Vayelech - He went — וַיֵּלֶךְ
Regular readings above are often interrupted with special readings on Jewish holidays, special Sabbaths, and Rosh Chodesh. Refer to the current Torah Portion Schedule for all these variations, and special portions.
Portion Summary
The name of the fifty-second reading from the Torah is Vayelech, which means "and he went." The name is derived from the first word of the first verse of the portion: "So Moses went (vayelech) and spoke these words to all Israel." In this short portion, Moses commands an assembly for a public Torah reading and covenant renewal once every seven years. He then finishes writing the scroll of the Torah and has it deposited in the Holy of Holies next to the ark of the covenant.
Portion Outline
- Torah
- Deuteronomy 31:1 | Joshua Becomes Moses' Successor
- Deuteronomy 31:9 | The Law to Be Read Every Seventh Year
- Deuteronomy 31:14 | Moses and Joshua Receive God's Charge
- Deuteronomy 31:30 | The Song of Moses
- Prophets
- Isaiah 55:1 | An Invitation to Abundant Life
- Isaiah 56:1 | The Covenant Extended to All Who Obey
- Isaiah 56:9 | The Corruption of Israel's Rulers
Shuvah Yisrael
We call the Sabbath that falls between Rosh Hashanah and Yom
Kippur "Shabbat Shuvah" which means "the Sabbath of
Repentance."
To repent means to turn around, quit sinning, and start doing good. (Image © Bigstock)
Hosea 14:2-10(1-9) is part of the haftarah reading for Shabbat Shuvah (Sabbath of Repentance), the Sabbath that falls between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. In this passage, the prophet Hosea makes one last desperate plea, beseeching Israel to repent and save themselves from the coming catastrophe. He says, "Return, O Israel!" The Hebrew word for "return" is the imperative shuvah, a word that also is translated as "repent." Repentance is Hosea's central message and the message of every prophet of God. Repentance is also the primary message of the Gospel. Most of Yeshua's teachings were calls to repentance. Most of His parables were illustrations about repentance.
To repent means to turn around, quit sinning, and start doing good. More specifically, it is a call to quit breaking God's commandments and return to His Torah. Repentance from evil deeds is one of the foundational, elementary teachings about the Messiah (Hebrews 6:1).
The Master brought a message of repentance, always teaching, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 3:2). He told men that if they did not repent, they would perish (Luke 13:3). He said that He came only to call sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32), for "He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins" (Acts 5:31).
He told His disciples that repentance for the forgiveness of sins must be proclaimed in His name to all nations ( Luke 24:46-47) because "God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent" (Acts 17:30). "They went out and preached that men should repent" (Mark 6:12). They went out, "solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Yeshua the Messiah" (Acts 20:21), "even to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance" (Acts 26:20). Because of this, "God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life" (Acts 11:18), and "repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth" (2 Timothy 2:25), for He does not wish "for any to perish but for all to come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9).
"The kindness of God leads you to repentance" (Romans 2:4), "a repentance without regret, leading to salvation" (2 Corinthians 7:10). "Repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away" (Acts 3:19). "Repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray the Lord that, if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you" (Acts 8:22). "Therefore be zealous and repent" (Revelation 3:19). "Bear fruit in keeping with repentance" (Matthew 3:8). "Repent and do the [good] deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent" (Revelation 2:5). "So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent" (Revelation 3:3).
The high holidays are a time of strict judgment in the court of heaven, but we need not fear. The frightening judge on the throne of glory is still our Father in heaven.
A father and son pray together at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. (Image © Bigstock/crs-photo)
Jewish tradition teaches that a person's income for the year is predetermined at Rosh Hashanah. The writer to the book of Hebrews quotes Deuteronomy 31:6 to encourage His readers to rely on God to provide for all their needs. He tells them to avoid greed and avarice because God has already promised not to forsake us:
"Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said [in Deuteronomy 31:6], 'I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,' so that we confidently say [what is written in Psalm 118:6], 'The LORD is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?'" (Hebrews 13:5-6)
"Be strong and courageous. ... He will not fail you or forsake you" (Deuteronomy 31:6). The High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are primarily about our relationship with God as individuals and as a common people. These are appointed times for reconciling with one another and with our Father in Heaven. If we take the opportunity to turn to God in sincere repentance in the name of His Son, He will receive us.
