Shabbat Parashat Vayeilech - 5786

Shabbat Parashat Vayeilech - 5786

Rabbi Hal Miller

  Moshe commanded them, saying, "At the end of seven years, at the time of the

  Shemittah year, during the Sukkot 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 Israel in their ears. [Devarim 31:10-11]

This is the final commandment but one (#612) in the Torah, Hakheil, the command to the king to read aloud from the Torah to all Israel. The commentators write extensively about what "read this Torah" means, settling on the directive to read portions from the Book of Devarim. But why does the verse list all these time qualifiers? Exactly when does this occur? The source for the answer is in the Gemora Sotah [41a].

Sefer HaChinuch lists the 612th mitzvah as "We were commanded to assemble after the end of the year of Shemittah, during the festival of Sukkot, on the second day of the festival, and to read" which is not exactly word-for-word from the verse ("after the end" instead of "at the end", and "on the second day"). Kol Dodi says it takes place during Sukkot "immediately following the Shemittah year".

Rashi focuses on the "at the end of seven years" and says it means during the first year of the following Shemittah cycle, meaning the eighth year from the prior cycle. He then notes the phrase "at the time of the Shemittah year" and explains that during the eighth year we are still eating from the Shemittah crop as the new one has not yet grown ready for harvesting, thus it is still a Shemittah year. Malbim emphasizes that at this particular time the people are at a very high spiritual level.

Torah Temimah wants to know why the Torah is linking this mitzvah to a count of seven years, since it was given before the people entered the land, and there would have been two seven-year periods before the division of the land. He answers that the verse writes Shemittah to tell us that the mitzvah does not begin its count from when it was given, rather at the taking complete possession of the land. Further, when it said "at the end" we would think to do it during the closing days of the Shemittah year, thus it adds "at the appointed time" meaning a festival. Since we might then want to do this on Rosh Hashanah, which is called a festival, our verse specifies further that it means Sukkot. This is also one of the three festivals for which the entire nation shows up in Yerushalayim, the place God chose.

Rav Hirsch explains that the "when all Israel comes to appear" means the beginning of the festival. But that would not work because they would not be able to construct the platform for the king to read from on that day. Further, since the courtyard will be full of people that morning, there will be no opportunity to build it prior to the festival. Thus our commandment must take place on the next day, which is the "during the Sukkot festival", or Chol HaMoed.