Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah/V’Zot haBerachah 5787 – 10/03/2026
Devarim 33:1-34:1
A calendrical note. Parashat V’Zot haB’rachah is always read on Simchat Torah, as part of the ceremony of finishing the Torah and immediately starting the reading anew with Bereishit (the first Parashah of the Torah). In the Land of Israel, Simchat Torah and Shemini Atzeret are one and the same day (the 8th day of Sukkot), and this day can come out on Shabbat. In the Diaspora, Simchat Torah is the day after Shemini Atzeret, and the day after Shemini Atzeret can never be Shabbat. The reason is that Rosh haShanah (1st of Tishri), Sukkot (15th of Tishri) and Shemini Atzeret (22nd of Tishri) all fall on the same day of the week. For Simchat Torah to be on Shabbat, Rosh haShanah would have to be on Friday, and this is impossible. If Rosh haShanah were on Friday, Yom Kippur (10th of Tishri) would be on Sunday (beginning Saturday night) and Yom Kippur would be starting before Shabbat ends. This is not allowed for various reasons. The upshot is, V’Zot haB’rachah is never read on Shabbat in the Diaspora. The reading this Shabbat is the special reading for Shabbat Chol haMo’ed Sukkot (the Sabbath of the intermediate days of Sukkot). Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) is also read on this Shabbat. Parashat Bereishit will be read next Shabbat.
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Rambam continues his discussion of Aristotle’s position (and that of his followers):
The first method they mention is the one through which, in their opinion, we are obliged to admit that the deity passed from potentiality to actuality inasmuch as He acted at a certain time and did not act at another time.
Before getting into the substance of the argument I want to point out that the idea of creation at one moment in time as opposed to a different moment in time may not be the right way to characterize creation. According to modern physics, time is part of creation, and although we can project back, from our vantage point, to the “beginning” of creation, which we believe was some 13+ billion years ago (the “Big Bang”), we cannot assign a time value to “before” that point of creation. We have the tendency to view eternity as a long time-line, stretching to infinity on either end. I think this is natural, time-bound creatures that we are, but I don’t think it is correct. Eternity is transcendental to time. Time depends on motion, as we have discussed. If nothing exists, there is no change and therefore no time. So, before creation, according to this view, there was no time, just pure existence. And in that pure existence, who knows how many creations the Creator might have come up with?
Rambam continues, refuting this contention:
The way to destroy this doubt is most clear. For this conclusion necessarily follows only with regard to everything composed of matter, which is endowed with possibility, and of form. When such a body acts in virtue of its form after not having acted, there was indubitably in it a thing that was in potential and afterwards made the transition into actuality. Accordingly it undoubtedly must have undergone the action of something causing it to make this transition. For this premise has been demonstrated only with regard to things endowed with matter. On the other hand, that which is not a body and is not endowed with matter, has in its essence no possibility in any respect whatever. Thus all that it has is always in actu. Accordingly with regard to it, their contention does not necessarily follow; and it is not impossible with regard to it that it acts at a certain time and does no act at another time. For in a being separate from matter, this does not imply change or a passage from potentiality to actuality.
Rambam is again returning to his argument that the operation of the physical world cannot be used to derive anything about the “spiritual” world – that is, the world that is transcendental to the physical. The physical world is called by the Kabbalists the olam hapirud / world of separation, because not only does it appear to be separated from Gd, Who transcends it, but because it is composed of what appear to be separate elements. Everything in the physical world is apparently composite, made up of different particles, which are the elements of creation. But the reality underlying all the diversity of particles and their interactions, is one Unified Field, which transcends all the activity of all the particles, but is their basis. I believe Rambam is pointing out that Gd is one, unified, not a body, nor a composite entity, but rather pure Unity that transcends all the activity of creation, yet is the basis of all that activity, and all that exists within creation. Thus, arguing for the eternity of creation while ignoring the basis of creation, cannot be a solid foundation for that opinion.
The argument here is one between two different states of consciousness – two radically different points of view. From the point of view of waking conscious-ness, the world is composite, and our conclusions about composite nature may be valid. But if we ask what is before creation and what will be after creation has run its course, we run into contradictions. Perhaps that is why our Sages say that “those who ask what was before and what will be after, it is better that they were not born!”