People who have been abandoned or abused by a parent or spouse sometimes suffer with anxiety about their relationship with God. They might project their hurts and fears from human relationships onto their relationship with God. They fear that He will withdraw His love from them. Such a view of God makes a true faith relationship almost impossible. God wants His people to know that He will not fail us, nor will He abandon us.
Even in times when God punished Israel for disobedience, it was not as if He had abandoned them or cast them off. He punishes Israel as a father disciplines a beloved son. God is faithful to His people. Even when He sent the children of Israel into exile, He did not send them out alone. The rabbis teach that God's Dwelling Presence went with the people of Israel when they were driven from their land, and that He will return with them when they are gathered back into the land.
We can trust our Father in Heaven. He travels with us even in the lonely places of pain and exile. He will not fail us or forsake us.
How To Become Rebellious And Love it
For I know how rebellious and stubborn you are. Behold, even today while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the LORD. How much more after my death! (Deuteronomy 31:27)
This passage is written as a kal vachomer, an argument going from the light to the heavy: If A is true, then how much more so is B also true. Moses recognized that if the Children of Israel rebelled and strayed against the Torah’s instruction while he was with them to take them by the hand and guide them in its requirements, how much more would they stray from it after his death. But who rebels against God’s commands and why?
There are generally two types of rebels. The first is the one who simply denies the truth and the authority of the Scripture and walks in outright rebellion against it. There’s nothing spectacular about this. There will be those in every generation who follow this path. The second type, however, is one who claims that Scripture is still authoritative, yet rationalizes his behavior based on his own interpretations, rather than following the mesorah, the accepted interpretations and traditions. This is the more deceptive road to a wayward life. Let’s explore the implications of this.
During the days of Moses it was easy for people to gain understanding of a particular matter of Torah. They could ask their questions and get an answer, “straight from the horse’s mouth.” Moses, the very one who transmitted the teaching of Torah, was with them and could authoritatively answer their questions. In our modern world, however, we don’t have the luxury of having Moses here to guide us and give us the “original” meaning of each and every passage of the Torah. So what do we do? Some may say, “We don’t need Moses. We have the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) to lead us into all truth!” But if it is as simple as that, why do we have thousands of interpretations and applications of the Scriptures from people claiming this very thing? Is this truly the leading of the Spirit of God, or our own spirit of stubbornness? Paul says that we are to cling to the mesorah that he passed down:
So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter. (2 Thessalonians 2:15)
Tradition and traditional interpretations are not inherently bad. They often keep us from falling off the path and into the ditch. They keep us from following after our own way when we want to follow the easier route. Judaism has an unending supply of mesorah designed to help maintain proper interpretation and application of Torah. But is bucking against tradition really an act of rebellion?
Stubbornness (or being “stiff necked” as it literally reads) is a trait that signifies going one’s own way. Rather than yielding to the designated authority, a stiff-necked person follows his own path, making his own rules, living by his own values. Proverbs says, “A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion” (Proverbs 18:2). A fool continues to say, “I don’t think it means that,” whereas wisdom begins with the fear of the LORD (Proverbs 9:10). Wisdom does not lie in rugged individualism, but listens to the counsel of many advisors (Proverbs 11:14).
Can there ever be new and novel interpretations of Scripture? Yes. But they can never supersede the pashat— the plain sense of the text. For instance, the Torah says, “You shall kindle no fire in all your dwelling places on the Sabbath day” (Exodus 35:3). There is a midrashic interpretation based off of this verse that says we should not engage in quarreling on the Sabbath. However, if we interpret this to only apply to quarreling and ignore the literal meaning of the text, then we have uprooted the foundation of the Torah. In Yeshua’s words, we have “abolished” it.
