It is a jarring ride through the Torah during the Yamim Noraim. We read special selections like the Binding of Isaac from Genesis on Rosh Hashanah and Parshat Nitzavim from Deuteronomy on Yom Kippur; but peppered throughout these holy days we return to our regularly scheduled programming of parshat ha-shavua, making our way, slowly but surely to the end of the Torah.
This week we read parshat Va-yelekh. A very self-aware Moses knows that his time with the Israelites is running short. He offers final instructions, passes the mantle of leadership on to Joshua, and begins the work of transitioning himself out of the limelight. The interaction between God and Moses here is striking. Moses has already admitted that his end is near, he knows this, and yet God reiterates it, saying, “The time is drawing near for you to die.” (Deuteronomy 31:14). As I read these words, with the Yom Kippur prayerbook open on my desk, I am struck by the timeliness of this week’s parsha.
On Yom Kippur we are invited (rather sternly) to contemplate our own mortality. We deprive our physical bodies of that which it needs to survive (food and water), and we focus our thoughts on the words of the prayers – those that acknowledge that we, too, and those we love, are but mortals. It is not easy work. It is frightening to sit in community and wonder which seats will be empty next year; and yet it is part of what we do in order to more fully live the other 364 days of the year.
– Rabbi Callie Schulman