From the point of view of Unity Consciousness, the question doesn’t even get started. There is only one reality – the Unified Field, or Pure Consciousness, or Gd, depending on our perspective (I am not equating them, just saying we use different words for the same experience), and everything we think we see in creation around us is just the virtual, internal fluctuations of this eternal, fundamental layer of existence.
Rambam discusses two further methods, but I will stop here and pick up again next week, as we begin a new cycle of engagement with Torah.
Chazak! Chazak! V’nitchazeik!
Happy Shemini Atzeret and a Joyous Simchat Torah!
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Commentary by Steve Sufian
Parshiyot V’Zot HaBerechah/Bereshit
”V’Zot HaBracha” means, “And this is the blessing.”
Before we consider this blessing on the level of meaning, let’s consider that Torah is beyond language, beyond verbal definitions and grammar – it is the fundamental liveliness of Gd. On our level of life, of awareness, the sound value of Torah comes closer to the transcendental and all-pervading quality of Torah.
From this standpoint, here are two sources to listen to the beginning of Beresheit: the first is traditional; the second is creative.
1. Beresheit 1-8 with cantillation: Very sweet, easy to listen to. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa_g1QOt9y0
2. Very lively. Award-winning singer Noa sings Beresheit with Philarmonic Rishon Le Tzion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYKMWtOlHVE
Consider Beresheit the seed of Teshuvah – return to Oneness – and V’zot HaBeracha, the last parshah of the Chumash, the fruit: Do we see in these parshiyyot and in our lives that the seed has borne its intended fruit?
If we take these parshiyyot on the plain level of meaning, no: the children of Israel (that’s not only a long time ago but today and in all times) have not yet entered the Promised Land, and Moses, the great leader, never will.
But perhaps we can say that Moses, one of the guests that visits the sukkah during Succoth, has entered Gan Eden, as tradition has it – not the terrestrial Garden of Eden from which Adam and Eve were evicted but the Heavenly Garden of Eden in which Gd is enthroned and explains Torah to the residents. Explaining Torah is not just a matter of Gd talking to people but giving the Direct Experience that Torah, Gd and all Gd’s details are One. From this standpoint, Moses and all those who enter Gan Eden have been restored to Oneness and so the seed of Bereshit has borne fruit though V’Zot HaBrachah doesn’t say so.
Later in Bereshit, we see Enoch mentioned as walking with Gd – definitely return to Oneness. Then Noah is called a righteous person, one who Gd trusts to maintain life on our planet when the rest of humanity, due its wickedness, is destroyed in the flood.
So even early in Torah, even taken on the level of meaning, we see examples of the fruit of the seed appearing: people who walk with Gd, who are righteous.
Also, very importantly, Gd’s Torah, One with Gd, flowed though Moses – what wonderful fruit. Punctuated by the Word, the Command, the Kiss of Gd’s mouth which Parashat V’Zot HaBrachah tells us Moses was the way Moses died. Dying by the Touch of Gd is certainly entering the Promised Land.
Before he died, Moses, man of Gd, servant of Gd, gathered all the tribes together and spoke to them first as one, as the Children of Israel, giving them the command to obey Torah; then he gave specific blessings to each tribe. This is revealing first unity, then the diversity within the unity. This is action that in its Fullness, restores each individual in a community to unity with the community while retaining the special individuality role. Symbolically, this gives the Blessing of Oneness on all its Detail.
So, the Five Books of Moses end with ripe fruit.
Having considered the fruit, let us consider the seed which is contained within the fruit and to which we return as on Simchat Torah we begin again reading Beresheit.
Bereshit begins in Hebrew:
“Bereshit bara Elokim et HaShamayim v’et Ha’aretz…”
The way this is commonly translated to English, Bereshit reads: “In the beginning, Gd created heaven and earth…”. Since Gd is Beginingless and Endless, this cannot be true.
The way the ArtScroll Chumash and chabad.org translate it, it reads, “In the beginning of Gd’s creating the heavens and the earth…”
This is better and according to scholars more grammatically correct but still puts Gd in time and the reality is that time is a role Gd plays in pretending to be limited.
