Vezot Haberachah

📜 The Story

'Vezot Haberachah' means 'And this is the blessing.' It is the very last parsha in the Torah, and the only one that is never read on a regular Shabbat (the Sabbath). We read it on Simchat Torah, the holiday when we finish reading the whole Torah and start again right away from the beginning, from Genesis.

Before he died, Moses blessed the twelve tribes of Israel one by one, with a blessing that fit each tribe. He asked God to give them strength and protection. He blessed them the way a loving parent blesses their children before saying goodbye.

After the blessings, Moses climbed Mount Nebo alone. God showed him the whole Promised Land, from one end to the other, even though Moses would not go in. There, at one hundred twenty years old, Moses died, as God said. The Torah tells us that his eyes were still sharp and he was still strong.

God Himself buried Moses in a valley in the land of Moab, and to this day nobody knows exactly where. The Israelites cried and mourned for Moses for thirty days. Joshua son of Nun, who Moses had placed his hands on, was filled with wisdom and became the new leader who would bring the people into the land.

The parsha, and the whole Torah, ends by saying that there was never another prophet in Israel like Moses, who knew God face to face. This parsha also has the verse 'Torah tzivah lanu Moshe, morashah kehillat Yaakov,' 'Moses gave us the Torah, an inheritance for the people of Jacob.' It is often the very first verse a Jewish child learns by heart.