Vayelech 5773

This week’s parsha contains the last of the 613 mitzvot (commandments). “Write for yourselves this song and teach it to the Children of Israel.” Our tradition teaches that the mitzvah (commandment) is for each of us to write our own Torah or to take part in the writing of a Torah scroll.

Why is Torah called shirah, song?

Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks cites the interpretation of Netziv: The whole Torah should be read as poetry, not prose, as the Hebrew word shirah means both song and poem. Like poetry, Torah is allusive rather than explicit, leaving more unsaid than said.

The Chief Rabbi also references R. Yechiel Michal Epstein, who equates the arguments in rabbinic literature, “the words of the living G-d”, with a song because “a song becomes more beautiful when scored for many voices interwoven in complex harmonies.”

Writes the Chief Rabbi: “The 613^th command is about the duty to make the Torah new in each generation. To make the Torah live anew, it is not enough to hand it on cognitively – as mere history and law. It must speak to us affectively, emotionally. Judaism is a religion of words, and yet whenever the language of Judaism aspires to the spiritual, it breaks into song…Words are the language of the mind. Music is the language of the soul.”

How do we make the Torah new in each generation?

Rabbi Yehonasan Gefen on aish.com provides the explanation of the Ktav Sofer: “This mitzvah is teaching us that it is not sufficient for a person to observe the Torah simply because his parents habituated him to Torah observance. Rather, he must create his own personal relationship with G-d based on a genuine recognition and appreciation of Torah. Writing one’s own Sefer Torah [Torah scroll] and not relying on that of his parents indicates that a person is striving to develop his own path in serving G-d and not blindly following that of his parents.”

While the child must forge his own relationship with G-d, developing his own traits and talents to the fullest, the mitzvah requires that he write the exact same Sefer Torah as his forefathers: “The degree of innovation that he makes cannot go beyond the boundary of the Torah inherited from his parents.”

Writes Rabbi Gefen: “All Jews are born into a line of tradition that goes back to Abraham; we are obligated to faithfully adhere to the instructions and attitudes that we receive from this line of tradition. A person cannot make up his own set of values or lifestyle; there is a tradition that guides him how to live his life. But at the same time, this does not mean that each person in the chain of tradition is identical in every way – there are many ways in which a person can express himself in the fulfillment of the tradition.”

Rabbi Gefen reminds us that on Yom Kippur (which will be observed this year on Tuesday evening September 25 through Wednesday evening, September 26) we will be judged not only for our mitzvah observance, but as to whether or not we are fulfilling our own purpose in life – whether we have utilized our own talents to our greatest ability and found our own niche in serving G-d.

As parents, we must transmit the Torah of our ancestors to our children, while at the same time allowing them to write their own song, their own Torah, and reach their individual potential by fulfilling their unique purpose in life.

Read the Chief Rabbi’s article at chiefrabbi.org/2009/09/12/covenant-conversation-5769-nitzavim-vayelech-the-torah-as-g-ds-song.