Vaielej 5776 - English

By Rabbi Guido Cohen

Asociación Israelita Montefiore Bogotá, Colombia

Parashat Vayelech is the beginning of Moshe’s farewell.  An old man, the leader of our people will say goodbye in the following two parashot with poetry and blessing.  However, he has one more mitzvah to pass on to the Jewish people before he begins his goodbye.  

The last mitzvah from the Torah is the precept that indicates that every Jew must write their own Sefer Torah.  

This precept that many of us fulfill symbolically by participating in the project of writing a Torah, is a project that in Talmudic times sages interpreted quite literally.  Without printing, the possibility of every Jew owning a Torah was very complicated, and therefore, ordering everyone to write their own copy was a way to promote the text of the Torah being present in every home.  Further along, in the middle ages, sages discuss if the mitzvah of writing your own Sefer Torah should be taken literally.  After all, the scrolls of the Torah are in the synagogue and in medieval Judaism they had more a ritual function that an intellectual one.  When studying, our ancestors focused more on rabbinic interpretations of the Torah than on the text itself.  Rabbenu Asher, for example, interprets that the mitzvah is to write books interpreting the Torah, meaning not to copy the Torah but to write our own books of Torah.  

Others analyze the possibility of fulfilling the obligation by joining the community endeavor of writing or acquiring a Sefer Torah.  

And then there are those who believe that the mitzvah is fulfilled nowadays (in the times of printing and technology) simply by acquiring Torah books.  Even though this probably is not the halachically correct interpretation of the precept, I believe it is not only very nice but essentially the most relevant for us today.  

Every time I enter a house or an office, I am magnetically attracted to look at their library.  A person’s books tell you a lot about who they are, and of course if they not only own them but read them, those books help to shape the identity of their owner.  In Amazon times, with e-readers and technology that evolves every day, we can have all sorts of books within our reach.  

How many books on Judaism do we have in our homes?  How many books on Jewish topics have we read in the last year?  How many books on Torah, holidays or Jewish ethics have we given to our children, our nephews and nieces, and our grandchildren?  To write a Sefer Torah like the Talmudic sages interpreted it can be complicated.  However, to fill our bookshelves with Torah becomes easier every day.  Jewish philosophy, Israel, Torah, history, Talmud, Mysticism, Jewish practices, are only some of the ‘shelves’ that every library in a Jewish family must hold.  Not only to embellish our living rooms, but to embellish our intellect and elevate our soul.  

The sages teach: “Aseh Toratcha Keva” (Avot 1:14), make your Torah your fixed routine.  We must destine resources and time to the study of Torah.  We must include in our reading plan at least two or three books on Judaism a year.  We must gift Jewish culture on birthdays, Bar or Bat Mitzvot and other moments when we tend to give a present.  Let us support the spread of Judaism and its culture.  We are not ‘the people of the book’ in vain.  Even though we did not choose this nickname, it should make us proud and we should honor it.  

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Guido Cohen