Parshat Vayelech: Where Are You Going?
Moshe is approaching the end of his life. He is about to die and is now offering his final words to the Israelites. This is the context of our short parsha this week. The name of the parsha, VaYeilech – “And he went…” begins with, “וילך משה – And Moshe went and spoke these words to all of Israel.” The problem is that the Torah doesn’t tell us where he went, let alone why. It could have simply stated, “And Moshe spoke these words…”
The commentaries offer various ideas of his destination, ranging from the practical – he went to each tribe to inform them of his impending demise, to the esoteric – he went and told the forefathers that God is fulfilling His promise to them and that the nation is about to enter Eretz Yisrael.
Whatever we might speculate, the fact that the Torah doesn’t inform us tells us something in its own right. It doesn’t reveal the destination because perhaps Moshe himself didn’t know. “וילך משה – And Moshe went…” is purposefully elliptical and leaves us with a blank because perhaps even to Moshe, death is largely unknown. He himself is at a loss as to where exactly he is headed.
It happens to be that the first words to the first Jew, Avraham were not only similar, but they also had the same quality of an unknown destination. Way back in the book of Bereshit, when we are first introduced to Avraham, God appears to him for the first time with the phrase לך לך – “Go for yourself, from your land, from your birthplace and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you.” Avraham began his dramatic and fateful journey with the words, לך going/walking. Similar wording describing Moshe in our parsha. And we also have Avraham going to an unknown place since God did not inform him at the outset what his destination was, but vaguely tells him, “to the land that I will show you.”
Avraham and Moshe – two bookends in the formation of the Jewish people. Avraham and Moshe – it’s hard to name either as secondary in importance to the other regarding the creation and definition of the Jewish nation, Jewish history and the Jewish experience. Avraham commencing the Jewish narrative at the beginning of the Chumash, and Moshe ending it. It cannot be accidental that the Torah recounts pivotal moments of these two major pillars of Jewish life with the identical words of לך /Go and with the same quality of a mysterious end. Avraham at the beginning of his journey and Moshe at the end of his.
It teaches that the life of the Jewish people as a whole, and the lives of each of us individually, is one of לך – going, moving, departing. And not just being on the move but travelling to the unknown and to the unfamiliar. It symbolizes that the history of our people has been one of constant movement from one place to another without much foreknowledge of where we would end up. For thousands of years it has been this way as we have been scattered to the four corners of the globe, as prophesied over and over again. And even today, with so much hatred directed at Israel and Jews all over, our future and destination still seems to be up in the air.
And so too in our personal lives. When you look back on the past I am sure you will see the same dynamic in your life. Movement to places or to life situations that you would never have imagined. Lech/Going… and then a big question mark. Where exactly am I headed? What will the critical decisions that I make in life hold in store for me? The decisions of the job I take, the person I wed, the children we may have, the country I choose to live in. We make the choices but have so little foreknowledge of what those choices really mean and where they will take us.
Moving into unfamiliar territory can be a bit disconcerting. It can create understood anxieties. But to alleviate those concerns, we have a few verses later in the parsha that help us. Not once but twice, using very similar language, Moshe tells the Jewish people, “But be of good courage and strength, do not fear… because the Lord your God, He will הולך go/walk with you”. (Deut. 31:6) The same root Lech/Go that is used to describe our unknown journey is used to inform us that we are not alone in that journey but are accompanied by God who goes with us, looks out for us and steers us in the right direction. And not only that, but as it states right after, “He will walk before you” (Deut. 31:8). Before you. He will lead the way. Even though we don’t know exactly where we are headed, God is both beside us and ahead of us.
There used to be a bumper sticker that proclaimed, “Let Go and Let God.” There are many verses in Tanach that express this idea of ביטחון – of Trust in God, and it has been the secret to Jewish continuity against all odds for the past two thousand years. It’s also the crucial ingredient to our personal successes and survivals in our daily lives. We don’t always know where we are going, but despite the difficulties, we somehow eventually end up in the right direction and at the right place. It does all work out in the end because God is next to us and also in front of us.
We have just completed Rosh HaShana and begun a New Year. A New Year of new beginnings and new journeys. Our hope and prayer is that they shall all be meaningful, fruitful, successful and with few bumps in the road. And may we never forget who is at the wheel – both beside us and ahead of us – as we travel through life.
Where are you going?
Where do you go?
Are you looking for answers
To questions under the stars?
Well, if along the way
You are grown weary
You can rest with Me until
A brighter day and you’re okay
-David Matthews Band