God is always One, Wholeness in Detail, so let’s see if we can find a meaning for “beginning” that honors this.
One way is that it refers to any point in the infinite liveliness of Gd because at any point, separation and unification are always going on, and so at any point heaven and earth are always being separated and united.
Within every point is the Whole Unbounded Ocean of Gd everything is always going on everywhere, in sequence and also in simultaneity. To Gd, Gd is always Totally Present, Infinitely Lively, Infinitely Silent, Omnidirectional, Omnipresent, Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnijoyful, Omniloving, and so the idea of beginning is just part of Gd’s “let’s pretend” to be limited.
In addition, Wikipedia notes that not only is “bara” a verb that is only used in reference to Gd but it doesn’t mean “create”, it means “differentiate/separate, assign roles to”. From this standpoint, heaven and earth though they are always One, are perpetually separated/distinguished/ from each other and given special roles. So Bereshit refers to the beginning of distinguishing “heaven,” the inner, subtle, abstract level of the details of God, from “earth,” the concrete aspect.
Jeff Benner (ancient-hebrew.org ) translates “bara” as “shaped”: from this standpoint, there is neither creating nor separating, there is only refining what already exists.
Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, in his “Body, Mind and Soul: Kabbalah on Human Physiology, Disease and Healing”, notes that “create” and “heal” in Hebrew have the same root: b-r-a: from this angle, we can say that the beginning of Torah is always the beginning of healing, of return to Wholeness. This is healing individual humans of their limits and restoring us to our unlimited status as impulses of One, restoring us to our status as the Full Ocean of One functioning through our individual personalities and bodies and also through all impulses of One.
What a Joy to Be Restored to full memory of the reality that only One exists and we are This!
So, creation, healing is eternal, as Torah, the fundamental liveliness of Gd – beyond language, grammar, definition, Gd conversing with Gd – is eternal, never beginning or ending yet always New.
And there are surely many more interpretations of “Bereshit Bara Elokim” – everyone’s intuitions will add to the cornucopia.
On the ordinary human level of awareness, this variety of interpretations is consistent with the way we experience life. We are always evolving and seeing more completely. As we rise to higher levels and to Consciousness beyond levels – the Wholeness within which all levels exist – we are able to see the usefulness of each interpretation.
We humans are individual impulses of Gd who pretends to be limited for the fun of playing Hide and Seek, Peek-a-Boo in us, so Gd, pretending to be we limited souls, can have the fun of seeking as us, and Gd as Gd, can have the pleasure of Hinting and Revealing, through Torah sounds, Torah stories, Torah mitzvot and whatever way Gd Wishes.
In this game, this Game, little by little, and also suddenly, we are returned to Wholeness by Gd’s Grace Revealing
Gd dissolves the veils of limits and reveals to us that Gd is All, within us and all around us, everywhere, One without a Second.
And this can happen with any sound of Torah, any word, any parshah, even the last one as we suddenly See and Know the Truth within the Stories.
And it can happen Now! And any Now! Wherever we are and whatever we’re doing.
Because Torah in a written book is only the most infinitesimal aspect of Torah as One with Gd, Torah can hint to us and reveal to us when we’re eating breakfast, walking down a street, snoozing—at any time, any place.
Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good And Evil as well as the serpent, are within us, ready to be clearly experienced as Omnidirectional, All-in-All Points of One, and the duality between Gd and the uncreated creation, is ready to be experienced as the Fun of Gd, always within Gd as One.
So, too, are all the details of Torah as the Book and Torah as Gd. Bereshit is a good seed that bears good fruit in V’Zot Haberacha and it is also the Fruit that sprouts to become all the Books of Torah and to loop back to itself with V’Zot HaBeracha.
Let\s continue doing our best to tune to Gd/Torah with “Be still and know!”; with “to love Gd with all our heart, all our soul and all our might,” with “love our neighbor as our self,” as our Self. As we do. we see, hear, taste, touch, smell the Beauty of Gd in every leaf, every sound, every bite of food, everyone and everything, everywhere.
Sukkot/Hoshanah Raba/Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah are special times of Joy to make our tuning more charming, delightful, effective.
Very encouraging!
Let’s keep on tuning.
Practice! Practice! Practice!
Baruch HaShem.