Parashat HaShavua - V Zot Ha Berakah

וְזֹ֣את הַבְּרָכָ֗ה אֲשֶׁ֨ר בֵּרַ֥ךְ מֹשֶׁ֛ה אִ֥ישׁ הָאֱלֹהִ֖ים אֶת־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל לִפְנֵ֖י מוֹתֽוֹ

This is the blessing with which Moses, God’s agent bade the Israelites farewell before he died. (Deuteronomy 33:1)

Moshe begins the final parasha of the Torah with words of blessing.  Ibn Ezra clarifies: כי בנבואה ברך אותם – Moshe blessed them with words of prophecy about their future.  In this way, at the conclusion of the Torah, he is connecting back to the very beginning of the story of the Jewish people, when God blesses Avram with words of prophecy, words about his future: that he will become a great nation and his name will become famous.  God offers Avram this blessing in two different forms.  First God says וַאֲבָ֣רֶכְךָ֔ – and I will bless you, and then later in the same verse, God continues וֶהְיֵ֖ה בְּרָכָֽה – you will be a blessing.  

As our third grade students began their study of Torah, they grappled with the question: what is the difference between being blessed and being a blessing?  One possibility offered was that “I will bless you” means I will teach you how to say different בְּרָכוֹת.  But “you will be a blessing” means you will create your own  בְּרָכוֹת.  Another possibility offered was that  “I will bless you” means you will receive blessings, whereas “you will be a blessing” means you will give blessings to other people.  God is essentially saying: I will bless you because once you feel what it is like to be blessed, you will want to share that feeling with other people by blessing them.

On Monday, we will read sadly about the last days of Moshe’s life, and reflect on the many ways in which he was a blessing to the Jewish people.  But the beauty of Simchat Torah is that the moment we have shed a tear about Moshe’s death, we will immediately be able to  look forward to going back to the beginning to the blessings that began the world and the Jewish journey in the book of Genesis.

Rabbi Anne Ebersman