The Chain of Blessing

This Saturday night, we will celebrate a holiday called Simchat Torah, “The Rejoicing of the Torah”. On it we traditionally read the final portion of the Torah, called V’zot Ha-Berachah, “And this is the blessing.” We hear Moses’ final blessing of the Israelite tribes, and read the description of his final ascent up a mountain, where he dies in an unmarked spot overlooking the land of Canaan. These chapters lean heavily into nostalgia and poignancy, describing Moses as a prophet unequaled before or since. 

The early sages who created midrash amplified the deep emotion in this portion, building up Moses as a unique and gifted leader while also placing him in a chain of great leaders. In Deuteronomy Rabbah 11:1, the sages claim that the ancestors would start their blessings to the next generation only from the place where their predecessor left off in the blessing they had offered. 

In the description of Abraham blessing Isaac, the final phrase begins “And he gave…” (Genesis 25:5). When Isaac prepares to bless Jacob, the midrash imagines him saying, “From the place where my father left off, there I shall begin. My father left off with ‘giving’; I shall begin my blessing with giving.” And the Torah records that Isaac began with these words: “And may God give you…” (Genesis 27:28). 

The account of Isaac ends with the phrase beginning, “And he called…” (Genesis 28:1). Jacob similarly chooses to start his blessing of his twelve sons with “calling”, as it states, “Then Jacob called for his sons” (Genesis 49:1). 

The Torah’s narrative of Jacob’s blessing ends with the phrase, “And this is what their father spoke to them” (Genesis 49:28). So Moses, according to the midrash, chooses to begin the account of his blessing with the phrase “this” - And this is the blessing… (Deuteronomy 33:1). 

If that was a little confusing, don’t worry about it! The midrash has found a neat linguistic pattern that was almost certainly unintended by the editor of Torah, and even then the pattern requires a great stretch of imagination to fit the story the midrash tells. And yet, the story holds great power.

Here is the story without any of the midrashic distraction: The chain of leadership (or learning, or whatever chain feels important in your life) forms because each new leader chooses to link themselves to the one who came before. The new one picks up where the old one left off. The choppiness of the midrashic account reminds us that in real life, disruption and rejection are just as common if not more so than smooth and graceful transitions. Nevertheless, imagining and practicing intergenerational partnership and respect, whether as leaders, teachers and students, biological and chosen family, or anything else, can restore us to a greater wholeness, where any one moment forms a complete blessing only because of words spoken in ages past, and words that will be spoken in times yet to come.

We are part of a vast and ongoing project, we humans. May we commit to our part of the blessing. 

Shabbat Shalom!