Final-Mitzvoth-Given
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Throughout this site I may use any of three versions of the Tanakh: 1. “Jewish
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Colour coded
details of our beloved TaNaKh:
1. Torah = History & Law, 2. Nevi’im = The Prophets. 3. *Ketuvim = all other Writings.
*The Ketuvim - Includes, Poetical
books - Psalms, Proverbs, Job, the Megillot, or Scrolls - Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations of
Jeremiah, Ecclesiastes, and Esther, prophecy of Daniel, and history
of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles I & II.
Please Note: Some
alterations or (additions) have been made relating to ‘Names’ and ‘Attributes’
of אֱלֹהִים - Elohim, having been corrected like it
once was pre the “Masoretic Text”.
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Remember the following truth from our
beloved Torah!
“Ye shall NOT ADD TO THE WORD which
I command you, NEITHER SHALL YE DIMINISH FROM
IT, that ye may keep the commandments of אֱלֹהֵיכֶם יְהוָה - the LORD your Eloleichem,
which I command you”. Davarim - Deuteronomy 4:2. (JPS-1917).
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With Rabbi,
Dr. Reuven Ben Avraham-Goossens, PhD.
The time had come that Moshe was about to pass away. Thus what happened on his final days of life? Remarkably he was issued final instructions from אֱלֹהִים - Elohim, which happened to be the very last two of our beloved ‘613 Mitzvoth’, which would have significant consequences for the future of us, the Israelites.
The first is known as הקהל - ‘hakhel’, which translates to ‘Assemble!’ or ‘Gather
together!’ The command that the king
could summon and gather the people during ‘Succot’
following the seventh, ‘Shemittah’, year!
The second command was the very last that Moshe ever received and gave to us, it contained the following.
“Now therefore write ye this song for you, and
teach thou it the children of
It is understood to be the command to write, or at least take part in writing, a ‘Sefer Torah’. But, why were these two mitzvot, given at this rather late time?
The late timing of these two mitzvot, being the commandment to write a Torah scroll (being the 613th and final mitzvah) and the assembly of ‘Hakhel’ is most deliberate. Their position at the very end of Moshe’s life and the 40-year journey in the wilderness serves an essential psychological and structural purpose!
In these last two commands which אֱלֹהִים - Elohim was teaching Moshe, and through him of course us, the Hebrews throughout the ages, what immortality is on earth, and not just in heaven. We are mortal because we are ‘physical’, and no physical organism can live forever. Indeed we grow up, and slowly we grow old, we grow frail, and finally we will die. However, we are not just physical. We are also very much ‘Spiritual’. In these last two commands, we are taught what it is to be part of a ‘Spirit that has not died in four thousand years’, and will not die as long as there is a ‘Sun’, ‘Moon’, and ‘Stars’.
אֱלֹהִים - Elohim showed Moshe, and through him He showed us, how to become part of a civilisation that never grows old. It stays young because it repeatedly renews itself. The last two commands of the Torah are about ‘renewal’, first ‘collective’, then ‘individual’.
הקהל - ‘Hakhel’ is the covenant renewal ceremony every seven years, ensured that the nation would regularly rededicate itself to its mission. If ‘hakhel’ is a ‘national renewal’, the command that we should each take part in the writing of a new ‘Sefer Torahs’ a personal renewal. It was Moshe’s way of saying to all future generations: It is not enough for you to say, I received the Torah from my parents (or grandparents, or great-grandparents). For you have to take it and make it new in every generation!
One of the most striking features of our Hebrew life is that are among the world’s most enthusiastic users of ‘information’ ‘technology’ and have ‘contributed disproportionately to its development’. But we still write the Torah exactly as it was done thousands of years ago, by ‘hand’, with a ‘quill’, on a ‘parchment scroll’. This is not a paradox; it is a profound truth. People who carry their past with them can build the future without fear.
The only way to stay young and driven is through periodic renewal, reminding ourselves of where we came from, where we are going, and why. To what ideals are we committed? What journey are we called on to continue? Of what story are we a part?
How perfectly timed it is, and how beautiful, that at the very moment when the greatest of prophets faced their own mortality, אֱלֹהִים - Elohim should give him, and us, the secret of immortality, not just in heaven but down here on earth. For when we keep to the terms of the covenant, and making it new again in our lives, we live on in those who come after us, whether through our children or our disciples, or those we have helped or influenced. We ‘renew our days as of old’.
Although ‘Moshe Rabeinu’ sadly died, but what he had taught and what he sought will always live on!
Concluding Question: Why do you think these two mitzvot were the last to be given to us, the Israelites? Which mitzvot is performed more regularly and achieve the same outcome as הקהל - Hakhel?
The final positioning of these ‘two mitzvot’ acts as a constitutional seal, moving the responsibility of the Torah from the hands of an elite leaders into the hands of the entire nation just as they enter the land.
I personally believe by making the writing of the Torah and the national assembly of ‘Hakhel’ the final commandments, אֱלֹהִים - Elohim provided the nation with survival mechanisms for decentralisation.
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He, said the following through a number of our prophets...
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For Elohim is the One who
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שָׁלוֹם
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