The Mysterious Rashi Commentary

Moshe Kempinski

Anybody that has visited the Old City of Jerusalem these last several weeks would have been touched by a fascinating and incredible phenomenon. The streets and plazas of the old city are filled, all night, with people of all types walking hurriedly towards the Western Wall for Selichot prayers . Young and old, observant and those Jews who were less so ,were walking together in the same direction. As my wife and I were driving home late one such night from the Western Wall we stopped at the intersection at the foot of Mount Zion. The policeman guiding traffic at the corner turned to us and said,” Everybody is suddenly religious in these days. They all think about Him now.” He said with a sparkle in his eyes. As we drove off I said “Baruch HaShem- Thank G-d”. He smiled and looked up and mouthed a “Yishtabach Shmo- May His Name be Praised”. We crossed the intersection carefully trying not to hurt all those people walking together with such similar purpose.

In the Torah portion ' VaYelech “that is usually read before Yom Kippur we read the following;

"And Moshe went and he spoke the words to the Children of Israel." ( Deuteronomy 31:1)

Rashi, the classic Jewish commentator highlights the first words of the verse "And Moshe went " and offers as an explanation, the cryptic word "etc" and nothing more.

The question that Rashi was attempting to answer was "To where did Moshe go to? In the previous torah portion, Nitzavim, we read that Moshe addresses the whole nation. Why then did Moshe have to go anywhere to speak to the people? They were already arrayed before him.

Rashi's answer to that question was simply, "etc"?!?

Perhaps that simple explanation points to a great spiritual truth. Moshe was delivering his last message to the Jewish people. These were the last 24 hour of his life. Moshe had shepherded these people for forty years. He had carried them through difficult and tumultuous times. He was approaching the end of his mission but that did not stop this man. Rash's use of the word veGomer or "etc" was that the words "And Moshe went " indicated that Moshe never stopped moving and never stopped growing even during the final 24 hours of his life. That had been his spiritual strength throughout his life and it was the spiritual strength he had imparted to his descendants.

Rav Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam (January 10, 1905-June 18, 1994) the founding rebbe of the Sanz-Klausenberg Hasidic dynasty lost his wife and ten of his children in the flames of the living hell called the Holocaust. Throughout those years of terror and horror, Rabbi Halberstam continued to try to spiritually uplift and encourage his fellow prisoners despite his own personal losses. In the fall of 1945, after the liberation of the camps , the Rebbe moved to the new DP camp of Föhrenwald, On Yom Kippur of that year, General Dwight D. Eisenhower visited the camps in an attempt to "asses the state of the Jewish DP's". On that same day the Rebbe was speaking to the tattered remnants of his people.

The Klausenberger Rebbe dressed in a white kittel, the white linen robe traditionally worn on Yom Kippur, and wrapped in a large tallit, looked angelic and pure

With tears in his eyes he began by thanking God for saving the lives of those standing before him from the Nazi hell. He then pointed to his kittel – and began to speak slowly, deliberately, tearfully:

"One of the reasons we wear this kittel is because it is the traditional burial garment, in which we wrap a body before laying it to rest in the ground, as we do when we bury our parents and those that came before us. Wearing a kittel on Yom Kippur thus reminds us of our final day of judgment when we will be laid to rest. It therefore humbles and breaks our hearts, stirring us to do complete Teshuvah (return). The white, linen kittel is a symbol of purity that we achieve through our introspection and efforts to repair all our wrongs.

"Since the kittel reminds us of the burial shroud of those that passed on before us," continued the Klausenberger Rebbe , "why are we wearing a kittel today? Our parents and loved ones were just slaughtered without tachrichim (burial shrouds). They were buried, with or without clothes, in mass graves, or in no graves at all…"

Suddenly, the Klausenberger Rebbe began removing off his own kittel . "No kittel!" he cried out in an anguished voice. "Let us be like our parents. Let us remove our kittels, so that they can recognize us. They won’t recognize us in kittels, because they are not wrapped in kittels…"

He continued expounding on the following words from the traditional Yom Kippur prayerbook.

"Ashamnu - Did we sin? Bagadnu - Were we unfaithful?… Were we, God forbid, unfaithful to God and fail to remain loyal to him? Gazalnu - did we steal? From whom did we steal in Auschwitz and Mühldorf? … Maradnu - We rebelled.. Against whom? …we are guilty of sins that are not written in the machzor… How many times did many of us pray, Master of the Universe, I have no more strength, take my soul "?… We must ask the Almighty to restore our faith and trust in Him. ‘Trust in God forever.’… Pour your hearts out to Him."

The Jews, young and old, religious and those that had lost faith all broke down in tears. The utter sadness, the excruciating pain and the humiliation of the past years came pouring out in wailing and sobbing.

General Eisenhower, visibly moved by the words he heard from the translator, approached the Rebbe later. He asked him if there was something he could do for him. The Rebbe simply asked that he help them find lulavim and etrogim for the upcoming festival. The general was taken aback by the simple request and immediately instructed his lieutenant Berl Smith to arrange for the items to be flown in from Italy.

The general of the mighty victorious army confronted with a simple request of faith. Even after the horrors of turmoil of the valley of Death the Klausenberger Rebbe simply wanted to continue with a simple Mitzva .In that simple request lay the spiritual fortitude that bespoke of a power that was greater than the mightier armies.

The spiritual power expressed by Rashi's simple statement of "etc"

The Jewish people in our days are entering another Yom Kippur. They will be entering the Throne room of the Almighty armed with nothing but " a contrite and broken heart" . Dressed in white kittels wrapped in large tallitot, they will be spending intense and intimate time with their Creator. The experience is exhilarating, awesome and yet frightening. The incredible spiritual journey ends with a mighty Shofar blast. Every Jew walks home tired with a sense of Holy contentment mixed with earthly anxiety.

Yet within a very short period of time they will be out on their porches and balconies building their Succoth. They will be out on the streets buying a lulav and etrog. They will be walking in search of the simple Mitzva. That is the spiritual strength of this people. They move forward past the tragedies of their history and continue through the uncertainties of the future. The spiritual power of "and Moshe went" continues.

Each of us in our individual lives must go through the trials and uncertainties of our existence. The secret is to continue on the voyage. Our people in the land of Israel have had to endure the insanity of the Gush Katif upheaval and the brutality of Amona. The secret is to continue on the voyage.

The voyage includes the standing against those that try to thwart the voyage but the secret is in the voyage and not the destination.