Hakhel

All the other tribes, "Why not to us also?" And he saw that they're so anxious to get a copy of the Torah, he wrote 12 more Sifrei Torah, all together 13 Sifrei Torah in one day instead of 13 years.

Do you understand the miracle here? And once he gave each tribe a Sefer Torah, he started to commend them about Mitzvat Hakhel.

What's Mitzvat Hakhel? Hakhel means gathering.

You gather the entire nation in the first year after the year of Shmita.

Every seven year you have a land strike.

Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad.

And then he reads other parts of the Torah, important parts from the Torah that it's important message.

This gathering called Hakhel, meaning you put everyone together.

This Shabbos we read Parashat Nitzam Vayelech.

In Parashat Vayelech, we read about the mitzvah of Hakel.

The mitzvah of Hakel is that in the year after Shemitah, all of Kal Yisroel comes to the Beis Hamikdash, and the king greets to them, Sefer Tzvarim.

About which the Torah says, You should read this Torah to all of Israel in front of them in their ears.

The question is, why does the Torah have to tell us that you're reading it in their ears? That's obviously how people hear us, through their ears.

This is a shiur on the Kutasich Eschei Nekelamidal at Book 34, the Parsha Vayelech.

This week we're reading in Tzavim, I'm Vayelech, this shiur is on Parsha Vayelech.

In our Parsha, the two last mitzvot I say, two positive mitzvahs, the last ones that are counted in the 248, or at least in the Torah, they're the last two ones, the mitzvah of Hakheld, which is that the in-gathering, everybody gathers together, at the end of seven years, that all the Jewish people come up to Yerushalayim, so at the beginning of the eighth year, the people have to be gathered.

Men, women, children.

That's a mitzvah called the mitzvah of Hakel.

But what about a leader who's going to teach you? That the Torah can do on its own.

You don't need me because I was just, anyways, I didn't matter, right? Okay, so he gives the Torah and then he gives Am Yisrael this mitzvah of Hakhel, which is every seven years after the Shemitah year.

To

read the whole Torah and to learn it.

So if you have a Torah scroll today, it's a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of one of those scrolls that Moses wrote on the final day of his life.

And then Moses commands the nation with the first mitzvah of the two we're gonna read about in this Parsha, and that's the mitzvah of Hakhel.

That's the mitzvah where at the end of a Shmita cycle, so at the end of a seven-year cycle, on the second day of Sukkot, the first intermediate day, the whole nation gathers in Jerusalem or wherever the capital, the epicenter of the Jewish people is.

And the king, he takes the Torah, and he reads many parts of Deuteronomy to the whole nation.

"Moses commanded them, saying, 'At the end of the seven years, at the time of the sabbatical year, during the Succos festival, when all Israel comes to appear before Hashem your God, in the place that He will choose, you shall read this Torah before all of Israel in their ears.

Gather together the people, the men, the women, and the small children, and your stranger who is in your cities, so that they will hear, and so they will learn, and so they shall fear Hashem your God, and be careful to perform all the words of this Torah.

And their children who do not know, they shall hear, and they shall learn to fear Hashem your God, all the days that you live in the land to which you are crossing the Jordan to possess it.'" So this is the mitzvah of Hakhel, the whole nation gathering together, a momentous gathering, a momentous festival, and it's done once every seven years.

The king reads the Book of Deuteronomy, or much of the Book of Deuteronomy, in the temple on this first day of the intermediate days of the festival of Sukkot.

Another point from the, uh, next Parsha.

So, uh, in Vayelech, in the next Parsha, well, there we talk a little bit about Hakhel.

As you know, this year is the year of Hakhel.

Year of Hakhel means that in the beginning, in the beginning of the year, on Sukkot, they would build a platform in the courtyard of the sanctuary, and the king would go onto the bimah, and he would read certain sections from the Torah.

Now, this was, this was done every eighth year, basically.

It's not-- It wasn't a one-time thing, that just that Moshe Rabbeinu is saying to them that after seven years.

So before they get involved, in order to stay strong, the king would speak to them and he would instruct them and he would encourage them and he would speak to everybody and he would read for them words from Elu Hadvarim, from those words.

And those words resonated with them and it kept them in line basically till the fo- following year, uh, till after Sukkot.

There is actually, in next week's portion, we read about another national ceremony that happens once every seven years.

Right, the Hakhel is what I was thinking of.

Hakhel, right.

This great gathering where they read the law and they come together in Jerusalem.

Which is-