Gather Round – Vayeilech
וַיְצַו מֹשֶׁה אוֹתָם לֵאמֹר מִקֵּץ שֶׁבַע שָׁנִים בְּמֹעֵד שְׁנַת הַשְּׁמִטָּה בְּחַג הַסֻּכּוֹת. בְּבוֹא כָל יִשְׂרָאֵל לֵרָאוֹת אֶת פְּנֵי ה' אֱ-לֹקֶיךָ 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' אֱ-לֹקֵיכֶם וְשָׁמְרוּ לַעֲשׂוֹת אֶת כָּל דִּבְרֵי הַתּוֹרָה הַזֹּאת. (דברים לא, י-יב)
One of the most ceremonious mitzvot in the Torah is the mitzvah of Hakhel. Once every seven years, at the end of a Shmita year, during Chol Hamoed Sukkot, a Hakhel ceremony would take place.
Before the Chag began, they would erect a wooden stage in the courtyard of the Ezrat Nashim in the Beit Hamikdash in preparation for the great event. On the day of the Hakhel, all the Kohanim in Yerushalayim (and I mean ALL) would blow golden trumpets “Tekia, Trua, Tekia”. Any Kohen who was not trumpeting was not considered a “real” Kohen. It was a thriving business for merchants in Yerushalayim to rent out trumpets on that day.
The king would then step up onto the stage. The חזן הכנסת would take a Sefer Torah and ceremoniously hand it to the ראש הכנסת, who handed it to the סגן כהן גדול, who handed it to the כהן גדול, who handed it to the king.
The king then read the portions specified, either standing or if he chose – sitting. The portions read were –
* From the beginning of ספר דברים until the end of שמע ישראל (Devarim 1:1 – 6:9)
* והיה עם שמוע (Devarim 11:13-21)
* שום תשים עליך מלך (Devarim 17:14-20)
* From פרשת המעשרות until the end of the ברכות וקללות (Devarim 27:1-28:68)
(According to the Sifra, also the whole parsha of Kedoshim)
After reading the above portions, the king would do גלילה with the Sefer Torah and recite the ברכה after reading the Torah, like we do today אשר נתן לנו תורת אמת, followed by an additional 7 brachot.
It is the only Chag where EVERYONE is commanded to attend. All the עולי הרגל – all of Am Yisrael – men, women, children and even infants were in attendance. The women, daughters and infants were up on the balconies surrounding the Ezrat Nashim and the men and sons in the courtyard below.
We are talking about millions and millions of people. Logistically speaking, it is unfeasible that all of Am Yisrael could even fit into the city of Jerusalem, let alone the Mikdash! Never mind them all hearing the reading of the Torah by the king. In fact there are different opinions in the Gemara (Sota 41a) and the Tosefta (Sota chap. 7) exactly where the ceremony was held. For our purposes here, we will assume that there was some kind of miracle that took place and everyone was indeed in the Mikdash.
The monumental question that I want to deal with in this shiur is the following – “Were snacks allowed in the Mikdash during Hakhel?”
I am not talking about animals and menachot brought as Korbanot, I am talking about regular food, like a someone bringing a sandwich along to snack before, during or after the ceremony.
Most shuls that I know of today forbid entry with food. It seems to follow from this that על אחת כמה וכמה, out of respect and awe of the Mikdash!! that no food was allowed. That’s what logic suggests, right?
In order to try answer this seemingly eclectic question, a small introduction is necessary. I would like to briefly recount the story of Rebi Yehoshua Ben Chananya, one of the five famous Talmidim of Raban Yochanan ben Zakai. In a Mishna in Pirkei Avot (2:8) it says-
חמשה תלמידים היו לו לרבן יוחנן בן זכאי ואלו הן - רבי אליעזר בן הורקנוס, ורבי יהושע בן חנניה, ורבי יוסי הכהן, ורבי שמעון בן נתנאל, ורבי אלעזר בן ערך. הוא היה מונה שבחן. רבי אליעזר בן הורקנוס, בור סוד שאינו מאבד טפה. רבי יהושע בן חנניה, אשרי יולדתו. רבי יוסי הכהן, חסיד. רבי שמעון בן נתנאל, ירא חטא. ורבי אלעזר בן ערך, כמעין המתגבר.
