Be strong and courageous for you will bring B’nai Yisrael to the Land that I have sworn to them, and I will be with you.

In the Book of Yehoshua, in the beginning of Chapter 7, a small Israelite force is defeated by the men of the Ai. Yehoshua is depressed by this and cries out to God.

In verse 10 God tells Yehoshua: “Raise yourself up! Why do you fall on your face?

After they resolve that Achan stole from the booty and that is why God was not with them in their first battle, in Chapter 8 Yehoshua gets a second opportunity to conquer Ai.

In verse 1 we read:

God said to Yehoshua, “Do not fear and do not lose resolve. Take all the people to war with you; arise and go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land…”

In verse 3, Yehoshua followed God’s command:

Yehoshua arose along with all the people of war to go up to Ai. Yehoshua chose 30,000 mighty warriors and dispatched them at night…

With a new strategy and God on their side, this time they were able to defeat the Ai.

The story of Yehoshua sounds a lot like what went on in Israel over the past year. With a small army on duty on Simchat Torah, the IDF was taken by surprise. However, our soldiers never gave up hope. As soon as they heard what was happening, they went down to fight courageously, whether they were called up or not. Many soldiers have served in at least three rounds of miluim (reserve duty) and are willing to serve more if it means that we can bring peace to Israel.

Many brave soldiers lost their lives, fighting to ensure a brighter future for all of us.

There have been hundreds of soldiers who were severely injured and are now on the road to recovery. These soldiers are using all of their energy to get themselves better.

If you want to know what it means to be brave and courageous, all you need to do is visit the soldiers in the rehabilitation programs in Israel’s hospitals.

If we have learned anything from this year it is what a real hero looks like.

Sponsored by Andrew and Lori Kahn with immense joy and pride in honor of
their son Aaron Blake Kahn’s Bar Mitzvah (Aharon Yitzchok): May you always be
guided by the light of the Torah so that you live a long, happy, healthy a
prosperous life.

In Parshat Vayelech we learn about the mitzvah of Hakhel, where the king
reads from the Book of Dvarim to the entire nation on the first day of Chol
HaMoed Sukkot following the Shmita (Sabbatical) Year.

Dvarim 31:12-13 describes who should attend the Hakhel ceremony:

Gather together the people- the men, the women and the small children
and the convert who is in your cities- so that they will hear and so that they
will learn, and they shall fear the Lord your God, and be careful to perform
all the words of this Torah. And their children who did not understand will
hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, all the days that you live on the
land to which you are crossing the Jordan, to possess it.

How old are the children who are brought to the ceremony?

According to Ramban, they are little children who are nearly old enough
to be educated, not nursing babies.

The Talmud, Chagiga 3a teaches that the small children would come in
order to give a reward for those who bring them, meaning babies who don’t even
understand what is going on.

We learn from the Hakhel ceremony that the Torah values Jewish education
from a very young age. Today we see that young children gain a strong
foundation in Judaism from attending Jewish preschools.

By being encouraged to bring their babies to religious events, parents
are made to feel welcome and not left out of spiritual experiences.

Eighteen years ago, I began to teach Mommy and Me Torah study classes in
Jerusalem through Torat Reva Yerushalayim, where new mothers were able to learn
Torah while their babies had the opportunity to socialize, eat, sleep, play and
benefit from a Torah environment. The original group of babies recently graduated
high school and are off to yeshiva, midrasha (seminary), sherut leumi (national
service) and the army. I hope that the first taste of Torah that these children
experienced helped to lead them on a path of commitment to Judaism.

It is never too early to start a child’s Jewish education and the
inspiration from those early years can last a lifetime.

Dedicated
by Vicky Wu in memory of J.J. Greenberg on his 18^th yahrzeit: Time
can’t erase the smile and strength left by J.J., it only enriches his memories
in our hearts

At the end of
Parshat Vayelech (Dvarim 31:19), God commanded Moshe and Yehoshua to write the
Torah and teach it to B’nai Yisrael:

And now write
this song for you and teach it to B’nai Yisrael to place it in their mouths; in
order that this song will be for me a witness against B’nai Yisrael.

