Dancing in the moonlight everyone is feeling warm and bright – Toplaoder

V’zot HaBracha is a funny parshah. We read it on Simchat Torah as it is the last of the 54 parshiyot and is therefore accompanied by a large amount of rejoicing in synagogue, dancing around the bimah with the scrolls, a bit of silliness, and the closest we will come to a party. The Parshah itself though has a sad undertone.

‘V’zot HaBracha’ means ‘And this is the blessing’ It’s the final section of Moses’ final speech where he picks out each tribe individually and makes a blessing for them. These blessings all have something to do with the task facing each tribe in the land of Israel that they are about to enter.

They seem to start positively – ‘May Reuven live and not die, and may his people be counted in their number’ (Deut 33:6)  Chizkuni, a biblical commentator puts this in the context of the tribe of Reuven's promise to be on the front lines of the Israelite army in the conquest of the land. When viewed as this the blessing has a sadder message, that of ‘may you come home alive’. Some of the following blessings also allude to the future. Levi is scattered through the other tribes to provide the services of the priesthood and several of the tribes are blessed in very militaristic terms ‘...Gad; he dwells like a Lion, tearing the arm with the head.’

With this undertone of impending war followed by a long defence of the land do we sing and dance with such joy in the synagogue on Simchat Torah?

I think it can be best expressed by the way we dance. We do not dance a big choreographed ‘Macarena’ style, we dance around a circle, according to one tradition, everyone dances around Gods throne in heaven. This is something we try to emulate on Simchat Torah.

We do this because a circle is an incredible shape. We are surrounded by people with different points of view, from different backgrounds and with different stories. We have people who are directly opposite us. We all manage to work together though, we all pursue the same goal, and the differences can seem to melt away, or even be irrelevant because, however much we differ, we are all the same distance from the centre, from God, or from the solution we are trying to find.

This is why we use circles in Noam. It’s an egalitarian model, where no one is the natural leader, and no group are natural followers. It’s a model that allows the full spectrum of ideas and opinions to be discussed. It allows us to see everyone and be seen by all, there is no where to hide. When a circle functions properly it is the best way to come to a common solution, in the middle, that we are all equidistant from.

While the variety of people that you are with this Simchat Torah may not span all of the human spectrum, none of you are the same, but through the act of dancing, by doing it in a circle, we all work together for a goal.

That is the message I get from this weeks parshah, that by working together in a way that respects and works with our differences, we can successfully pursue our shared goals.  By combining the different skills of the tribes, the priesthood of the Levites, the ‘Lion-ness’ of Gad and the strength of Reuben, the Israelites can overcome any obstacle in their way. That is what they celebrated, and this is what we emulate.

By Adam Berkley

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