Unfortunately, a large segment of those who claim to be practicing Messianic Judaism take this approach. Why? Because it’s comfortable and easy. We believe that if we only obey the “spirit” of the law, then we can ignore the “letter” of the law. But this is not how it works. In order to obey the spirit of the law, one first has to obey the letter. Only when one first obeys the literal meaning of the commandment and then goes above and beyond its requirement does he fulfill the spirit of the law. To ignore either the pashat or the mesorah, one is simply walking in a more comfortable form of rebellion.
Moses is gone. We can choose to live out the Torah based on our own understandings, or turn to the wisdom of those who have gone before us and handed down both interpretation and tradition that have withstood the test of time. The choice is ours.
Torah For The Nations
Parashat Vayelech (Deuteronomy 31:1-31:30)
Parashat Vayelech is a single chapter merely thirty verses in length. It’s primary focus is the transfer of leadership from Moses to Joshua. Moses commissions Joshua in the site of the entire nation and tells him to be “strong and courageous” as he leads the Children of Israel into the land God has promised to them. He also hands the Torah over to the Levites and instructs them to read the Torah in the presence of all the people during the festival of Sukkot (Tabernacles) at the end of the Shemitah, the seventh year of release. He gives specific instructions for who should hear and learn the Torah during this time:
Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, and be careful to do all the words of this law, and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as you live in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. (Deuteronomy 31:12–13)
We see something curious in these instructions, however. Not only are the native Israelites supposed to hear the Torah being read and taught, but they are also supposed to gather in the sojourner to hear it as well. Even more shocking is that they are to do so “that they may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, and be careful to do all the words of this law” (v. 12). What does this mean?
First, we should recall the Torah’s teaching at the beginning of Deuteronomy. We are told that when the Gentiles “hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people’ ” (Deuteronomy 4:6). But does this mean that Gentiles don’t have obligations to the Torah? According to the traditional reading of the Torah there are a minimum of seven categories of laws that spell out the obligations for Gentiles. These are called the Noahide Laws. They are derived from the instructions God gave to Noah after leaving the ark. They include the prohibition against idolatry, the prohibition against cursing God, the requirement to establish courts of justice, the prohibition against murder, the prohibition against adultery or sexual immorality, the prohibition against stealing, and the prohibition against eating the flesh of a living animal. Our sages tell us that this passage instructs Jews to invite Gentiles to hear the teachings of the Torah so that they will first understand their obligations to these seven laws of Noah. It is also in hopes that they would possibly be attracted to a Jewish way of living and become a full proselyte.
But for disciples of Yeshua the list doesn’t stop at the Noahide commandments. The Apostles considered Gentile disciples of Yeshua to be in a distinct class somewhere between a son of Noah and a native Israelite, more along the lines of the resident alien living among Israel. Because of this, Gentile disciples of Yeshua were given four additional categories of laws in Acts 15 in order to narrow the gap between them and their Jewish brethren. James and the other Apostles convening at the Council of Jerusalem searched the Scriptures for a solution to the problem of these Gentiles coming into Jewish religious space. They found a connection to their issue in Leviticus 17–18 where strangers who dwell among Israel are bound to the same standard as the native Israelite in a few areas of the Torah’s commandments. And since these Gentiles had become disciples of Yeshua, taking upon themselves the Kingship of the God of Israel and entering into covenantal community with the Jewish people, then they should take on these additional responsibilities to integrate them into the Body of Messiah. These include the prohibition against food sacrificed to idols, the prohibition against strangled meat, the prohibition against blood, and a more stringent prohibition against sexual immorality.
But wait! There’s more! In the epistles we find numerous references to Gentiles being bound to the moral and ethical laws of the Torah (the weightier commandments), as the Apostolic Scriptures are almost exclusively focused on expounding these principles for disciples of Yeshua Rather than being focused on ceremonial concerns for the Gentile disciples, Paul and the other Apostles were primarily concerned with our behavior, specifically how we treat others. Therefore, these ethical commandments naturally took priority when they were teaching their disciples.
As we can see, there are plenty of responsibilities for non-Jewish disciples of Yeshua in regard to Torah. Rather than feeling slighted or inferior, we should do our best to live out the obligations we have been charged with. Can we take on more of the Torah’s commandments than these? Absolutely. But we should keep in mind to whom they were given and also remember that we are a guest at the table. Our posture should be that of the Gentile woman whom Yeshua distanced himself from. She said, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs” (Mark 7:28). Rather than claiming the loaf as her own, she showed true humility in her response. May we follow her example. May our humility and love for one another always set us apart as disciples of Yeshua, whether Jew or Gentile. Only then will we truly be able to “hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, and be careful to do all the words of this Torah.”