For four out of the five Talmidim, Raban Yochanan ben Zakai lists some character trait that makes them special. The only exception is Rebi Yehoshua ben Chananya. Instead of pointing out one of his exceptional qualities, it simply says אשרי יולדתו, “Happy is the mother who gave birth to him!”
Hang on, what about the others, Rebi Eliezer, Rebi Yossi, etc. – weren’t their mothers also happy to have sons like them?
So the Mefarshim say that Rebi Yehoshua’s unique character trait was - the mother who gave birth to him. Most mothers, after giving birth, go home with their newborn son and he remains there until he is weaned, at around 2 years old. Rebi Yehoshua’s mother was not like that. She put her newborn son Yehoshua in the carry crib and from the delivery room, she took him straight to ……. the Beit Hamidrash!
There is a famous debate in the Gemara (Bava Metzia 59a) that deals with a kind of an oven called תנור עכנאי. According to Rebi Yehoshua and the Chachamim, bread baked in such an oven is טמא. According to Rebi Eliezer it is טהור. In this dramatic debate Rebi Eliezer tries to bring every possible proof to substantiate his opinion, but they are rejected by the Chachamim. Finally Rebi Eliezer says – “If I am right, the Carob tree outside the Beit Hamidrash will uproot itself and move 100 amah”. And it did! The Chachamim replied – that is not a proof! Rebi Eliezer then said “If I am right, the stream of water alongside the Beit Midrash will flow backwards”. And it did! The Chachamim again replied – that is not a proof! Rebi Eliezer then said “If I am right, the walls of the Beit Hamidrash will fall”. And the walls started to tilt inwards as they began to fall. Rebi Yehoshua retorted to the walls “Stop!! Do not interfere with the decision of the majority of the Chachamim”. And the walls stopped falling and remained half tilted – out of respect for both Rebi Eliezer and also Rebi Yehoshua. That is the story in the Gemara.
I heard an incredible perush on this episode from HaRav Rosenblum shlita, quoting HaRav Zayat shlita. When Rebi Eliezer told the Carob tree to uproot itself and the water to flow backwards, Rebi Yehoshua did not castigate the tree nor the water – he simply replied “That is not a proof!” Only when the walls began to fall did he angrily reprehend them. Why?
According to HaRav Zayat shlita, a Carob tree represents הסתפקות במועט. It is well known that Rebi Eliezer, as a ba’al tshuva and a young student in the Yeshiva at the age of 28 was very poor and sometimes had to eat sand to satiate his hunger. By bringing a proof from the Carob tree he was saying – “There is nobody here who is מסתפק במועט more than me!” When he told the water to flow backwards he was saying “My Torah (water) flows back directly to my Rav – Raban Yochanan ben Zakai!” Rebi Eliezer did not mechadesh anything of his own. All his Torah was a direct repetition of what he had learned, as opposed to Rebi Yehoshua who both repeated what he had learned from his Rav and was also mechadesh.
Rebi Yehoshua could not better those two statements. In both, Rebi Eliezer outshone him. But the third proof – Rebi Eliezer was saying “The walls of the Beit Hamidrash will testify I am right”. Rebi Eliezer was always the first to enter the Beit Hamidrash every morning and was also the last to leave every night, a great מעלה. But here Rebi Yehoshua said “Stop!! In this one, I am better than you Rebi Eliezer. You think you were in the Beit Hamidrash first? You were not! You only started studying at age 28! I started studying in the Beit Hamidrash at age ZERO!!!” That is the AMAZING perush of HaRav Zayat shlita.
Rebi Yehoshua achieved his incredible status because he started soaking up Torah before he even opened his eyes!! His mother carted him every day, the whole day, from the moment he was born to the Beit Hamidrash so he could soak up the words of the Torah!
“What can a baby so young possibly absorb at such an age?” That is what most mothers thought, so they first weaned their children until about age two or three and only then began the learning process. Not Rebi Yehoshua’s mother. She learned an important lesson from Hakhel. In Hakhel everyone is commanded to be there, even the one day old babies! Why? What could they understand by being there? So the Gemara (Chagiga 3a) says that it is להביא שכר למביאיהם, that the parents who brought them would get שכר for bringing them.
That is a wonderful perush, but it is incomplete. It is not only that that the parents get rewarded, there is something else in addition to that – the infant, by his very presence there, derives something from the enormity of the kedusha of the occasion.
