July 25, 2026 – Va’etchanan (“and I pleaded”) – Parshat 45

• Torah: Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11
• Haftara: Isaiah 40:1-26 ( Nachamu, Nachamu Ami )
• Brit Chadasha: Luke 3:2-15

וָאֶתְחַנַּ֖ן אֶל־יְהוָ֑ה בָּעֵ֥ת הַהִ֖וא לֵאמֹֽר׃

Va’etchanan el-Adonay ba’et hahi lemor.

I pleaded with God, At that time saying,

Note: Last years good news for Israel on Tisha B’av 5785/2005…..”for the first time in thousands of years a Jewish minister lead prayer on the Temple Mount again! Thousands ascended to Daven together, Sing praises to Adonai and prostrate themselves in prayer under a new policy hailed as historic change in worship rights at Judaism’s holiest site”. (Amir Tsarfati telegram post, 1:16 PM PST) Baruch Hashem L’olam!

This year the hope is that the altar will be erected on the threshing floor of Arunah and the Tamid offerings will begin again as they did in Ezra Perek 3, and the mourning will turn to a festival of Simcha on the fast of the 5th Month of Av 5786! if not perhaps on Yom Teruah 5786 as in Ezra’s day. After the 9th of Av each year we have a series of special Haftara readings called the Nachamu “Comfort” readings. It is interesting that even before the month of Elul and the dawning of Yom Kippur HaShem wants His people to know that he has heard their prayers of repentance and is moved to the throne of Chesed “Grace”. Shalom Khavereem.

Deut. 3:25 “Please let me go over and see the good land that is beyond the Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon.”

We have seen thru out the Torah that Moshe is a fractal or type for Mashiach in every way, and this week we see Moshe pleading with HaShem to allow him to enter the land of promise and complete the task given to him at the burning bush. The task given to Moshe was not to bring them into the land but to deliver them from the land of Mitsrayim (Egypt). Adonai had another man in mind for the taking of the land – Joshua.

Shemote Exodus 3:16&17 Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and tell them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt; and I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, to a land flowing with milk and honey.”’

A passage in the Talmud expresses Moshe’s desire to enter the land was something deeply spiritual.

Rabbi Simlai taught, “Why did Moses our teacher long to enter the land of Israel? Was it because he wanted to eat of it’s fruits or satiate himself with it’s produce? No. This is what Moses said, “There are many commandments given to Israel which can only be fulfilled in the land. I want to enter the land so that they might be fulfilled through me. [b.Sotah 14a]

Moshe was a deliverer, a prophet, but was not to be “the prophet like me” to which total authority, and a kingdom was due. If Moshe were to fulfill all the commandments and establish the kingdom through his leadership, the role of Mashiach would have been supplanted in him. Not even Moshe, blessed be he, could fulfill the role of the ultimate prophet Messiah, deliverer, and redeemer. The Talmud goes on to say:

The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses: I will account it as if you performed the whole Torah, as it is written [in Isaiah 53:12], “I will a lot him a portion with the great, and he will divide the booty with the strong, because he poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors”…. It says that “he poured out himself to death” because Moses surrendered himself to die on behalf of the nation, as he said [in Exodus 32:32], “Forgive Israel’s sin, and if not, please blot me out from your book which you have written!” It says that “he was numbered with the transgressors” because Moses was numbered with the generation condemned to die in the wilderness. It says that “he himself bore the sins of many” because Moses made atonement for Israel when they made the golden calf. It says that he “interceded for the transgressors” because he begged for mercy on behalf of the sinners in Israel that they should turn and repent. [b.Sotah 14a]

We can see how Moshe fits the role of the Isaiah 53 suffering servant, but with a different and direct connection to his generation, the generation for which he pleaded.

The words אעברה נא (ebera-na) may also be part of Moses’ answer to something we have learned in Midrash Rabbah that the reason that Moses had to die outside the boundaries of the Holy Land was to enable him to lead his generation to their hereafter, as we have already explained. Moses used the term אעברה (ebera), i.e. a temporay crossing rather than a permanent crossing of the Jordan indicating he was quite willing to die and be buried on the East Bank after having first crossed the Jordan, so as to be able to play his appointed role of helping the people of his generation to attain their share in the hereafter. [Our author is vague, speaking of עולם הבא (olam haba); I believe he may have referred to the time of the resurrection. Ed.] (Or HaChaim on Deuteronomy 3:25:5)

If Moshe has this anointing and responsibility as a Tsaddik, to make atonement for his generation, How much more is the Mashiach able to atone for all who trust him as their deliverer, prophet, and redeemer today. We thank Abba for the one like Moshe. the final Redeemer, of whom Moshe is a type. A Tzaddik who’s righteousness covers all the generations sins, and even that of all peoples of every nation!

Shalom Mish’pachah from Beth Hallel Lodi