VOYAGE à travers la Parachat (VEZOT HABERAKHA 54 - 2eme) - Rav Shmouel Timestit

Imagine you've been contacted by a notary to hear your grandfather's last wishes before he departs this world. And something strange catches your eye. Instead of being summoned to the notary's office, you're summoned to your town's municipal stadium. Strange.

Your town's municipal stadium. Maybe there's a problem with his office. Well , you check the time, you see what's what. You tell yourself, I'm going to carry out my grandfather's wishes before he leaves this world.

You go to the municipal stadium and there, the stadium is full. You who expected to see your family and loved ones, you have the entire town in front of you. The mayor, the city councilor, the garbage collector, the plumber, the carpenter, the crepe seller, the whole town is there. What is this story all about?

And then the notary begins. Here it is, I would like to thank you for allowing me to live a beautiful life. I thank the mailman for bringing me my mail every day. I thank the crepe maker for those good crepes he made every Sunday.

I thank the mayor for having well, uh, managed the community, and so on and so forth. And there, you don't understand, you are completely lost. What is this story in this week's Parashah? Parashat Vezot HaBerachah, the last Parashah of the Torah, the last Parashah of the book of Devarim, the one that brings the whole Torah to a close, the five books of the Torah.

Moshe Rabbeinu, the greatest of all prophets, before leaving this world on the 7th of Adar, the day of his birth, what does he do? Instead of being with his family, instead of telling his children, "Here are your grandchildren, here, you will have to follow the path, take care of yourselves, I leave you my possessions, my dear wife, you will take care of yourself." No, what does he do? He summons the entire people and there he is going to do exactly as HaKadosh Baruch Hu. He learns, Moshe Rabbeinu, he learns from whom?

From HaKadosh Baruch Hu. HaKadosh Baruch Hu, when He created the world, He created it with the letters of the alphabet, but He did not want the creation of the world to be tainted with something that is not good. So, He had all the letters pass before Him until He reached the Beit, so that the Torah would begin with a Bereshit, with a Berachah. And Moshe says to himself, if HaKadosh Baruch Hu started the world with a Beit of blessing, I must finish the Torah with a Beit of blessing.

VO Here is the blessing that Moses is going to give to the children of Israel. But be careful, Moses our Teacher is not selfish. He doesn't just think about his family, he doesn't think about his relatives. For him, family is not just his children, his wife, his cousins.

No, Moses ' family is the people of Israel. So he is going to begin, he will summon all the people and give blessings to each tribe according to its own virtue. He knows there are God’s blessings, Jacob our father's blessings, and that he comes well after. But he gives his own blessings and he will tell them now I am leaving this world.

And the Torah will tell us something extraordinary: that Moses our Teacher, it will be written there that there has been no greater prophet in all of Israel than Moses, who spoke with the Holy One, blessed be He, face to face, that no one like him will ever arise again in the people of Israel. So how will it happen for the Messiah? The Messiah is the soul of Moses our Teacher. The soul , the true soul, is the one who will come to deliver, the redeemer.

But as we say the first redeemer is the last redeemer, what does that mean? The first liberator, as we call him, will be the final liberator. The same soul, the soul of Moses who originally delivered the people from Egypt. He will have to deliver the people from the great Egypt.

What is Egypt? Egypt is not simply a country. Egypt represents the nations of the world, since at the time it was all the nations of the world. So he will deliver the nations of the world because the goal of the Exodus from Egypt was to bring everyone out, not just the Children of Israel, to bring Egypt out of its exile.

Except that Egypt did not succeed. So we only managed to do half the work. Moses only managed to do half the work. What did he do?

He brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt. He did not bring Egypt out of its exile. And so, what is Egypt? The nations of the world.

Meaning the ultimate goal that the Holy One, blessed be He, wanted in the final redemption is to bring the world out of its exile to return to the state before the original sin. And we didn't manage to do it. So the Messiah will manage to do it. That is why we say in the end times.

It is not the end of times, it is the beginning of a new era. the beginning of a new era where the nations of the world will recognize the greatness of God, where the nations of the world will see the divine light. And us, what will we be? Well, we will be the prophets of the nations, that’s all.

