Vayeilech
Vayeilech
In this week’s parsha we have the mitzvah of “Hakhel” (once every 7 years, on the first night of Chol HaMoed during Succot, the entire nation would gather together and listen to the king read selected passages from sefer Devarim).
The Torah (31;10-12) states: Moshe commanded them, saying: “At the end of seven years, at the time of the Shemittah year, during the Succot festival, when all Israel comes to appear before Hashem, your G-d, in the place that He will choose, you shall read this Torah before all Israel, in their ears. Gather together the people—the men, and the women, and the small children, and your stranger who is in your cities—so that they will hear and so that they will learn, and they shall fear Hashem, your G-d, and be careful to perform all the words of this Torah.”
The Rambam (Hilchos Chagigah, 3;6) states regarding the mitzvah of “Hakhel” that a person should “see himself as if he was just now commanded regarding the Torah and heard it from the Almighty. For the king is an agent to make known the word of God.” However, what’s the Rambam’s source for this law? Nowhere in the Torah by the mitzvah of Hakhel does it mention anything about having to see oneself as though they were just being given the Torah straight from Hashem and that one should concentrate on the fact that the king who reads the sections of the Torah is an agent of Hashem!?!
Additionally, the Torah (Devarim, 18;6) refers to the day in which we received the Torah on Mount Sinai as “the day of congregation” (“Yom Hakahal”). What’s the reasoning for this? Wouldn’t it make more sense to describe the day as “the day in which we received the Torah”-since that was the day’s main purpose? Why exactly do we refer to the day after the fact that everyone gathered together instead of referring to the day after the reason in which everyone came together (i.e. to receive the Torah)?
Rabbi Yochanan Zweig explains that the Rambam is simply translating the name of the mitzvah: “Hakhel” (assemble). Meaning, since both the name of the mitzvah “Hakhel” and the day in which we received the Torah are based on the fact that the whole nation must gather together it therefore must be that the mitzvah of “Hakhel” is supposed to be a reenactment of the day in which we received the Torah (it must be that the two are related as it seemingly makes no sense for the Torah to describe the day in which we received the Torah as “the day of congregation”). The Rambam therefore explains that the way in which we reenact the day we received the Torah once every 7 years by performing the mitzvah of “Hakhel” is through imagining as though we are being given the Torah for the first time straight from Hashem and having in mind that the king is acting as Hashem’s representative to make His words known to us. We could now understand that the Rambam’s source for his laws may be based on the manner in which the mitzvah is described-“Hakhel” (assemble) as the day in which we received the Torah is described in the same manner (“B’Yom Hakahal”-on the day of the congregation).
Jason Behar 