Parshas Nitzavim Vayeilech: The Mitzvah of Hakhel and Changing the World

The end is getting near. It is our leader's very last day on the earth. Moshe Rabbeinu, this entire parasha is just describing Moshe's last day. And in this parasha the double parasha and it's Alvin Vayelis an action-packed, stuffed parasha, stuffed with lessons, stuffed with a changing of the guard, we're meeting Moshe's successor, the final mitzvah given to us out of the 613. Moshe Rabbeinu's final act with one final emphatic exhortation that the Jewish people should dutifully carry out Hashem's Torah even after he passes. And this week we're gonna focus on one of the most unique mitzvahs, a mitzvah that seems that we may understand it at some level, but when you really dig deep and you imagine the sight that it must have been to witness this mitzvah in action, how miraculous it must have been and the depth behind it, the hope is that we'll come out with new khachma, new wisdom about it, and then conclude with the most unbelievable, extraordinarily inspirational idea from the great altar of Kelm. What is this mitzvah? Which one are we going to speak of? There's none other than the mitzvah of Ha'kel, ha'kel Es Ha'am, a mitzvah that Moshe Rabbeinu, he tells the Jewish people. The mitzvah is that on the very first day of Cholamah, 8 Sukkis, man, woman and child. Everyone must travel to the base on Mekdash, and the king, standing perched upon a wooden platform, a wooden stage, holding Satyur HaZais, a very unique Torah scroll in his hands, authored by Moshe Rabbeinu himself, will read safer dvarm at least a large part of it, to everyone. Everyone listens quietly. Every word must be heard. It's done by the Jewish people's most significant player, our king, and there's a lot of depth here and there's a lot to ask on it. What's the point? Why was it done on Sukkis? Why was it done by the king? Why does everyone need to go? And when we really examine the Sukkim? So we have what to work with here, the parasha tells us that itab Moshe Osam Lema at the end of seven-year cycle, but Mo'ich Nasash Mita, right after Shemitah, has concluded the year of letting the land lay fallow, year of respite and recovery. Now, immediately following the Shemitah year, the first suck is boom, first day, cholombo, it boom. King gets up. Here we go with Hakel and everyone's got to be there. And what's the point? Hakel, as home, gather the nation together. Ha no shema, ha no shema. Hataf, man, woman and child, the convert as well. And why Laman Yishmi? In order that the Jewish people hear will I, man, yilma do, and that they learn, but yaru, and they fear as Hashem alone. Kagan, that we should learn to fear God and To protect Hashem's mitzvahs and to carry them out. And even the children, concludes the mitzvah. They are not old enough to learn to understand, to fear still. They should be brought everyone a very interesting mitzvah, the mitzvah we refer to as Hakel. We must ask ourselves what's the point, what's the unique significance, what's it all about? Is it just so that we can learn Torah? Is that what it is the modern Yilma do? Well, that wouldn't seem very unique. Were commanded to constantly be nurturing, even in our ordinary lives. Our study of Torah be shift to help a base echo, will acht to help a Derek, to talk to her, to learn to her with the barter bomb? Is she not a mother? What's new? Why on? So guess why? Immediately following the Schmita year and Revhurst gives us the great revshamsh and refoll her. So kind of a record that is gives us a real feeling of this mitzvah. He says you know, schmita was the year that all the business is closed. Everyone was miraculously sustained. Paranasi was taken care of with miracles, woman, child, everyone supported, man, supported by Hashem and supernatural ways. Here Everyone comes together. Right after the Schmita year, right as the new agricultural and business cycle will begin. We're going into the new year. Schmita's done another seven years. Tie things, making money, be cool and all the fun stuff. A strong reminder that Everything's miraculous. Understand the money, you'll, medu. Learn the money, ish move here, but you're our and fear the year SSM Right before you go into business. It's all miraculous, it's not in your hands. The holiday of sook is, of course, everyone comes together. But, simcha, is there any better reminder that, even when we were in the wilderness, that I shan protect us with these magical clouds Makes a lot of sense? Everyone must come to understand this lesson, moving forward, that it's all from Hashem and you cannot advance Except through dutifully following through and fulfilling Hashem's holy Torah. So, for all the years of business coming forth, remember the mitzvah. The nation is taught this by its highest representative, the melech, with the entire assembled nation there. The idea of Hashqah practice the supernatural is as natural as natural, and then natural is supernatural, and its success can only be had through Torah. It's read to us by this very special Torah from Moshe Rabbeinu. And now, with this hopefully understanding of just the outline of what this mitzvah of Hakel is coming together to like the big event, the big expo of internalizing that advancement can only be had through following our Hashem's Torah. We turn to the interesting commandment that everybody must go, everybody, including infants, who are not really involved in agriculture and business. In fact, even at the