Previous Commentaries

By Rabbi Joshua Kullock,
Comunidad Hebrea de Guadalajara, Mexico

Translated by Inés Baum - Proofreading by Ellen Zindler

Said Rabbi Shimon bar Halaphta: “There is no better receptacle for blessing than peace, as it is written: ‘The Lord will give strength unto His people; the Lord will bless his people with peace.’” (Psalms 29:11).” (Mishnah, Uktzim Treatise 3:12)

The small text I just quoted is the last of the phrases that compose the Mishnah, first compendium of what we know as Oral Torah, which was edited at the beginning of the third century of the Common Era, by a group of sages led by Rabbi Yehuda haNasi.

It is strange that this phrase closes the Uktzim Treatise, which basically speaks about several types of impurity found in fruits and vegetables, especially on their outside, as stems (uktzim) and/or rinds. However, and beyond the fact that we may consider Rabbi Shimon bar Halaphta’s phrase, at least in principle, out of context in the framework it is found, we can affirm that the sages were not interested in ending their first great compilation work with technical words and definitions concerning the purity of fruits, a subject which, on the other hand, had lost its relevance with the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, in the year 70 C.E.. The sages wanted to end the Mishnah with an Aggadah, with a biblical lesson that would transcend and at the same time give meaning to the Halachah, to the Jewish rules that were then starting to be built, defined, and stated. In this sense, and as it was already written in great detail by Abraham Joshua Heschel in his book “God in Search of Man”, if Halachah is the Law, Aggadah is the Sense of the Law (see especially chapter 33 of that volume). And which Aggadah was chosen by the sages to end their work? They chose to speak of the blessing, and about how we can achieve the blessing in our lives. The teaching they selected to conclude their work was that the real blessing can only be attained, sustained, and perpetuated through peace. Consequently, every regime that does not know how to promote peace in all the magnitude of the word will not be bearer of blessings and, therefore, will have to be modified, rethought, or simply chucked aside.

Just as the Mishnah ends speaking of blessings, the Torah also ends the same way. V’zot ha-B’rachah…, “And this is the Blessing”, is the name of the last parashah of the Pentateuch. Moses reaches the end of his days on earth, and he does so by raising his voice in blessings for each one of the tribes. Moses ends his days peacefully, and this spirit allows him to give himself in his last act to the articulation of numerous blessings, each one according to the needs, visions, and interests of all those who stood before him. In this sense, Moses takes up again what our patriarch Jacob had already done on his deathbed, granting blessings to each one of his sons, according to what is written at the end of the book of Genesis (chapter 49).

Perhaps we could think that the blessing in biblical context (and also in its parallel at the end of the Mishnah), comes up exclusively in closing and concluding stages. When all’s said and done, we encounter leaders blessing on their final days, or phrases that entail blessings at the end of regulating compendia. Nevertheless, I think that the most in-depth teaching regarding blessings granted by the Torah, in this last parashah of the book, is that blessings are not just obtained from generating systems that promote and defend peace, but rather that blessings can only be possible where and when there is continuity. The closures we see are never definitive, but always open a space to a new exceeding moment: Jacob’s blessing signals the end of family patriarchy to move towards the constitution of a large and numerous nation; the end of the Mishnah is none other than the intermediate passage which gives rise to the monumental construction of the Talmud, and a ruling system which grounds a fundamental part of its life, even to our days, on the fact that it never closes; and finally, Moses’ blessing, the blessing that summons us this week, closes the cycle of forty years in the wilderness, only to start not just one but at least two new and renewed stages: on the one hand, we find a people, physically and mentally free, settling on the land of promises, of milk and honey, but on the other hand, we encounter the blessing stated every year in the Jewish congregations which, notwithstanding location, renew its commitment with the Tradition of Israel at the end of the reading of the Torah, only to begin once more with the story of the creation of the world. It is thus that, by agreeing again with the Torah, with its texts and teachings, in a cycle more and more profound and meaningful with each repetition, we affirm our own identity, giving body to the B’rachah that Moses bequeathed unto us.

May we be faithful recipients of the commitment responsible for closing cycles that open the way to self-improving stages. May we conclude in order to start once again. May we build blessings of continuity and peace, and may the new year be a year of study, meditation, and action.

This Parashah commentary was done by the Union of Jewish Congregations of Latin America and the Caribbean, and may be reproduced quoting its source.
To subscribe or unsubscribe to the Torah commentary, send an e-mail to: UJCL_parasha@yahoo.com .
If you wish to dedicate the commentary to the memory of a loved one, or in honor of some family event, contact us at: UJCL_parasha@yahoo.com

Forwarded by Rabbi Gustavo Kraselnik, from Kol Shearith Israel Congregation, Panama.
Translated by Inés Baum and proofread by Ellen Zindler, from B’nei Israel Congregation, Costa Rica.

Copyright © 2001, 2002 UJCL