This week’s parsha of Vayelech ends with a promise made by Hashem that the Torah will never be forgotten by the Jewish People.
The Talmud (Bava Metzia 85, b) tells about the great efforts of Rabbi Chiya in ensuring that the Torah not be forgotten.
Rabbi Ḥiyya elaborated: What do I do to this end? I go and sow flax seeds and twine nets with the flax, and then I hunt deer and feed their meat to orphans. Next I prepare parchment from their hides and I write the five books of the Torah on them. I go to a city and teach five children the five books, one book per child, and I teach six other children the six orders of the Mishna, and I say to them: Until I return and come here, read each other the Torah and teach each other the Mishna. This is how I act to ensure that the Torah will not be forgotten by the Jewish people.
Last Friday night I shared the following similar story (without yet realizing the connection to the upcoming Parsha, thank you Hashem for showing me your detailed Divine Providence):
My wife’s paternal great grandfather R’ Chayim Yehuda risked his life in Soviet Russia to collect money to support the underground network of Lubavitch yeshivas. Literally he provided bread to the starving yeshiva boys so that they could continue studying Torah.
When asked why he was risking arrest by the communist regime that was actively trying to stamp out Jewish religious life in Russia, he responded ‘I hope that in the merit of my supporting the study of Torah by the yeshiva boys, my own grandchildren will merit to be students in the yeshiva and study Torah’.
The Torah will not be forgotten by the Jewish People is a promise made by G-d. R’ Chayim Yehuda was actively making efforts that his own progeny would be part of that group who doesn’t forget Torah.
My father-in-law and his brother were those grandchildren he was talking about.
Indeed, against all odds, after losing their father who was drafted to the Russian army and sent to the front, their mother managed to escape Russia with them. They grew up to be yeshiva students and raise large Torah true Chassidic families.
(This story and many other twists and turns was recently printed in a riveting book about my wife’s late grandmother ‘I’m not Alone’)
The next day a woman came to my wife and told her that she was so deeply touched by the story that she could not get it off her mind all night.
‘Do you think I had an ancestor who prayed and did good deeds for their progeny that will spark Jewish observance in the heart and soul of my children’ she asked?
My wife shared this feedback with her father. Her father responded that she could share with this woman, that regardless of her ancestry, she can start the chain and initiate spiritual energy by praying and doing mitzvahs for her progeny.
I think this message resonates loudly during these days of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. One the one hand we do a lot of recalling the merits of our forefathers. At the same time, we should be mindful that our actions also hold immense powers to influence our offspring, current and future generations.
On Rosh Hashanah (and daily) we remember the binding of Yitschak by Avraham and call on this sacrifice as an everlasting merit that shields us and brings us blessing as direct descendants of Avraham.
Additionally, one of the meanings attached to the blowing of the Shofar is the connection between Shofar blowing and our receiving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai accompanied by the sounds of the blowing of the Shofar.
There is a parable from Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev that gives context to our being judged on Rosh Hashana and what the Shofar contributes to clemency being granted:
A king was once traveling in the forest and lost his way, until he met a man who recognized that he was the king and escorted his master out of the forest and back to his palace. The king later rewarded him with many presents and elevated him to a powerful minister's post.
After a while, however, the man committed an act which was considered rebellious against the king, and he was sentenced to death. Before he was taken out to be executed, the king granted him one last request.
The man said: “I request to wear the clothes I wore when I escorted His Majesty when he was lost in the forest, and that His Majesty should also wear the clothes he wore then.”
The king complied, and when they were both dressed in the garments they wore at the time of their meeting, he said, “By your life, you have saved yourself,” and called off the execution.
The meaning of the parable is that when G-d gave the Torah to Israel, he offered it first to all the nations of the world. They all refused, except the people of Israel, who willingly accepted the yoke of Heaven and fulfilled the commandments of the Creator.
But now we have transgressed and rebelled, like the man in the parable, and with the arrival of the Day of Judgment we are fearful indeed. So we blow the shofar to recall the shofar blowing that accompanied our original acceptance of the Torah and coronation of G-d. This merit stands by us, and G-d forgives us all our sins and inscribes us immediately for a year of goodness and life.
The great deeds by our ancestors as they stood at Sinai 3337 years ago, stand us in good stead till this very day.
During these days of Teshuva when we focus on getting closer to Hashem, we have two modes. One is ‘steering away from bad’ i.e. not doing something that is anathema to Hashem’s divine will.
This is often what we think about when we talk about ‘Teshuva’. Not speaking lashon hara. Not eating what we shouldn’t. Not violating Shabbat.
The other side of doing ‘Teshuva’ is about returning to Hashem via ‘doing good’. Fulfilling the instructions of the mitzvot that Hashem has commanded us to do. Donning Tefilin, lighting Shabbat candles, keeping kosher, family purity, mezuzah, Torah study etc.
The most potent energies of closeness to Hashem are to be found in the fulfillment of the positive commandments.
If we limit our observance to only not doing what is forbidden, we may as well have stayed in Heaven. Our souls in Heaven could not do anything wrong either.
The great gift of creation and life is the proactive actions that we carry out. This highlights our ability to be partners with Hashem by doing actions that he has asked for. The mitzvot are G-d’s way of allowing us the epic gift of partnering with Him in creation.
When we joyously and energetically do acts of connection to G-d we create a desire in our families and environments to connect to G-d via mitzvahs.
Especially when we talk about the effect it has on our children.
And it doesn’t stop at the immediate effects on our children here and now. Nor is the impact limited to the near future.
Remember that by doing more Mitzvahs our deeds have a ripple effect and influence multiple generations of our offspring.
Just as we are still beneficiaries of the good deeds of our ancestors, our deeds will have an impact on our future progeny.
This makes an even more compelling case to expend every effort to do the best you can to do more mitzvahs and good actions.
May you be successful in the work of Teshuva, returning to Hashem and to your true self. Deep down at the core of our existence we yearn and crave connection with Hashem. Sometimes the outer layers of resistance need to be peeled away so that the inner core can take its rightfully central place in our life.
Yom Kippur is the day that the deepest quintessential spark of G-d which is at the epicenter of the neshama, comes out in a more revealed way.
We nurture it by refraining from food and drink and other bodily activities (Click here for a guide to observing Yom Kippur).
With blessing for a Shabbat Shalom and a Chatima uGmar Chatima Tova (to be signed into the books of a good year).
And much success in adding one or more positive mitzvahs to your life this year.
Rabbi Yosef Kantor