The Final Blessing – Vezot Habracha
וְזֹאת הַבְּרָכָה אֲשֶׁר בֵּרַךְ מֹשֶׁה אִישׁ הָאֱ-לֹקִים אֶת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לִפְנֵי מוֹתוֹ (דברים לג, א)
In this, the final parsha of the חמישה חומשי תורה, Moshe blesses the Twelve Tribes (actually if you look carefully it seems that Shimon is not on the list, but that is a subject for another shiur), before he dies.
The first word of the parsha poses a question. Why does it say וזאת and not simply זאת? Many of the Mefarshim pick up on this.
Usually the addition of the ו' החיבור indicates that there is some connection to something that preceded it. The Sforno says that the connection is that at the end of last week’s parsha Ha’azinu, HKB”H showed ארץ ישראל to Moshe and now Moshe continues by blessing the land and Am Yisrael who are about to enter it.
The Ramban takes a different approach. When Yaakov blessed his sons, it says –
כָּל אֵלֶּה שִׁבְטֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל שְׁנֵים עָשָׂר וְזֹאת אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לָהֶם אֲבִיהֶם וַיְבָרֶךְ אוֹתָם אִישׁ אֲשֶׁר כְּבִרְכָתוֹ בֵּרַךְ אֹתָם (בראשית מט, כח).
Moshe’s blessings, according to the Ramban, are a continuation of Yaakov’s blessings and he begins them the same way as Yaakov, with the word וזאת. This amazing perush of the Ramban still begs a question. Why did Yaakov begin his blessings with וזאת?
I would like to explore this a little further with a perush from my sefer (מאיר פנים, פרק יג).
Shlomo Hamelech says –
מִי זֹאת הַנִּשְׁקָפָה כְּמוֹ שָׁחַר יָפָה כַלְּבָנָה בָּרָה כַּחַמָּה אֲיֻמָּה כַּנִּדְגָּלוֹת (שיר השירים ו, י)
The Zohar Hakadosh (פרשת תרומה, דף קכ"ו, ע"ב) explains that the words מי and זאת harbor a secret of two worlds joined together. The world מי is an upper, spiritual world, while the world זאת is a lower world, the physical world we live in. Both these worlds are umbilically connected and are mirrored. In other words what we see in this physical world is the opposite way round in the upper, spiritual world.
For example in this world the order of the alef bet is א,ב,ג,ד etc. ending in ת, while in the upper, spiritual world the order is reversed ת,ש,ר,ק etc. ending in א. On Shabbat, which is מעין עולם הבא, a preview of the upper, spiritual world, we say in Mussaf the tefila תִּכַּנְתָּ שַׁבָּת רָצִיתָ קָרְבְּנוֹתֶיהָ that is ordered according to תשר"ק (not תשר"ת of the shofar), which reflects this.
So the word זאת does not simply mean “this”, it is an acronym for our physical world.
The Admor Shalom Dov Ber Schneerson, the 5th Lubbavitcher Rebbe (1860-1920) in his sefer (קונטרס עץ החיים פ"ג), quoting the Ari z”l, explains the passuk –
וְשַׂמְתֶּם אֶת דְּבָרַי אֵלֶּה עַל לְבַבְכֶם וְעַל נַפְשְׁכֶם וכו' (דברים יא, יח).
that the word ושמתם can also be read as ו-סם-תם – the Torah can be compared to a סם תם, a “pure drug”. When HKB”H created the יצר הרע He created the antidote to it – the Torah and the middot. The Torah is associated with the six middot in the עשר ספירות – חסד, גבורה, תפארת, נצח, הוד, יסוד (חג"ת נה"י) (this is a Kabbalistic concept, beyond the scope of this shiur). So the word ושמתם, according to the Ari z”l in fact means “The Torah (symbolized by the letter vav) is a pure drug”.
The Admor brings a mashal of someone cooking a dish of astringent radishes together with honey. The radishes on their own are bitter and not palatable, but when cooked together with honey, the resultant dish is much tastier than the original radishes and also tastier than the honey itself. The purpose of the Torah is not to eradicate the יצר הרע, but to “sweeten” it, so that the result is a combination that is “sweeter” even than the Torah on its own.
Without the יצר הרע at all, the world would cease to exist. When Ezra Hasofer and the עולי בבל returned to Eretz Yisrael to rebuild the 2nd Beit Hamikdash they implored Hashem to erase the יצר הרע (יומא סט,ב) as this had been the root cause for the destruction of the 1st Beit Hamikdash. The response was that without the יצר הרע there would be no פרו ורבו and the human race would die out. In the end, Hashem eliminated only the יצר הרע against עבודה זרה.
