Parsha Talk Vayelekh 5783 - 2022

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat Va-yelekh [Deuteronomy 31:1–30] is the shortest parashah in terms of verses, but in terms of words and letters it is second to V-zot Ha-b’rakhah, which is read on Simhat Torah. When Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur falls on Shabbat, it is paired with Nitzavim [read last week] 29:9–30:30, which has forty verses. Our discussion this week is perhaps more freewheeling than most other weeks, and if memory serves correctly, we did not delve too deeply into the parashah. Eliot noted that this is the most musical season of the Jewish year, and from their our conversation meandered, taking in the significance of Moses’ death at 120 years and various connections to Psalm 27, occasioned by variations of the phrase hazak v-amatz, which appears 3 times this week, and in the last verse of Psalm 27, as well as in the first chapter of Joshua. As the Jewish calendar works out, this is our first Parashah Talk in 5783. We began this journey over 2 1/2 years ago and we have hardly missed a week. We our grateful to all of you who have listened, watched, commented, and sent e-mails to us at [email protected]. As with Neil Young’s car, Long May You Run! With best wishes for a g’mar hatimah tovah, a seal in the Book of Life for the New Year. Shabbat Shalom!