A Recipe For Rebellion
Parashat Vayelech (Deuteronomy 31:1-31:30)
Parashat Vayelech, one of the shortest portions in the Torah, is only thirty verses long. However, if we look carefully, we can find within it a recipe for rebellion:
For I know how rebellious and stubborn you are. Behold, even today while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the LORD. How much more after my death! (Deuteronomy 31:27)
This passage is written as a kal vachomer, an argument going from the light to the heavy: If A is true, then how much more so is B also true. Moses recognized that if the Children of Israel rebelled and strayed against the Torah’s instruction while he was with them to take them by the hand and guide them in its requirements, how much more would they stray from it after his death. But who rebels against God’s commands and why?
There are generally two types of rebels. The first is the one who simply denies the truth and the authority of the Scripture and walks in outright rebellion against it. There’s nothing spectacular about this. There will be those in every generation who follow this path. The second type, however, is one who claims that Scripture is still authoritative, yet rationalizes his behavior based on his own interpretations, rather than following the mesorah, the accepted interpretations and traditions. This is the more deceptive road to a wayward life. Let’s explore the implications of this.
During the days of Moses it was easy for people to gain understanding of a particular matter of Torah. They could ask their questions and get an answer, “straight from the horse’s mouth.” Moses, the very one who transmitted the teaching of Torah, was with them and could authoritatively answer their questions. In our modern world, however, we don’t have the luxury of having Moses here to guide us and give us the “original” meaning of each and every passage of the Torah. So what do we do? Some may say, “We don’t need Moses. We have the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) to lead us into all truth!” But if it is as simple as that, why do we have thousands of interpretations and applications of the Scriptures from people claiming this very thing? Is this truly the leading of the Spirit of God, or our own spirit of stubbornness? Paul says that we are to cling to the mesorah that he passed down:
So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter. (2 Thessalonians 2:15)
Tradition and traditional interpretations are not inherently bad. They often keep us from falling off the path and into the ditch. They keep us from following after our own way when we want to follow the easier route. Judaism has an unending supply of mesorah designed to help maintain proper interpretation and application of Torah. But is bucking against tradition really an act of rebellion?
Stubbornness (or being “stiff necked” as it literally reads) is a trait that signifies going one’s own way. Rather than yielding to the designated authority, a stiff-necked person follows his own path, making his own rules, living by his own values. Proverbs says, “A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion” (Proverbs 18:2). A fool continues to say, “I don’t think it means that,” whereas wisdom begins with the fear of the LORD (Proverbs 9:10). Wisdom does not lie in rugged individualism, but listens to the counsel of many advisors (Proverbs 11:14).
Can there ever be new and novel interpretations of Scripture? Yes. But they can never supersede the pashat— the plain sense of the text. For instance, the Torah says, “You shall kindle no fire in all your dwelling places on the Sabbath day” (Exodus 35:3). There is a midrashic interpretation based off of this verse that says we should not engage in quarreling on the Sabbath. However, if we interpret this to only apply to quarreling and ignore the literal meaning of the text, then we have uprooted the foundation of the Torah. In Yeshua’s words, we have “abolished” it.
Unfortunately, a large segment of those who claim to be practicing Messianic Judaism take this approach. Why? Because it’s comfortable and easy. We believe that if we only obey the “spirit” of the law, then we can ignore the “letter” of the law. But this is not how it works. In order to obey the spirit of the law, one first has to obey the letter. Only when one first obeys the literal meaning of the commandment and then goes above and beyond its requirement does he fulfill the spirit of the law. To ignore either the pashat or the mesorah, one is simply walking in a more comfortable form of rebellion.
Moses is gone. We can choose to live out the Torah based on our own understandings, or turn to the wisdom of those who have gone before us and handed down both interpretation and tradition that have withstood the test of time. The choice is ours.
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