most basic level of studying Torah, knowing Torah, they have no obligation at all. Well, we are commanded explicitly Ho'anoshim v'hanoshim, men and women, v'hataf an infant. She explains to us why the men? Well, little more to learn and gotta learn Torah Mahannoshin. Why the women? The Shmoa? They got to listen to Torah. It sounds like they are obligated to know all these messages as well. Thought top of why the children doesn't make any sense. Not bar mitzvah. Yeah, we're gonna schlep them out of their cribs, throw them inside of the Duna, put them inside the Honda Odyssey, bring them up the mountain, mess up the bedtime schedules. Needless to say that there's a mitzvah, though. Everybody who needs to hear every single word of the melech and now we have a hundred thousand children inside the Harabias is gonna be quite loud. How you gonna hear the coin? How you gonna hear the melech during parashah Zakhur? Right, how you can hear every single word, with a bunch of crying babies but seem like a better idea to let them sleep Comfortably in their cribs. But no, they must come. Why, says Rashi, you bring the children? That tough lama bow, why are they coming? Lost, a scar. Let me be a him to give reward to those that bring the children, as If there's gonna be a big schlep, it's gonna be uncomfortable, a lot of screaming loud kids. But it's exactly the point. Seems like the more tear-ha, the more stress, the more exertion there's not being more kids, more exertion, more reward, more scar. It's unbelievable. Now, explaining this Rashi, the altar of Kelm Gives us a world-shaking shot. He tells us, using this as a springboard, this Rashi here that tells us that the parents bring the children Because the energy exerted and bringing the children up to the Harabayas, even though they can't understand what the king is saying, still it will give more reward To the parents for their efforts. How dare of come explains that there is one sin, one of hate, so wretched, so evil, so uniquely sinister, that he is treated differently than all other sinners, that is, the Maces, the one who is the insider of Avodis are, when an individual will go behind closed doors and encourages friend to say hey, I got this new idol. Would you come back to my house and we'll bow down to it. That fellow Treated so harshly, the Pasek tells us Los Achmo, don't have pity on him, he's so bad. So when Jewish courts have a million different hetero To try to help a quit somebody, to help him get a good ruling, we're always looking. This is a horse, but not here, Not by the Maces, not by the insider of Avodis. Are he's different? Seems he's even worse than the actual sinner himself. One of the many examples of this Is that if you have information that you can testify about somebody who has just been sentenced as guilty, but you have information that may be a cause for a retrial, you are obligated to walk down to the courthouse, give your testimony and try to help out. But out here, if you have information that may acquit or cause a retrial for this insider of a vote, as Zara, you're prohibited from testifying. He doesn't get that chas and while most courts every single most sinner, he will be judged by an individual who is a more compassionate person. He has children. The good martels us. He should have children, he has to have children. So he has that certain, hopefully mature and very calm approach. He understands the value of life. He's a good judge. Not here, even an old, grumpy, childless male can judge this case. Because it seems this man, this insider of a vote as Zara, is just that bad. He's just that wretched. There are many examples of all the different kulos that we will use to acquit somebody that this masis does not have access to. It's hard to understand, but perhaps at least the beginning of the idea. Why is this guy so bad? It just seems to be the opposite of everything that Jewish people stand for. You're encouraging evil. You're the opposite of Avramavino, you're just the worst. But if your rufum tells us that the altar of calm told us, we have this miso, we have this tradition that good outweighs evil. Meet a taiva meruba. And if there is something so uniquely bad about encouraging people to go off, to do bad, to sin, to come over and sin with me, well then, can you even imagine the greatness of coaxing people to the path of Torah and righteousness? To be mizakas arabbim? Could you imagine the scar and persuading the Jewish people to come back to the path of righteousness and light and Hashem? To be oiseik p'tzarche, tzibur be'amuna? It's unimaginable. We can just learn that from the fact that good is multiplied by multiple times more than evil. If a person has treated this harshly, just imagine somebody who's trying to get people to do good things. How much grace, how much chain. He's looked upon, backho'ish p'arche. And now here's what things get really interesting. There is one more halachel regarding this insider of evil, and it is that, even if he will go over and try to encourage a sin, but that person will deny him, say I'm not interested, keep you right unto yourself, I don't want nothing. As if you walked over to the Chafetzchayim's house, knocked on his door and said hey, I have this inappropriate new television show on Netflix. Why don't you come watch it? And of course he flicks you and said get out of my house, I want no interest in it. Of course you're unsuccessful, but you're still punished. When it comes to the maces, the