Devarim
Book 5: Deuteronomy


VAYEILECH - RASHI COMMENTARY


Chapter 31 - Rashi

Verse 1: Moshe went, etc.

Verse 2: I cannot, any longer go forth and return.

Perhaps his strength waned? The Torah therefore teaches, "His appearance was not dulled, and his freshness did not fade."1 Then what is meant by "I cannot?" I am not permitted, for authority was removed from me and conferred on Yehoshua.

For Ad-noy has said to me.

This explains "I cannot any longer go forth and return"--- for Ad-noy said to me.2

I am...today.

Today my days and years are completed3--- today is the day I was born, and today is the day I will die.4 Another interpretation: To go forth and return with respect to words of Torah.5 This teaches that he was sealed off from the masoretic teachings and the wellsprings of wisdom.6

Verse 6: He will not enfeeble you.

He will not precipitate, in you, the feebleness of being abandoned by Him.7

Verse 7: For you shall enter with this people.

"For you shall enter 'with' this people."8 Moshe told Yehoshua, 'Let the elders of the generation join with you, let everything follow their opinion and counsel.' But the Holy One, Blessed is He, told Yehoshua, "For you shall 'take' B'nei Yisroel into the land which I swore to them."9 Take them, by coercion, with everything contingent on you. Get a stick, and beat their skulls--- one leader for the generation, and not two leaders for the generation.10

Verse 9: Moshe wrote, etc., and gave it.

When it was completely11 finished,12 he gave it to his fellow tribesmen.13  14

Verse 10: After seven years have ended.

During the first year of [the next] Sh'mittah, meaning the eighth year.15 Why, then, is it referred to16 as "the Sh'mittah year?" Because there are still seventh-year restrictions which apply--- with the seventh-year harvest which overlaps after the seventh-year has departed.17

Verse 11: You shall read this Torah.

The king recited,18 from the beginning of "These are the words," as stated in tractate Sotah,19 on a wooden platform which was erected in the Temple courtyard.

Verse 12: The men.

To learn.20

The women.

To listen.21

And the infants.

Why did they come? To bring merit to those who brought them.22

Verse 14: And I shall exhort [lit. command] him.

I shall enthuse him.23

Verse 16: The stranger of the land.

The nations24 of the land.

Verse 17: I shall conceal My face.

As if I don't notice their suffering.25

Verse 19: This song.

"Hearken, O heaven" until "And reconcile his land, His people."26

Verse 20: And infuriate Me.

And enrage Me, as always with {Hebrew Ref} , which denotes rage.

Verse 21: This song shall serve as testimony before them as witness.

That I warned them, in it, of all that occurred to them.27

For it shall never be forgotten from the lips of their progeny.

This is a guarantee to Yisroel that the Torah will never be completely forgotten28 by their progeny.29

Verse 23: He commanded Yehoshua, the son of Nun.

This reverts to the text above30 in relation to the Divine Presence,31 as stated clearly, "to the land that I swore32 to them."

Verse 26: Take.

Like "remember,"33 "keep,"34 "going."35    36

On the side of the ark of Ad-noy's...covenant.

There is a difference of opinion here among the sages of Yisroel, in tractate Bava Basra.37 Some of them say, there was a shelf which extended outside the ark, and it was placed there. Others say, it was placed alongside the tablets,38 inside the ark.

Verse 28: Assemble to me.

They did not sound the trumpets, that day, to assemble the community,39 since it is said, 40"Make for yourself," he did not empower Yehoshua to use them.41 And even during his own lifetime they were concealed before the day he died42 [Another text: on the day he died], in fulfillment of that which is said, "there is no sovereignty on the day of death."43  44

And invoke as witnesses against them heaven and earth.

But, one might contend, he already invoked them as witnesses above--- "I invoke as witnesses against you, today, etc."45 There, he spoke to the Israelites, but did not address heaven and earth.

Now, however, he wanted to say, "Hearken, O heaven, etc."46

Verse 29: After my death, that you will become depraved.

Yet, throughout all the days of Yehoshua, they were not depraved, as it is said, "The people worshipped Ad-noy all the days of Yehoshua."47 [We derive] from here that a man's disciple is as precious to him as his own person, for, so long as Yehoshua was alive, it appeared, to Moshe, as if he was alive himself.48


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