MHA-FYOS Dean's Blog

We read a double parasha this week – Nitzavim-VaYelech. Parashat VaYelech records some of the final words that Moshe conveyed to The Jewish People prior to his demise. At the end of these comments, Hashem shares a prophecy with Moshe in the presence of his successor, Yehoshua. Hashem said, “Behold, you will lie with your fathers, and this nation will rise up and stray after the gods of the foreigners of the Land, in the midst of which the nation is entering. And the nation will leave Me and annul My covenant that I have sealed with it. My anger will flare against the nation on that day and I will leave them; and I will conceal My face from them and they will become prey and many evils and distresses will encounter it. (The nation) will say on that day, ‘It is not because my G-d is not in my midst that these evils have come upon me?’ But I will surely have concealed My face on that day because of all the evil that it did, for it had turned to gods of others.” Rabbi Ovadiah Seforno discu...

Parashat Bechukotai, the second parasha of this week’s double parasha , outlines the berachot and kelalot – the blessings and curses for adhering or not adhering to the mitzvot . This tochacha – rebuke – pertains to the Jewish people. When we follow the mitzvot , G-d rewards the Jewish people in order to help us serve Him better. When we do not follow the mitzvot , G-d rebukes us in the form of curses in order to teach us to improve our ways. The Torah says, “And the produce of your threshing season will last until the grape harvest; and the produce of the grape harvest will last until the planting. And you have your fill of food. And you will dwell securely in your land.” On this last statement, “and you will dwell securely in your land”, our rabbis comment in the Midrash Sifra that this blessing applies in the Land of Israel but not in the exile. What a perplexing statement! Our Rabbis are teaching here that the mitzvot that we perform, the closeness to G-d that we achieve throu...