Our purpose here in this world (זאת) is to use the Torah (symbolized by the letter vav, referring to 6 middot from the עשר ספירות) to control the יצר הרע and “sweeten” it, so that the end result is something far greater than could possibly be achieved, with the Torah alone. In other words - we must channel our יצר הרע for the purposes of good.
Here is a short example. If a person’s יצר הרע predisposes him to be greedy and to always crave more - if he channels that character trait for the purposes of good, like doing chessed and helping others, always craving more chessed, he will achieve greater heights than if he lacks that “supposedly negative” character trait.
This, according to the Admor, is what it means in the passuk –
וזאת עשו להם וחיו וכו' (במדבר ד, יט).
When the “vav”, the Torah, is combined with זאת, our physical world – only then will we merit life, both in this world and in the world to come.
This then is the secret of the prelude to Yaakov and Moshe’s blessings to Am Yisrael which both begin with וזאת.
The Gematria of וזאת is the same as בעל ואשה. The man (גבורה) symbolizes the עולם העשייה while the woman (חסד) symbolizes the עולם הרוחני. So similarly, when they are combined it is possible to achieve much greater things than with each on their own.
The Gematria of וזאת is also the same as בשמחה ובטוב לבב. A few weeks ago in parshat Ki Tavo we read the תוכחה and the reason that Hashem punishes us תחת אשר לא עבדת את ה' א-לקיך בשמחה ובטוב לבב. Only when the ו is combined with זאת can we truly serve HKB”H בשמחה ובטוב לבב.
וזאת is also one of the secrets of the Lechem Hapanim.
We said above that the word זאת refers to our physical world עולם העשייה. However there is another word that refers to the same thing – מלכות. According to the Mefarshim the Shulchan is named מלכות, because it is surrounded by a crown (like a king). The essence of the Shulchan is our physical world, the עולם העשייה. According to the Zohar Hakadosh (ח"ב קנ"ד ע"א) the Shulchan is like a tree and the Lechem Hapanim are the fruit of that tree.
The Lechem Hapanim are arranged on the Shulchan in two stacks of 6 (vav) loaves, which correspond with the 6 middot referred to above. Therefore the Shulchan=מלכות=זאת while the Lechem Hapanim=6 (vav) middot of the עשר ספירות=Torah.
When there is no Lechem Hapanim on the Shulchan you have only זאת. The עולם העשייה, if it stands alone and is left up to its own devices, can appear to be a self-sufficient entity, which is a kind of an avodah zarah. Look at the global economy today and how many people regard it – like avodah zarah mamash, where any hint of HKB”H is totally absent from the equation.
This is why the Shulchan is not allowed to be empty for even a millisecond. Even when they switch the loaves on Shabbat, the Kohanim do so in such a way that the new loaves are slid onto the Shulchan simultaneously while the previous week’s loaves are removed.
The Lechem Hapanim, symbolizing the Torah, gives the Shulchan, the עולם העשייה, our physical world, purpose and direction.
Since the Shulchan and the Lechem Hapanim are a conduit for parnasa in this world, the ramifications of that are that - anything connected to parnasa must be “sweetened” with the Torah. It must be ו-זאת and not זאת alone.
The מרגלים mistakenly thought that the destiny of Am Yisrael was to ultimately live in a totally sterile environment of the Torah, as they were in the Midbar. In the Midbar there was no עולם העשייה. Am Yisrael did nothing, they were handed everything on a plate – food, water, air conditioning, laundry, etc.
This however was not HKB”H’s plan. He intended for Am Yisrael to settle in Eretz Yisrael and be a part of the עולם העשייה – farm their own food, build their own infrastructures, etc. that would be “sweetened”, given purpose and direction by the Torah.
When HKB”H created the world, He also created the יצר הרע which He considered “good” - וַיַּרְא אֱ-לֹקִים אֶת כָּל אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה וְהִנֵּה טוֹב מְאֹד, because man was supposed to dominate the יצר הרע, as it says -
וּרְדוּ בִּדְגַת הַיָּם וּבְעוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם וּבְכָל חַיָּה הָרֹמֶשֶׂת עַל הָאָרֶץ (בראשית א, כח)
When a person dominates his/her יצר הרע using the Torah, the יצר הרע becomes a catalyst to achieve the highest possible מדרגה.
This is the secret of וזאת הברכה, the blessing that Moshe gave Am Yisrael before he died and before they entered Eretz Yisrael and the עולם העשייה. It is the same principle as וְזֹאת הַתּוֹרָה אֲשֶׁר שָׂם מֹשֶׁה, which is especially pertinent as we approach Simchat Torah.
HKB”H wanted us to be זאת combined with ו – to live in the real, physical world and not detach ourselves (as the goyim do in monasteries and convents), but to take the physical in this world and using the ו – the Torah, raise it up to a higher level of spirituality.
