The Last Shabbat of the Year 5784

These words of Torah should be in memory of my dear Cousin Feigi Farkash who sadly passed away last week. Her memory should be for a blessing.

I saw a friend of Shabbat Afternoon walking and he has asked me if I heard the news? I answered I didn’t. And then he told me that one of the biggest enemies of our people Hasan Nassaralh was eliminated. There is a Verse from Tehilim that comes to mind when I think about this great piece of news. “Let sinners perish from the earth, and the wicked will be no more.”

While we read the Torah on Shabbos, it said in the Verse: “Gather together all the people – men, women, small children so that they will hear and so that they will learn and they will fear Hashem.”

This verse is talking about the Mitzvah of Hakhel. The Mitzvah of Hakhel is the gathering of the entirety of the Jewish people on the holiday of Sukkot following the Shmita year. The king at that time would read from different sections in the Fifth part of the Torah which we call Chumash Devarim from a platform that is elevated. The Talmud in Masechet Chagiga explains that the men came to study and the women came to hear. The Talmud then asks; “Why did the very small children come? To give reward to those that brought them which is their parents.”

My Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Yochanan Zweig may he live and be well says “The reason these Parents earn special rewards for bringing their children for Hakhel it isn’t because they can be hard to deal with at Hakhel. But it is because they are making the greatest expression of their personal commitment to Hashem and his Torah. They want their children to follow in their footsteps and the legacy of the Jewish people which is great and eternal.”

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For more about these words of Torah, take a look at the following sources.

Parshat Nitzavim-Vayelech.

The Book of Tehilim Chapter 104

And please see the Insights into the weekly Parsha by Rav Yochanan Zweig Shlita which most of these words of Torah are based off of.