We will be the light of the nations of the world on earth. We will be the echo of Hashem on earth, but there will be a revelation for everyone. Don't think it will only be for the Jews, but for the whole world. Let us make man in our image.

And Moses our Teacher knows all that. And Moses will tell them: children, don't forget that we are all able to become "Isaha Elokim." It's not just me, it's not only me who is able to become "Isaha Elokim." It’s true that perhaps I was chosen with a special soul, but I worked on it. I didn't just let things happen. I didn't wait at home.

Oh my, I need to get married, you know. How am I going to find a wife by channel surfing in front of the TV? Wait, Snow White will knock on your door and you'll be able to marry her and have many children. No.

Oh, I need to get a job. Oh, I’m tired this morning. I’ll stay in bed until noon. But you will never find a job.

I want to become a billionaire. How? I do absolutely nothing. I spend my day scrolling.

You will never become a billionaire. So you will never be able to become like Moses if you don't start studying, if you don't put your head into the books, if you don't get a rabbi. Since, of course , Moses our Teacher was face-to-face with Him, so the rabbi, in quotes, of Moses, was himself. But there is always someone above us, we must never forget that.

How do we choose a rabbi? Well, he must have a rabbi himself. If you have a rabbi who has no rabbi, run away , it's dangerous. And you must always keep this thought in mind: he is first Moses and then he is our Teacher.

He is not "our Teacher Moses," he is first Moses. First, he is a man, first he has a heart, first he thinks of his followers, he thinks of his community, he thinks of his people, he thinks of his children. Moses says to God, erase me if you want to destroy this people. I don't want to be the the the leader.

He has humility. He is the most humble man on the face of the earth. And that is what we must look for in a rabbi. That is what we must look for in a community leader.

That is what we must look for in someone who represents the Torah. They must be humble. They must be there for others, live for others, give to others, and accept what they receive. And sometimes, most of the time, those aren't just good things.

They must not seek honor, for people to kiss their hands and say, "Oh, what a rabbi." Oh, oh, oh my. No, my dear, no, that is not it at all. My dear, all it is, is that he, the man, is a servant of God. And the greatest title God gave to Moses is "Torat Moshe Avdi," the Torah of Moses my servant.

Not the Torah of Moses my prophet, not the Torah of Moses my great rabbi, not the Torah of Moses the greatest of all. No, the Torah of Moses my servant. To our ears, "servant" sounds like an insult. But for God, it is the highest level.

Torat Moshe Avdi, the Torah. Imagine that he elevated and sanctified himself so much, and refined his being so much, our teacher Moses, he became a man of God. A man of God is not a demigod. He became someone capable of being a man while living fully awakened, completely in his wholeness.

He reached the level of completeness. That is why God tells him, "Now, Moses, now that your life is finished, go to Mount Nebo, go climb the mountain.""Go climb up there to the level of the' nun, 'find the' binah, ' place yourself at the gate of the 50th degree of wisdom." You have earned the right to reach that level. You have earned the right to access the 50th gate. You have earned it now, Moses.

Now you, Moses my servant, you must die , because every man has been obligated to die since the original sin. And that is the greatness of the Torah. If we had wanted to show that the Torah was not written by God, then in that case, we would have...We would have noted that Moses ascended to heaven and became a demigod, but no, it is written that Moses died, even though it says he spoke face-to-face with God. Because the Torah is divine, but it was given to men

to understand that there is a difference between the divine and the human, and that even the greatest of prophets must pass through this stage of death, and that he is not—how should I say—he is not above the laws of nature, despite his high level.

And that is what we must learn: that we are capable of being beyond nature while within nature. That is what a Jew is: to be beyond nature within nature. Moses our teacher surpassed every level . He reached an extraordinary level, yet he lived on earth.

He had a father, he had a mother, he had brothers and sisters, and he was rooted in his people to sustain the people of Israel with all the levels he might possess. And that we shall call it Torat Moshe. The Torah is in the name of Moses. thing that could exist—that the Torah be in our name, that these few words of Torah may be in memory of Anthony Avraham ben and that it may hasten to bring and that we may experience the redemption soon.

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