Torah Dialogue

QUESTIONS FOR PARSHIYOT NITZAVIM-VAYEILECH 5780
by Rabbi Edward Davis,

From the Text
1. “You are standing today...” (29:9). Which day was it?
2. What will happen to Bnei Yisrael when they will repent when in Exile? (30:35)
3. How old was Moshe when he died?
4. Before he died, Moshe wrote a Sefer Torah. To whom did he give it? (31:9)
5. What are the last two Mitzvot of the Torah? (31:10-13 and 31:19)

From Rashi
6. Moshe gathered everyone, even the woodchoppers. Who were the woodchoppers? (29:10)
7. At what point did all Jews become co-responsible one to the other? (29:28)
8. What did the Torah mean when Moshe said that he could “no longer go out and come in”? (31:2) [The Torah later stated that Moshe was fit and vibrant. 34:7]
9. In what year of the Shemittah cycle was the Mitzvah of Hakhel? (31:10)
10. Why were the young children brought for the Mitzvah of Hakhel? (31:12)

From the Rabbis
11. For Moshe’s final oration, why did Moshe have all the small children present? (Ramban, Seforno 29:10)
12. How was the Covenant binding upon us who were not there? (Rabbeinu Bachya, Gur Aryeh 29:14)
13. Why should a non-Jew living in Israel gather for the event of Hakhel? (Ibn Ezra 31:10)

Haftorah.    Isaiah
14. As long as there are Jews in Exile, what cannot exist in the world?

Relationships
a) Moshe - Itamar
b) Aharon - Rechavia
c) Adah - Naphtali
d) Avraham - Midian
e) Cham - Mitzrayim

                          ANSWERS FOR PARSHIYOT NITZAVIM-VAYEILECH 5780

1. The seventh of Adar, the day that Moshe died.
2. Hashem will increase the Jewish population and begin the ingathering of the exiled back to Eretz Yisrael.
3. 120 years old.
4. He gave it to the Kohanim and to the elders of Israel.
5. The Mitzvah of Hakhel (gathering all the Jewish people to Yerushalayim once in seven years) and the Mitzvah of Writing a Sefer Torah.
6. Canaanites came to Moshe pretending to be members of a distant nation and wanted to convert. Moshe did not allow them, but allowed them to become woodchoppers and water drawers.
7. When they crossed the Jordan and accepted the oath at Mts. Gerizim and Eival.
8. He could not go out because Hashem had forbidden him to accompany the people across the Jordan River.
9. The first year of the new cycle.
10. To give a reward to those who brought them.
11. Ramban: Hashem wanted them to witness this great event. Seforno: To tell the elders that they were responsible to see these children raised as Jews.
12. Rabbeinu Bachya: All souls were there at Sinai, but their bodies were not born yet. Gur Aryeh: Just as no later inferior court can overrule a previous greater court, so the rulings of Moshe and his court are binding upon us.
13. Perhaps he will convert to Judaism.
14. No tranquility or peace in the world.
Relationships
a) Uncle Moshe
b) Great Uncle Aharon (Rechavia was a grandson of Moshe)
c) Aunt Adah
d) Father Avraham
e) Grandfather Cham