Rebi Yehoshua’s mother said to herself – “For two years I am going to feed my infant son – אם אין קמח אין תורה. He needs to grow to reach understanding. But what about the flip side אם אין תורה אין קמח? If he is not getting Torah at the same time, then what good is the קמח? For the last nine months he has been fed through the umbilical cord, but at the same time he was being taught Torah by the angels. Now that he is born, I am going to stop that and deny him Torah for two years?” So she schlepped one day old Yehoshua to the Beit Hamidrash, because it was not about understanding, it was about being present and soaking up the kedusha inherent in such a place. Psychologists today might scoff at such a concept, but there is something about the “invisible” kedusha in a place that we benefit from – in our neshama. This is why it is so important to daven in shul, because nothing can match the kedusha of a מקדש מעט, not even a street minyan! (in my shiur on Ki Tavo I referred to the cheshbon nefesh we need to do about the fact that we are being evicted from our shuls, with COVID-19 and just this week - by flooding in New York).
Obviously when baby Yehoshua was in the Beit Midrash at one day old, he had to have his diaper changed, he had to be fed (בצניעות). Similarly at Hakhel, the mothers had to feed their infants (that is the answer to the question above – “snacks” for infants were allowed, but probably not for older children and adults – just like in shuls today).
The Rambam explains why Hakhel is such monumental event – because it is a reenactment of Matan Torah! (trumpet blasts and all). HKB”H did not want Am Yisrael to become detached from their wellspring – the Torah. Once it happened that they did.
וַיַּסַּע מֹשֶׁה אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל מִיַּם סוּף וַיֵּצְאוּ אֶל מִדְבַּר שׁוּר וַיֵּלְכוּ שְׁלֹשֶׁת יָמִים בַּמִּדְבָּר וְלֹא מָצְאוּ מָיִם (שמות טו, כב).
Chazal say that for three days after Am Yisrael gathered all the “loot” from the Egyptians who drowned in the Red Sea, they neglected to study Torah (which set off a series of complaints and rebellions against Moshe and HKB”H). So the Nevi’im amongst the people instituted that three days cannot pass without the Torah being read. This is why, to this very day, we read the Torah every Monday, Thursday and Shabbat (reading on the Chagim is attributed to Moshe and reading during Mincha on Shabbat is attributed to Ezra Hasofer).
HKB”H wants us to remain umbilically attached to the Torah. A king in Am Yisrael is actually “physically attached” to a Sefer Torah (see my shiur on parshat Shoftim). We don’t go three days without reading from the Sefer Torah. We spend (or should) most of the day studying it. The importance of the Torah – the חמישה חומשי תורה cannot be understated. Everything is derived from it. The תורה שבעל פה is derived from it, the Mishna, the Gemara, the Mefarshim – it ALL originates from psukkim from the Torah. Using these psukkim, we learn out everything we need to learn, using the י"ג מידות like klal, prat etc. and also using the methods of פרדס – pshat, remez, drash and sod, as Ben Bag-Bag says in Pirkei Avot (5,22) –
בן בג בג אומר הפך בה והפך בה דכולה בה.
But besides being individually attached to the Torah, we are also required to communally be attached to the Torah. For example, every Pesach we have a Seder which is a kind of Hakhel – but in the forum of a family! Once every seven years we have the most significant event in this regard – the actual Hakhel on Chag Sukkot, which, as the Rambam says, is a reenactment of Matan Torah on Har Sinai. All these serve to preserve our status of the Nation of the Book.
There is a famous quote from the late prime-minister Ben Gurion, speaking at an Anglo-American Conference. “The sailing of the Mayflower 300 years ago is a cornerstone of American history. How many Americans today can tell you what date the Mayflower sailed, how many pilgrims were on it and what they ate? But ask any Jewish child aged 6, what date the Israelites left Egypt during the Exodus 3000 years ago, how many people left and what they ate.”
This is due to our umbilical connection to the Torah which is “reenacted” and refreshed at small, regular intervals, culminating in the stupendous Hakhel.
The first Hakhel ceremony ever held ended in utter disaster.
קַח אֶת הַמַּטֶּה וְהַקְהֵל אֶת הָעֵדָה אַתָּה וְאַהֲרֹן אָחִיךָ וְדִבַּרְתֶּם אֶל הַסֶּלַע לְעֵינֵיהֶם וְנָתַן מֵימָיו וְהוֹצֵאתָ לָהֶם מַיִם מִן הַסֶּלַע וְהִשְׁקִיתָ אֶת הָעֵדָה וְאֶת בְּעִירָם (במדבר כ, ח).
