V’Zot HaBerachah
Deut. 33:1–34:12
By Jen Smith
There is something wonderfully Jewish about the way we finish reading the Torah.
After an entire year of wandering through the wilderness, wrestling with God, making mistakes, finding redemption, building community, and occasionally complaining about the food, we finally arrive at the very last portion of the Torah, V’Zot HaBerachah – And This is the Blessing.
And what happens when we reach the end? Well, we begin again.
We don’t close the Torah, congratulate ourselves on finishing, and put it back on the shelf. Instead, on Simchat Torah, we roll the Torah back to the beginning and immediately read the opening words of Genesis: B’reishit bara Elohim – In the beginning, God created.
Judaism teaches that endings are not the opposite of beginnings; sometimes endings make new beginnings possible. And as we reflect on another extraordinary year at Temple Beth Ami, while preparing to embrace the year ahead, I cannot think of a more fitting message.
V’Zot HaBerachah is unlike any other Torah portion. Moses is finally permitted to see the Promised Land to which he has led the Israelites for 40 years. From the heights of Mount Nebo, God shows him the land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But Moses will never enter it.
After a lifetime of extraordinary leadership, his journey ends just short of its destination. And yet, the Torah surprises us (or maybe just me) by ending with a blessing, rather than disappointment or despair.
Before his death, Moses offers each of the tribes a final blessing, recognizing their unique strengths and their individual contributions to the people of Israel. He understands that the future of the Jewish people will not depend upon any one leader, any one tribe, or even any one generation. It will depend upon their willingness to carry the covenant forward together.
The Torah tells us: Torah tzivah lanu Moshe, morashah kehillat Yaakov – Moses commanded us the Torah, as the heritage of the congregation of Jacob. (Deut. 33:4)
The Torah is described as a morashah, an inheritance. But unlike an ordinary inheritance, which we might receive and preserve, our spiritual inheritance requires us to do something with it. We are commanded to study it, question it, wrestle with it, live it, and ultimately pass it on – l’dor v’dor.
As I consider my own family, I am struck by my responsibility to make enough space for the next generation to discover their own divine sparks and what this inheritance means for themselves.
Moses understood that his greatest accomplishment was not simply reaching the Promised Land. It was preparing his people to continue the journey without him.
As I reflect upon this past year at Temple Beth Ami, I find myself thinking about the countless ways our community has embodied this very teaching.
We have celebrated milestones, welcomed new beginnings, supported one another through difficult moments, learned together, prayed together, and strengthened the bonds that make our congregation so much more than a building.
Our L’Dor V’Dor Torah Project offers a particularly beautiful expression of this sacred continuity. As members of our congregation participated in bringing a new Torah into our community in honor of Rabbi Jack Luxemburg, we became part of something that stretches far beyond any single moment in time.
There is something profoundly moving about the idea that the same ancient words that guided our ancestors will continue to inspire our children, our grandchildren, and generations we will never meet.
And isn’t that exactly what Moses was doing as he stood on Mount Nebo?
He was looking toward a future he would never personally experience, trusting that the people he had nurtured would carry his life’s work forward.
In many ways, that is what we do every day at Temple Beth Ami.
When our children discover the joy of Jewish learning, when our teens begin to find their own Jewish voices, when our members show up for one another during times of celebration and sorrow, and when our volunteers give generously of their time, resources, and hearts, we are doing more than sustaining a congregation.
We are building a future. And like Moses, we may never know the full impact of the blessings we offer today.
Jewish mysticism offers another beautiful way of understanding this moment.
In Kabbalah, the divine light of Ein Sof, the Infinite, is understood as an inexhaustible source of creation. Our world is not simply the result of one distant act of divine creativity. Rather, creation can be understood as a continuous unfolding of Divine Possibility.
The Baal Shem Tov, drawing upon Psalm 119:89, taught that God’s creative words remain eternally present within creation, continually sustaining its existence. In other words, creation is never truly finished. Every moment offers the possibility of renewal.
What a remarkable idea to consider as we conclude the Torah and immediately return to Genesis! The world is not a completed masterpiece hanging on a wall. It is a work in progress, and we have been invited to participate in its creation.
The Kabbalistic concept of Shekhinah, God’s indwelling presence, deepens this understanding. The divine presence is not confined to the extraordinary moments of revelation at Sinai. It can be encountered in the ordinary, everyday experiences of human connection.
In the kindness we extend to a stranger. In the comfort we offer someone who is grieving. In the joy of celebrating a child’s achievement. In the simple act of welcoming someone into our community and helping them feel that they belong. These are the moments when we make room for holiness.
And when I think about the coming year at Temple Beth Ami, I imagine all the opportunities that await us to reveal that holiness together: New friendships we have yet to make; new ideas to explore; new traditions to create; and new opportunities to bring more compassion, justice, and kindness into the lives of others.
Our story, like the Torah itself, is still being written.
Pirkei Avot teaches: Lo alecha ham’lachah ligmor, v’lo atah ven chorin l’hibatel mimenah. – It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you free to desist from it. (Pirkei Avot 2:16)
Perhaps this is the wisdom Moses leaves us with. We do not need to finish the work of creation, perfect our communities, or solve every problem facing our world in a single lifetime. But we are responsible for doing our part.
And what a privilege it is to do that work together.
As we celebrate Simchat Torah, I hope we take a moment to appreciate everything we have accomplished as a congregation this past year. Not simply the programs we organized, the milestones we celebrated, or the projects we completed, but the relationships we strengthened, the people we supported, and the countless moments of holiness we created along the way.
I hope we also look toward the coming year with the same sense of possibility that Moses must have felt as he gazed upon the Promised Land. Like the future of the Israelites, we know there will undoubtedly be challenges, but there will also be extraordinary opportunities to learn, grow, celebrate, and discover new ways of bringing God’s presence into our community and our world.
The Torah ends with the death of Moses, but the Jewish story does not end with him. It continues through Joshua, through the generations of our ancestors, and through each of us.
And when we return to the opening words of Genesis, we are reminded that the most beautiful thing about our tradition is that there is always another beginning.
May this new year at Temple Beth Ami be a year of blessings given and blessings received, of friendships deepened and new connections formed, of ancient wisdom and new discoveries. May we continue to build a community in which every generation finds its place, every person feels valued, and every act of kindness brings us closer to the world we hope to create.
And may we remember that the Promised Land is not simply a destination we hope to reach someday. It is also the world we build together, one blessing, one mitzvah, and one generation at a time.
Chag Sameach and Shabbat Shalom!