Miller's Musings Parshas Vezos Haberocho and Simchas Torah: Moshe, Man of G-d

בס''ד

As Moshe prepares to draw his final breath on earth, he uses his last reserves of energy to bless the Jewish people, a perhaps expected act from one who had devoted his life to the care of G-d’s beloved nation.  Less predictable however, may be the way in which the Torah refers to Moshe, just moments before his demise.  Surely a description that would befit a man of his unprecedented greatness would be required at this juncture, when in fact a rather modest appellation is used; that of “Moshe the man of G-d”. 

In truth trying to encapsulate any person’s entire life in any limited form is nigh on impossible.  How can one condense a life lived into something so succinct as a word or phrase?  But if one could somehow compose something that would epitomise the life of a man devoid of any purpose other than the pursuit of perfection, perhaps man of G-d would be it.  Man is the impossible fusion of a physical body and a G-dly soul and is so constructed to create a relentless battle for dominance between these two irreconcilable enemies.  The designation man of G-d may refer to a man who is so entrenched in exclusively spiritual activities that all traces of the body have become eradicated to the point of nonexistent so that he is truly only a man of G-d.  Moshe was just such a man.  Every other description of him would only be a corollary of this one primary quality, his entirely spiritual existence.

On the day of Simchas Torah when this final portion is read, a day that is meant to evoke feelings of tremendous happiness, what greater source for joy can there be than the awareness of man’s potential greatness.  To fully appreciate our ability to transcend the animal nature within us and to become entirely G-dlike is a notion that should stir within us on the one hand a sense of responsibility but at the same time elation with the realisation of the capacity for infinite good each one of us possesses.  The Torah that we complete on this day provides the guidance we need to achieve this and as we then begin it anew we set off once again on our lifelong journey towards our own personal missions to become people of G-d.  The first step is to recognize and understand the G-dliness that is contained within us. The next is to start down the path to making it all that we are.

*May Simchas Torah imbue us with the joy of all that we are and all we can be.* 

לעילוי נשמת לאה בת אברהם 

and may the Torah learning be a zechus for a Refua Sheleima for Michoel ben Yehudis and Pessa bas Raska Devorah