Parashat Vayelech - Fifth Aliyah

The hiding of the face, and the song that will be a witness

The aliyah opens at a very dramatic moment: God tells Moses that the days of his life are drawing to an end, and commands him to call Joshua and to present themselves together at the tent of meeting. Moses and Joshua go in together, and God appears in the tent in a pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent. This is a moment in which the end of Moses’ leadership and the preparation of Joshua for what follows receive a direct and clear standing.

But instead of dealing only with Joshua’s future, God reveals to Moses the crisis that is going to happen after his death. The people will turn after the foreign gods of the land, forsake God and break the covenant. As a result the hiding of the face, troubles and evils are described, until the people themselves understand that their distancing from God is connected to what they are going through.

Even after the people reach that understanding, a continued hiding of the face is described because of the turning to other gods. That is, recognizing the crisis does not by itself end the process at once. The damage to the covenant creates a deep reality that requires repair.

At the close of the aliyah comes the solution that will prepare the coming generations to face such a situation: Moses and Joshua are commanded to write the song, to teach it to the children of Israel and to put it in their mouths. The song is to serve as a witness within the people, so that even when the way goes wrong, there will be a text among them that reminds them of the covenant and of the meaning of the events they are living through.

Insights from the aliyah

Real leadership prepares for the day after, too

Moses stands before his death, but the focus is not only on parting from him. Joshua is called to stand with him, and the future is already being built. At the level of the idea, complete leadership includes orderly preparation for the period when the current leader will no longer be there.

The problem begins with forgetting the covenant

The crisis described does not begin with an outside enemy, but with an inner distancing. The people turn elsewhere and break the covenant. This teaches that sometimes the outward break is only the late stage of an inner process that began earlier.

The hiding of the face creates a sense of loneliness

One of the hard outcomes described is the feeling that there is no longer a clear accompaniment of God within the camp. At the level of the idea, spiritual distancing can show itself not only in a wrong deed, but also in the loss of the sense of connection and presence.

Understanding alone is still not repair

The people recognize that their troubles are connected to their distancing, but the aliyah teaches that recognition is not the end of the road. One can understand the mistake and still need a deep process of return and change.

A song can keep memory where a speech is forgotten

God commands that the message be turned into a song and placed in the mouth of the people. At the level of the idea, what is said in a form that can be remembered, repeated and passed on is able to remain even in generations when memory weakens.

The message has to be in the mouth of the people, not only in a book

The song is not meant to remain only in writing. It has to be learned and to be in the mouth of the children of Israel. This teaches that a tradition is kept when it passes from writing to memory, from memory to speech, and from speech to identity.

Even a hard warning can be an act of kindness

Knowing in advance that the people may drift away makes it possible to prepare a way back and a memory for them. At the level of the idea, a warning is not always a sign of distance, but sometimes an attempt to leave a person a rope to hold on to even before they fall.

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