Parshat Va-yeilekh

The end of Moses--and the beginning of Jewish nationhood--is very near. " 'I am now one hundred and twenty years old'," Moses declares. "' I can no longer be active." He summons Joshua son of Nun before the people and says, "in the sight of all Israel.... 'Be strong and resolute, for it is you who shall go with this people into the land that the Lord swore to their fathers to give them, and it is you who shall apportion it to them. And the Lord Himself will go before you. He will be with you; He will not fail you or forsake you. Fear not and be not dismayed.'"

G-d appears to Moses in a cloud in the Tent of Meeting, instructing him to write down this "Teaching" that Shabbat Mom has been posting about week after week (often with her kitschy Moses action figure, seen hard at work above). And thus when the people go astray, they will have the words of the Torah, "as a witness, since it will never be lost from the mouth of their offspring."

And so Moses begins to write...

Shabbat Shalom!

And on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, that begins this Tuesday at sundown, may you and those you love be sealed in the Book of Life for a happy and healthy new year!