This Week’s Torah Portion: Vayeilech – וַיֵּלֶךְ (Deuteronomy 31:1–30)

“Moses wrote down this Torah and gave it to the priests, sons of Levi, who carried the Ark of God’s Covenant, and to all the elders of Israel. And Moses instructed them…you shall read this Torah aloud in the presence of all Israel.”  (Deuteronomy 31:9)

This week’s Torah Portion, Vayeilech, contains it’s own D’var Torah. It contains the actual commandment for the Children of Israel to read the words of Torah for all to hear. This is the reason we are here still today. For all our wandering, for all we have lost and all we have learned over these three thousand years and more since Moses spoke these words, the Torah has abided within us and its teachings have kept us strong. 

We are today a much different people than our ancestors who stood on the banks of the Jordan river receiving these words of Torah, and yet our values, our culture, and our faith remain – because we have carried the Torah, heard its words and made them our own, in every generation of our people. L’dor vaDor, from generation to generation, may these words of Torah live on – in our lives, and the justice we bring to our world.