And Moses Went And Spoke these Things to All Israel . . . Central Synagogue Torah Study for Parashat Vayelech September 15, 2018 / 6 Tishrei 5779

Ibn Ezra

Moses went He went to each tribe, to inform them that he was going to die, so that they would not be frightened, and to hearten them with respect to Joshua (this is the reason for the passage which immediately follows: “… you will divide it among them” [: 7]). It is also my belief that this is when Moshe blessed the tribes, even though it is recorded later [cf. 33: 1 ff .].

Rabbi Avraham Fischer, "Moses' Approach Towards Death"

Ramban (Nachmanides) notes that, in Nitzavim (as the name of that portion suggests) all of the people were “standing,” assembled before Hashem. Afterwards, they returned to their tents. Now, Moses went from the Levite camp to the Israelite camp in order to honor them, like one who wishes to take his leave from his friend and goes to receive permission from him. In preparing to die, Moses shows them respect.

***

Chizkuni (Chizkiya ben Manoach, mid 13th century) notes that Moses goes to the people, instead of assembling them by sounding the trumpets (Numbers 10:1-10). This is because (Midrash Tanchuma Beha’alotecha 10), as Moses was about to die Hashem took the trumpets, which symbolized Moses’s role as ruler, and concealed them, since “there is no dominion on the day of death” (Ecclesiastes 8:8). Moses’s “going” indicates his loss of dominion.

"Knowing One's Place, Knowing One's Time" (Joseph Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Learning)

Moses has been told that Israel will certainly revert to their old ways because of his absence. Even though Joshua is encouraged to take heart, there is an understanding that moral leadership under Joshua will not be the same.

Moses doesn’t understand why it is more important for him to depart than to supply the moral leadership that is essential for Israel not to go astray. It is as if the Holy One says, sooner or later, ready or not, there comes a time when a people must assume responsibility for its own behavior. Even though I expect Israel to fail the test, and I will now dictate a poem that will show my future hiding is a result of their moral decline.

Your place Moses is on this side of the Jordan. They will rely on you no more.
One cannot blame one’s own failings on the absence of moral leadership. Vicarious pride in the righteous among us says little of our own achievements. Ultimately, the place to look for moral failings is from within.

Washington's Farewell Address (1796)

Friends and Citizens:

The period for a new election of a citizen to administer the executive government of the United States being not far distant, and the time actually arrived when your thoughts must be employed in designating the person who is to be clothed with that important trust, it appears to me proper, especially as it may conduce to a more distinct expression of the public voice, that I should now apprise you of the resolution I have formed, to decline being considered among the number of those out of whom a choice is to be made.

I beg you, at the same time, to do me the justice to be assured that this resolution has not been taken without a strict regard to all the considerations appertaining to the relation which binds a dutiful citizen to his country; and that in withdrawing the tender of service, which silence in my situation might imply, I am influenced by no diminution of zeal for your future interest, no deficiency of grateful respect for your past kindness, but am supported by a full conviction that the step is compatible with both.

***

. . . Not unconscious in the outset of the inferiority of my qualifications, experience in my own eyes, perhaps still more in the eyes of others, has strengthened the motives to diffidence of myself; and every day the increasing weight of years admonishes me more and more that the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome. Satisfied that if any circumstances have given peculiar value to my services, they were temporary, I have the consolation to believe that, while choice and prudence invite me to quit the political scene, patriotism does not forbid it.

In looking forward to the moment which is intended to terminate the career of my public life, my feelings do not permit me to suspend the deep acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude which I owe to my beloved country for the many honors it has conferred upon me; still more for the steadfast confidence with which it has supported me; and for the opportunities I have thence enjoyed of manifesting my inviolable attachment, by services faithful and persevering, though in usefulness unequal to my zeal. If benefits have resulted to our country from these services, let it always be remembered to your praise, and as an instructive example in our annals, that under circumstances in which the passions, agitated in every direction, were liable to mislead, amidst appearances sometimes dubious, vicissitudes of fortune often discouraging, in situations in which not unfrequently want of success has countenanced the spirit of criticism, the constancy of your support was the essential prop of the efforts, and a guarantee of the plans by which they were effected. Profoundly penetrated with this idea, I shall carry it with me to my grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing vows that heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence; that your union and brotherly affection may be perpetual; that the free Constitution, which is the work of your hands, may be sacredly maintained; that its administration in every department may be stamped with wisdom and virtue; that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these States, under the auspices of liberty, may be made complete by so careful a preservation and so prudent a use of this blessing as will acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the applause, the affection, and adoption of every nation which is yet a stranger to it.

Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude for your welfare, which cannot end but with my life, and the apprehension of danger, natural to that solicitude, urge me, on an occasion like the present, to offer to your solemn contemplation, and to recommend to your frequent review, some sentiments which are the result of much reflection, of no inconsiderable observation, and which appear to me all-important to the permanency of your felicity as a people. These will be offered to you with the more freedom, as you can only see in them the disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his counsel. Nor can I forget, as an encouragement to it, your indulgent reception of my sentiments on a former and not dissimilar occasion.

[Washington offers advice on a number of important policy issues]

***

Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am unconscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I shall also carry with me the hope that my country will never cease to view them with indulgence; and that, after forty five years of my life dedicated to its service with an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest.

Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and actuated by that fervent love towards it, which is so natural to a man who views in it the native soil of himself and his progenitors for several generations, I anticipate with pleasing expectation that retreat in which I promise myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign influence of good laws under a free government, the ever-favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers.

Ronald Reagan, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1981

To a few of us here today this is a solemn and most momentous occasion, and yet in the history of our nation it is a commonplace occurrence. The orderly transfer of authority as called for in the Constitution routinely takes place, as it has for almost two centuries, and few of us stop to think how unique we really are. In the eyes of many in the world, this every 4-year ceremony we accept as normal is nothing less than a miracle.

Barack Obama

“Now, it is no secret that the president-elect and I have some pretty significant differences,” Obama said. “But, remember, eight years ago President Bush and I had some pretty significant differences. But President Bush's team could not have been more professional or more gracious in making sure we had a smooth transition so that we could hit the ground running. And one thing you realize quickly in this job is that the presidency and the vice presidency is bigger than any of us.”

The “peaceful transition of power is one of the hallmarks of our democracy,” Obama added, insisting that come January, “we are going to show that to the world.”

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/11/obama-promises-peaceful-transition-of-power-to-donald-trump