V'Zot HaBerachah, And This Is the Blessing

✦  All insights are drawn from articles by Karen Berg and Michael Berg published by the Kabbalah Centre.

V'Zot HaBerachah ("And this is the blessing") is the final portion of the Torah, and it is read on Simchat Torah, "the Joy of the Torah," on the very same day we begin reading Bereshit again from the first word. An ending and a beginning, in the same breath. Moshe's final act, before he leaves this world, is not a warning and not a rule. It is a blessing, one for every tribe of Israel, by name, one after another (Devarim 33:1–25). Each tribe carried a different gift, a different role, a different channel through which to receive and give Light. The list closes with a single line that rises above every difference: "There is none like the God of Yeshurun" (Devarim 33:26), many channels, one Source.

Nobody knows exactly where Moshe is buried. The final chapter of the Torah tells us that he died in the land of Moav, "and He buried him in the valley… and no one knows his burial place to this day" (Devarim 34:6). The greatest prophet who ever lived, and his grave remains hidden. Classical teaching reads this as deeply intentional: connection to a great teacher lives in consciousness, not geography. And there is a classical teaching, carried in Jewish tradition, about the very last letter of the Torah and the very first. The last word of Devarim ends with the letter lamed. The first word of Bereshit begins with the letter bet. Together, lamed-bet, they spell lev, the Hebrew word for heart. The Torah is built as a circle, not a straight line: the ending is wired directly into the beginning, and the heart is what joins them.

Karen Berg teaches something remarkable about Simchat Torah: after all the work of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot, purification, mercy, a whole infrastructure of Light built up, one last step was still needed to turn it on. She writes: "the last step in this work is the one that actually activates all that was done before. Simchat Torah is the step that turns on the Light." Not more study. Not more effort. She describes it simply: we are asked to "accept the spiritual path from a space of certainty and happiness, from a place of fullness not lack, from love not need." She calls this "the greatest gift", free will handed back to us at the very end: "It is as if God is saying, 'Now that I have put all the pieces in place perfectly for you, I leave the choice to you.'"

Michael Berg tells a story that shows what this looks like in practice. Rav Chaim Vital wrote that the great kabbalist known as the Ari would not only do his own connection on this day, he would walk from place to place in the city of Tzfat, looking for more opportunities to dance with the Torah. Michael Berg explains why: "every second we spend walking or dancing around the Torah in a circle is another second we are drawing from that Light." The Ari, he writes, felt he had a limitless vessel that day, and he simply kept drawing Light into it, step after step, dance after dance. Don't wait for a reason to feel joy. The joy itself is what turns the Light on.

1 · Phrases for Contemplation

2 · Takeaways

3 · Action Plan · 7 Days