Vayelech 5773

Here stands Moses, on the border—the desert behind him, the river before him.  Here we stand, on the border—the past behind us, the future before us.  We are all always poised on the narrow strip known as ‘now.’  “You shall not go across yonder Jordan,” God told Moses (Deuteronomy 31:2).  There is only this moment, the eternal ‘now’.

Moses anticipates his death in this week’s parashah, Vayeilech.  We do the same at Yom Kippur.  We are further told that “Moses wrote down this Teaching/Torah,” the national story that is also his personal story (Deuteronomy 31:9).  Is it coincidence that this week, at Yom Kippur, we, too, become aware that we are writing the stories of our lives?  There is something shared about contemplating mortality and writing one’s memoir.  It is an attempt to make sense of who were are, and also a plea to be remembered.

During this week of Vayeilech and the Yamim Noraim/Days of Awe, let’s take a page out of Moses’ book, and write the stories of our lives.  This is the time to remember and consider:  What were the big events this past year?  Who were the major characters?  What were the turning points so subtle we only became aware of them in hindsight?  Who taught us?  Where did we go wrong?

“You open the book of our days, and what is written there proclaims itself, for it bears the signature of every human being” (Gates of Repentance, page 176).