Though we don't leyn Vezot Habrachah in its entirety until Simchat Torah, which falls on 22 Tishrei/24 October, we have already started leyning it midweek, so here's a devar Torah for it fom Rabbi Berel Wein:
The holy
Torah concludes with the blessings of Moshe to the people of Israel before his
passing from the world. Though the point has been made before, it bears
repetition: the blessing to each of the tribes is different in detail and
purpose. Contrary to much current belief and practice in religious Jewish
society, there is no one-size-fits-all blessing or mission statement that
applies to all Jews.
Rather
Moshe, to whom the task of nation building was assigned by Heaven, looks to
construct a whole nation, multi-faceted and productive, holy and interactive.
If everyone is to be Zevulun, then what will be of Torah study and knowledge
amongst the people of Israel? But if everyone is Yissachar, then again Torah
will fail to survive within Jewish society.
King Solomon advised us wisely that every child is to be educated according to the individual talents, predispositions and abilities of that particular child. When home schooling was the vogue for Jewish education in biblical times, such an individualized educational program was both more possible and feasible. With the introduction of universal and institutionalized schooling, the task of individualized education to meet every student’s specific situation became a goal that was well-nigh unattainable.
The system
was built to create Yissachar, but those that dropped out and became Zevulun
were, to a certain extent, treated with less respect in the Jewish scholarly
community. Though certainly Yissachar was to be respected, honored and
supported, many generations lost sight that it was only through Zevulun that
Yissachar could exist in the Jewish world. The two tribes were meant to
complement each other, not to compete and denigrate one another.
It is
striking to note how careful Moshe is to identify each tribe’s nature and
strengths. Moshe is the one person who forges the different tribes into one
whole nation. He did so by granting each tribe its different due, by
recognizing that all are necessary in this process of nation building. The
rabbis carried this idea further when they identified the four species of plant
life that form the commandment on Succot, as being representative of the basic
groupings that have always formed Jewish life. Just as all four species are
necessary for the fulfilment of the commandment, so too are all four groupings
of Jews are also necessary to form a vital and healthy Jewish society.
The remarkable variety of people and ideas that have always characterized Jewish society throughout the ages was recognized and extolled by Moshe through his individualized blessings to Israel before his passing from this world. At times Jewish society appears to be riven and chaotic and we long for the elusive “Jewish unity” to which we all pay lip service. But what we really should mean to yearn for is not Jewish conformity but Jewish loyalty, which is a far different matter. There is an Jewish ballad that states this matter clearly and succinctly: “Whatever we are, we are—but we are all Jews!” The blessings of Moshe as they appear in our concluding parsha of the Torah should help guide us to this important conclusion.