A Farbrengen with Moses

A Farbrengen with Moses These are the words that Moses spoke to his people on the other side of the Jordan, Mayayver Layarden.”

Thus begins the fifth and final book of the Torah, a touching and powerful portrayal of a leader who sensing that his end is near, has the foresight to empower his people — with the kind of wisdom they will need to manuever the unknown complexities looming in the unfamiliar terrain of Jericho and beyond.

Though they would make that longed for passage over the Jordan, shifting into the uncertainty of an entire new way of being in the promised land, they would do so without the reassuring, visible comfort of his physical presence, needed now perhaps more than ever; nevertheless — what he imparted then, would remain etched in them forever. Those strong Devarim; those eternal words, bore his essence and constituted a new leadership paradigm that would evolve into a supplementary version of the protective Clouds of glory, The Ananay Hakavod.

A leadership model powerful enough to outlast the leader himself.

The crux of this entire book can be encapsulated in the paraphrasing of the following sweet Yiddish words that I can imagine Moishe Rabenu whispering softly to his beloved people, his Chassidim, “Ich fore Doch mit aych” …A part of me will always remain a part of you, this is Moishe the Rebbe beaming his light into the soul of Joshua, thereby transferring “from his spirit” onto the collective spirit of the entire people as well.

As he begins to “explain” this Torah, the choice of words to describe this, the Hebrew word Be-ayr which also means a well of water, seems more suggestive of an existential left brain kind of experience than a linear right brain one.

A Farbrengen.

A leader, who at his peak chooses to replace the paradigm of merely transmitting information quantitatively- by initiating new sequences, an alternative protocol model focusing instead on a qualitative transfusion of energy.

With this etiquette shift Moishe Rabenu was digging deep into the Neshama of his flock, digging deep into each individual soul, uncovering the wells, revealing the latent springs of Torah imprinted within each of them, springs that we can each draw from to this very day.

Much Love

Rabbi Yossi