In Mei Meriva the Well of Miriam dried up after Miriam died and Am Yisrael complained they had no water. So HKB”H commanded Moshe and Aharon to have a Hakhel ceremony, where they would stand in front of the rock which was Miriam’s Well and they would do a Limud Torah and the water would flow miraculously (again) from the rock. However Moshe was angry with Am Yisrael complaining about not having water so he struck the rock instead of speaking Torah before it and he was severely punished (see my shiur on parshat Chukat).
When Moshe ascended Har Sinai to receive the Torah he never ate or drank for 40 days. But that was Moshe. Am Yisrael on the other hand were not commanded to fast before receiving the Torah. They were told to wash their clothes and not have marital relations for three days prior to receiving the Torah and also not to touch Har Sinai. Am Yisrael were allowed to eat and drink prior to Matan Torah.
At Mei Meriva they had a Hakhel ceremony which was intended as a reenactment ceremony of Har Sinai. But there was one problem – Am Yisrael had no water to drink. At Har Sinai they were well fed and had plenty of water to drink when they received the Torah.
Moshe was angry that Am Yisrael were complaining that they had no water and said –
.....שִׁמְעוּ נָא הַמֹּרִים הֲמִן הַסֶּלַע הַזֶּה נוֹצִיא לָכֶם מָיִם (במדבר כ, י).
And he struck the rock. HKB”H punished Moshe most severely for this because he had failed to understand the principle of אם אין קמח אין תורה. Before there can be Torah there must be food and drink. In fact Moshe’s words were unintentionally prophetic, because they can be read as follows –
הֲמָן, הַסֶּלַע הַזֶּה - נוֹצִיא לָכֶם מָיִם
A prerequisite to “extracting water” (learning Torah) is that there first be Mann (food) and water from “this rock” (the Well of Miriam), because אם אין קמח אין תורה. Moshe should have been more sensitive to the thirst pangs of Am Yisrael and his anger was misplaced.
An aside: This is also a great lesson for teachers – שמעו נא המורים. Never try to teach a student on an empty stomach. Instead of concentrating on the lesson, they will be watching the clock and waiting for the lunch bell. Another (deeper) lesson is that even from a “rock” it is possible to get water. Even with the most “dimwitted” student it is possible to achieve great things through patience and persistence (read the life story of Rebi Eliezer Ben Horkenos (above) and how he managed to attain his great knowledge).
Once burned, twice shy. This is why when Hashem commanded Moshe to teach Am Yisrael about performing the mitzvah of Hakhel when they would enter Eretz Yisrael, the ceremony had to take place at the end of a Shmita year. Even though no farming was done, the year of Shmita was specially blessed with an abundance of food. This is why Hakhel has to be conducted during Chag Sukkot, when we are commanded – ושמחת בחגיך. How do we fulfill the mitzvah of ושמחת בחגיך ? - according to the Sefer Hachinuch (מצוה תפח) – by eating meat and drinking wine (amongst other things). Sukkot is also the festival of ניסוך המים, when there is an abundance of water. Hakhel had to take place in the Mikdash. The Mikdash is compared to a צוואר – a neck. The neck has two pipes – a food pipe and a wind pipe, the one supplying גשמיות and parnasa and the other רוחניות and Torah.
When everyone got to Hakhel in the Mikdash, they were well fed and watered (including the infants). In this frame of mind one can re-experience Matan Torah and reconnect to the wellspring of Torah.
This is also the secret of the Shulchan Lechem Hapanim and the Menorah together in the Heichal, the symbiotic relationship between קמח and תורה (מאיר פנים, פרק טו).
In a few days we will enter Yom Kippur. The way to mehader on Yom Kippur is davka to eat and drink a LOT the day before, so that you enter this holy day in a receptive state.
Be’ezrat Hashem we should all be sealed for a year of life, חיים - a year of being umbilically connected to HKB”H and the Torah, the עץ החיים. A year in which we will have קמח – parnasa, in abundance. A year of אנשים, נשים וטף - unity in Am Yisrael, unity between spouses and unity between parents and children. And בזכות זה it will be a year in which the Beit Hamikdash will be rebuilt בבי"א.
