Haftara for Simhat Torah

Koren Shalem Siddur·PDF 1392-1393·Haftarah L'Simchat Torah

הפטרה לשמחת תורה

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הפטרה לשמחת תורה

HAFTARA FOR SIMHAT TORAH

Hebrew

הפטרה לשמחת תורה לאמר: משה np “tay ועַתָּה op עבר אֶתרְהַירדּן הוה Aas וְכָליהָעַס papa a TaN envio maT Wwe ANI Or ta OBIT AE הוה IB MT TD כל pas החתיפ Niag SET BTID) הַשָמָט sine לעַשות Ty ws Tina bee משה ap סור ממ ימי Wwe Dea sen wed Deze תַּלֶ:לאיָמוּש ABS הַורָה הוָה PS Pen ioe ig axneTbae לעשות iawn jad ny ogy ia aM

English

HAFTARA FOR SIMHAT TORAH Then, after the death of the Lorn’s servant, Moses, the Lorn spoke Josh. 1:1-18 to Moses’ disciple, Joshua son of Nun. “Moses, My servant, has died. Now come, you and all this people; rise up and cross this Jordan River to the land that I am giving them, giving to the children of Israel. Every place your feet should tread - I have given to you. This I told Moses: from the desert and the Lebanon, to the great river, the river Perat, all the land of the Hittites, and as far as the great ocean that lies towards the sunset; these shall be your borders. No man shall stand in your way all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so shall I be with you. I shall not let go of you, nor shall I leave you. Be strong, be determined - for you shall endow this people with the land that I swore to give their ancestors. Only be very strong, be very determined, to keep all the Torah with which Moses My servant charged you. Be sure not to stray from it rightward or left; and then you shall be successful in every course you take. Let the Torah in this scroll never leave your lips; meditate upon it day and night, that you may keep and perform all that is written there, for then shall all your ventures be fruitful; then shall you succeed. Know that I have

Sephardi

hftrh lshmcht tvrh lmr: mshh np “tay vth op vr trhyrdn hvh Aas vchlyhs papa a TaN envio maT Wwe ANI Or ta OBIT AE hvh IB MT TD chl pas hchtyf Niag SET BTID) hshmt sine lshvt Ty ws Tina bee mshh ap svr mm ymy Wwe Dea sen wed Deze tl:lymvsh ABS hvrh hvh PS Pen ioe ig axne Tbae lshvt iawn jad ny ogy ia aM

// Commentary

HAFTARA FOR SIMHAT TORAH There are, in Judaism, (at least) two conceptions of time: cyclical and histori- cal. Cyclical time is time as it is in nature: in the succession of nights and days, the seasons, and the lifecycle. Historical time — held by many scholars to have been first conceived in the Hebrew Bible — is time as a narrative, with a beginning, middle, and end, or as a journey, with a starting-point and a destination. History in Judaism is an arena of change, as we come closer to, or drift further from, what R. Aaron Lichtenstein cailed “societal beatitude” — a world of justice, compassion and peace. The three festivals, Pesah, Shavuot, and Sukkot, all have this dual character. They are cyclical, seasonal, representing respectively spring, first fruits, and harvest. And they are also historical, commemorating first the exodus, then the revelation at Sinai, then the forty years of wandering without a perma- nent home. On Simhat Torah, after concluding the last of the Mosaic books, we make a dramatic entry into both systems of time: cyclical as we move directly from the last word of the Torah to the first, ensuring that our cycle of Torah read- ing will be unbroken. Immediately thereafter, we take a decisive step into historical time, as Moses dies and his successor Joshua takes on the role of leadership. A new generation, and a new chapter in the Jewish story, begins, as the Israelites move from the desert to the land, from exile and exodus to homecoming, and from journey to destination.

Only be very strong, be very determined. Dayan Yehezkel Abramsky noted that in the previous verse, speaking of the conquest of the land, God tells Joshua to be “strong and of good courage.” Now, speaking of the religious challenge of remaining faithful to God’s law, a far more emphatic form of words is used, signaling that the spiritual dimension of leadership demands greater strength and courage than the military or political dimension.

Let the Torah in this scroll never leave your lips. A command stated in the Torah in relation to a king (Deut. 17:18-20), thus conveying another fundamental rule of leadership: the heavier the responsibility, the greater the need for constant moral and spiritual guidance. A leader who guides people into the unmapped territory of the future needs, above all, an inner compass, to avoid the moral drift that is otherwise the fate of those who allow themselves to be merely reactive to events.