insider, again, this is one of the churras. Even though you didn't pull through and convincing people to sin, you're still punished because of your failed attempt at pushing people off the path of terror. We see that in trying to encourage people, motivate them to do either good or bad, says the author of the poem, it doesn't even matter if they listen. And now flipping it back, continuing on this path. Now, when you're trying to encourage people for good, says the author of the poem to be mizaka as our rabbin, and teach them Torah, set up their kitashes and encourage them and give droshas and say to hill him for them and help them out. And maybe they don't even listen to the shi'ar, they don't even take your help, the students aren't even listening, the bachram aren't growing, the girls aren't stigning, it's just not working. It doesn't matter, because when it comes to influencing people, just like the inciter of evil is punished, even without success, although more so, the person cajoling, coaxing and motivating people for good is rewarded that much more, even if nobody listens to him. As far as there for the trying. What an unbelievable hiddish. You're giving your sheer to a big shoal. You send out the flyers Going around the town come to this new sheer on Lush and Harrow and try to go through the laws and we're going to really get into it and become better people and protect our mouths from speaking slander. And comes the night of the sheer and nobody shows up. You still give that sheer with all the zest and all the excitement, even though nobody's listening, los escharle may be, am you still get the same scar? It sounds like the Bahram. They're not becoming Tami-dech Khamam. They're not listening to the words God forbid of their Rebi, the Rebi still being Marbet's Torah. He's still trying to encourage and motivate. Los escharle may be. Am the students not listening to the mora, to the teacher? They're still chutzpadek. But the teacher should never stop attempting, it sounds like, because you're still rewarded. You're still doing the right thing and you're trying to motivate Jewish people To be as Zaka, as Arab. Bechol mi shea oiskin, bezarche tzibur be amuna Akhala shbarchu ye'shalim sacharam. And we can add to that Even if nobody listens, even if nobody can understand what you're talking about, even if your efforts are futile, still you never stop encouraging and motivating. And so back to our question the children You're bringing up the little kids. They can't hear anything, they can't understand anything, doesn't mean anything to them. Really, why is there any schar going to the parents if the kids aren't going to get anything out of it? The question doesn't start when it comes to inspiring and motivating and helping out the public. It doesn't matter if anybody gets anything from it. It doesn't matter if the kids will never understand it. It doesn't matter if the kids have headphones on and they can't hear anything, but if you're bringing them up and you're trying to be mechazik them, putting in the effort, well then l'se schar le mehvi am. It reads beautifully in our archie the top. The kids. They cannot get anything out of it, yet still paid handsomely the chizik this week. That you should never stop encouraging, you should never stop teaching, you should never stop talking, you should never stop any of the good practices that you have. Furthermore, I'm not sure that the world talks about this enough, but the Shulchan Aruch of Muser, the duties of our heart are safer. In Chaybis Halavavos, he tells us that it is impossible to enter into the next world, be meritorious, without being mizakah Esarab. If you know all of Torah and you are fully righteous, but you were totally selfish the entire time and you never encouraged the public, you never were mizakah Esarab, you were never osik, bitsarche, tzibur, then you just simply don't have a key to the next world. Needless to say, the Chaybis Halavavos tells us, the second reason you should do it is because it's just a better investment. Every single time you teach Torah or help somebody, they just become certain soldiers in your army of Torah, admits us that are now racking up even more bonus points on your own account. Needless to say, los Escharlemavie, the great alter of the Vardak, has an entire chapter about the importance of just being mizakah Esarab. It's everything. If you go through the greatest Jewish heroes, most influential figures in our history, you will find one common thread that they are all remarkable, clow people, people of the public, people that are trying to help as many people as possible, from Avromavineu all the way down to Rimbachim Kaniyyevsky, giving up of their time. Remarkable Balikha, sodom, so many through the years. And this is now a new monkey wrench in all of this that even if you're not successful, even if nobody listens, even if you got all the tzdukka money or you got all the different time that you're trying to give away and you're trying to encourage and you're trying to teach and nobody comes to the share and nobody's listening, los Escharlemavie, you still bring the kids, you still get the reward. In the same way that the masis is totally unsuccessful and inciting people to do evil, he still gets punished Double, triple, 500 times the good reward for somebody who tries, even if he's not successful. So never stop teaching, never stop motivating. Give your time, give your energy and give your effort to the people city.