly things.  And so it could be that after an entire year without working the ground, etc. some people might long for when they would be allowed to get back to their field and vineyard.  So specifically at that time -- right after the conclusion of the Shemittah year -- we were commanded to go to Yerushalayim, to the Beis HaMikdash, and to hear the Word of Hashem.  We had to wait a little bit longer before returning to working the fields, etc., and listen to the Torah being read, so that even when we went back and were involved again in earthly work, even then, we would know and remember the way of Hashem.

(Meshech Chochmah)

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A grandson of one of the great Chassidishe Rebbes once came crying to his Zeide (grandfather).  The Zeide asked him why he was crying, and the boy told him that he had been playing hide-and-seek with his friend, and he had hidden somewhere, but his friend had not come to find him!  

Now the Zeide began to cry, and said:  Hashem hides His Face from us, and wants us to come and find Him.  But we don’t search Him out as we should. . .

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As we know, we have a special meal on the afternoon right before Yom Kippur, in preparation for the fast.  The Gemara (Rosh Hashanah 9a-b) teaches us it is very special for us to eat on Erev Yom Kippur, to the point that it is considered as if we [were commanded to fast on the ninth also ~~ Tosafos] and fasted both the 9th and 10th of Tishrei.  

Rebbe Yehoshua of Belz zt”l taught a very nice explanation for the mitzvah of eating on Erev Yom Kippur:  There is a tefillah said in Minchah on a fast day (and is printed in many Shemoneh Esrei of Minchah): “May it be Your will that the fats and blood of my body, which became less today due to the fast, be considered like the fats and blood that go on the Altar. . .” Rebbe Yehoshua said that due to the specialness of the fast of Yom Kippur, we don’t want that regular fats and standard blood should be the sacrifice.  We want fats and blood from a mitzvah to be the sacrifice.  Therefore we have a mitzvah to eat on Erev Yom Kippur.  Eating increases the fats and blood in the body, and when we fast on Yom Kippur we “sacrifice” those holy calories to Hashem!

(Torah Wellsprings)

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Chazal teach us:  Eliyahu HaNavi said that on Yom Kippur, the Satan is not allowed to prosecute.  Where do we see this? Rabbi Rami bar Chama said:  השטן (the Satan) has the Gematria, numerical value, of 364.  364 days of the year (counting by solar calendar), the Satan has permission to prosecute.  But on the one day of Yom Kippur, he isn’t allowed to prosecute. 

(Gemara Yoma 20a)

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HaRav Yisroel Salanter zt”l used to say:  How great is the mercy of HaKadosh Baruch Hu upon us!  For if He had given us the command of Yom Kippur to keep but once in seventy years, to forgive us for all of our sins, this would be considered for us as great fortune and very extreme kindness!  And now that He has given the opportunity every single year, how very much we must feel how fortunate we are, and the kindness of Hashem upon us! 

(HaMeoros HaGedolim)

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It was the middle of the Yom HaKadosh, Yom Kippur, in the Beis Midrash of Rebbe Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev zt”l, and the Rebbe went up to the Bimah, and pounded it hardly.  Silence pervaded throughout the congregation.

“You know,” began the Tzaddik, “the statement of Chazal in the Mishnah (Avos ch. 6) that ‘Everyone who tells something in the name of the one who said it brings redemption to the world’.  And we yearn for the complete Redemption!  Therefore, let us now all, as one, say something in the name of the One Who said it, and cry out in a voice: ‘And Hashem said, “I have forgiven according to your words!”’”

(Related in Vi’Karasa L’Shabbos Oneg)

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Gut Shabbos and G’mar Chasima Tovah to all!

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