Below is a collection of Parashat Vayelekh resources created by The Lookstein Center staff or contributed to the site by Jewish educators.
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DISCUSSION AND REFLECTION QUESTIONS
Question #1: We are almost at the end of Moses’s final words to the people before he dies. God commands him to write down the Torah and uses the word shira, a song or poem, and tells him to teach the people. What makes a song easier to remember than a regular text? How is the Torah like a song? Do you have a favorite song whose words you remember even though you learned it a long time ago?
Look inside the text (Devarim 31:19),
וְעַתָּה כִּתְבוּ לָכֶם אֶת הַשִּׁירָה הַזֹּאת וְלַמְּדָהּ אֶת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל שִׂימָהּ בְּפִיהֶם לְמַעַן תִּהְיֶה לִּי הַשִּׁירָה הַזֹּאת לְעֵד בִּבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל – Therefore, write down this poem and teach it to the people of Israel; put it in their mouths, in order that this poem may be My witness against the people of Israel.
Question #2: Do you sometimes have a school assembly when there is an important message to tell everybody or an important event to share? How does it make it extra special when you see everyone in the school gathered together? This is the commandment to gather together as a nation, every 7 years, to hear the Torah being read together, known as Hakhel. There was a special power to everyone being together and listening to the message.
Look inside the text (Devarim 31:10-12),
וַיְצַו משֶׁה אוֹתָם לֵאמֹר מִקֵּץ שֶׁבַע שָׁנִים בְּמֹעֵד שְׁנַת הַשְּׁמִטָּה בְּחַג הַסֻּכּוֹת
בְּבוֹא כָל יִשְׂרָאֵל לֵרָאוֹת אֶת פְּנֵי ה’ אלקיך בַּמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר יִבְחָר תִּקְרָא אֶת הַתּוֹרָה הַזֹּאת נֶגֶד כָּל יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּאָזְנֵיהֶם
הַקְהֵל אֶת הָעָם הָאֲנָשִׁים וְהַנָּשִׁים וְהַטַּף וְגֵרְךָ אֲשֶׁר בִּשְׁעָרֶיךָ לְמַעַן יִשְׁמְעוּ וּלְמַעַן יִלְמְדוּ וְיָרְאוּ אֶת ה’ אלקיכם וְשָׁמְרוּ לַעֲשׂוֹת אֶת כָּל דִּבְרֵי הַתּוֹרָה הַזֹּאת
And Moses instructed them as follows: Every seventh year, the year set for remission, at the holiday of Sukkot, when all Israel comes to appear before your God in the place that [God] will choose, you shall read this Teaching aloud in the presence of all Israel. Gather the people—men, women, children, and the strangers in your communities—that they may hear and so learn to revere your God and to observe faithfully every word of this Teaching.
Question #3: The scroll that Moses instructs to be written is to serve as a reminder to the people when eventually they are plagued by God’s punishment. When someone says, “I told you so,” it gives some sense of satisfaction to the one who says it. Doe sit have value beyond that feeling of satisfaction? What might be a more productive way of dealing with a situation in which one side warned the other of a consequence which eventually came true?