The Rambam, in Sefer
Ahava, Chapter 7, Laws of Writing Tfilin, Mezuza and a Torah Scroll explains:

It is a positive
mitzvah binding upon each Israelite to write a Torah scroll for their own use
as it says in Dvarim31:19: “And now write this song for you…”As the Torah is not
written in separate sections, this text means, “Write for yourselves the Torah
in which this song is contained.” Even if one’s ancestors have left a person a
scroll, it is a religious duty to write a scroll at his own expense. If he
wrote it with his own hand, it is accounted to him as if he received it from
Sinai. If one does not know how to write a scroll, he should get others to
write it for him. He who corrects a scroll, even a single letter of it, is
regarded as if he had written it completely.

Sefer HaChinuch,
the Book of Mitzvah Education, lists Mitzvah #613, the final mitzvah in the
Torah, as the religious duty for every Jew to write a Torah scroll. If one
wrote it with their own hand, they are praiseworthy. But whoever can’t write
their own should hire someone to write it for them.

Sefer HaChinuch
adds that other volumes as well, that were composed in explanation of the
Torah, should also be acquired.

Over the past
year and a half, since the start of Covid, we have seen the importance of
owning a Torah scroll. Last year, when Israel’s Ministry of Health only allowed
prayer groups of ten or twenty people, those who owned Torah scrolls were able
to form minyanim in their backyards and didn’t have to rely on borrowing one
from their synagogue. As well, during the high holidays both last year and this
year, small outdoor minyanim have been conducted with privately owned Torah
scrolls.

How lucky we are
that there are individuals who observed mitzvah #613 and commissioned the
writing of their own personal Torah scrolls which are now being used to help
the larger community during the pandemic. May we all have the merit of taking
part in the writing of a Torah scroll and may we be able to return to organized
prayer in synagogues when it is safe to do so. 

With your monthly donation of $18 or more (or yearly donation of $180 or more) to Torat Reva Yerushalayim, you will be performing the important mitzvah of contributing toward the Torah education of the forgotten population of senior citizens in Jerusalem, while having your prayers recited by a learned person at the footsteps of Judaism’s holiest site.

Your contribution can be made by mailing a check to Torat Reva Yerushalayim,

75 Berkeley Avenue , Yonkers , NY 10705 or via Paypal, by clicking on the link below and scrolling down to the “Make A Donation” button.

http://toratreva.org/Joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7&Itemid=7

Please email toratreva@yahoo.com or call 718-593-4162 if you would like to take part in this exciting project! 

Right before Moshe is about to pass away, he passes the reigns of leadership on to Yehoshua.

In Parshat Vayelech, Devarim 31:7 we read “Moshe called to Yehoshua and said to him as all of Yisrael watched, .Be courageous and bold, for you shall enter with this people (tavo et ha’am hazeh) into the land that God swore to their forefathers to give them, and you will apportion it to them.'”

A few psukim later in Devarim 31:23 the wording is slightly different: “He commanded Yehoshua bin Nun and said, .Be courageous and bold, for you will bring B’nai Yisrael (tavi et B’nai Yisrael) to the land that I swore to them, and I will be with you.'”

The Gemara in Sanhedrin 8a points out that in the first pasuk it looks like Yehoshua is just considered a member of the people, while in the second pasuk Yehoshua is described as a leader of the people.

Rabbi Yochanan answers: In the first pasuk Moshe is instructing Yehoshua to lead the people in partnership with the zekainim (sages). In the second pasuk God is telling Yehoshua to make sure that he is in charge and that the sages are subordinate to him. There can only be one leader of a generation and not two.

Rav Ze’ev Soloveitchik takes this idea one step further. According to the Rambam, Moshe was considered a king (appointed by God) as well as the head of the Sanhedrin (appointed by the people). When Moshe passed on his leadership, he only passed on the aspect of head of the Sanhedrin. When God spoke to Yehoshua, he appointed him as king as well.

Let’s hope and pray that we will again merit leaders in the land of Israel like Moshe and Yehoshua.