Both mitzvot center on Torah, albeit in different modes.
Hakhel is about a national gathering to hear the entire Five Books of Moses read aloud, while Writing a Sefer Torah is just that: the writing of a complete Five Books of Moses onto parchment and make it into a two-staff scroll. Let's look at each one, unpack what is going on, look at some commentaries, and see what each of these has to say to us about Torah and our relationship to it.
(י) וַיְצַ֥ו מֹשֶׁ֖ה אוֹתָ֣ם לֵאמֹ֑ר מִקֵּ֣ץ ׀ שֶׁ֣בַע שָׁנִ֗ים בְּמֹעֵ֛ד שְׁנַ֥ת הַשְּׁמִטָּ֖ה בְּחַ֥ג הַסֻּכּֽוֹת׃ (יא) בְּב֣וֹא כׇל־יִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל לֵֽרָאוֹת֙ אֶת־פְּנֵי֙ ה' אֱלֹקֶ֔יךָ בַּמָּק֖וֹם אֲשֶׁ֣ר יִבְחָ֑ר תִּקְרָ֞א אֶת־הַתּוֹרָ֥ה הַזֹּ֛את נֶ֥גֶד כׇּל־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל בְּאׇזְנֵיהֶֽם׃ (יב) הַקְהֵ֣ל אֶת־הָעָ֗ם הָֽאֲנָשִׁ֤ים וְהַנָּשִׁים֙ וְהַטַּ֔ף וְגֵרְךָ֖ אֲשֶׁ֣ר בִּשְׁעָרֶ֑יךָ לְמַ֨עַן יִשְׁמְע֜וּ וּלְמַ֣עַן יִלְמְד֗וּ וְיָֽרְאוּ֙ אֶת־ה' אֱלֹקֵיכֶ֔ם וְשָֽׁמְר֣וּ לַעֲשׂ֔וֹת אֶת־כׇּל־דִּבְרֵ֖י הַתּוֹרָ֥ה הַזֹּֽאת׃ (יג) וּבְנֵיהֶ֞ם אֲשֶׁ֣ר לֹא־יָדְע֗וּ יִשְׁמְעוּ֙ וְלָ֣מְד֔וּ לְיִרְאָ֖ה אֶת־ה' אֱלֹקֵיכֶ֑ם כׇּל־הַיָּמִ֗ים אֲשֶׁ֨ר אַתֶּ֤ם חַיִּים֙ עַל־הָ֣אֲדָמָ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֨ר אַתֶּ֜ם עֹבְרִ֧ים אֶת־הַיַּרְדֵּ֛ן שָׁ֖מָּה לְרִשְׁתָּֽהּ׃ {פ}
(10) And Moses instructed them as follows: Every seventh year, the year set for remission, at the Feast of Booths, (11) when all Israel comes to appear before your God ה' in the place that [God] will choose, you shall read this Teaching aloud in the presence of all Israel. (12) Gather the people—men, women, children, and the strangers in your communities—that they may hear and so learn to revere your God ה' and to observe faithfully every word of this Teaching. (13) Their children, too, who do not know, shall hear and learn to revere your God ה' as long as they live in the land that you are about to cross the Jordan to possess.
- When is this gathering to take place?
- Who is included?
- What are the various purposes mentioned for this gathering? Focus on the sequence of verbs.
(1) למען ישמעו, in order that the wise people in the congregation would understand. (2) ולמען ילמדו, and in order that the less understanding members of the people would learn it from them. (3) ויראו את ה' אלוקיכם, they will be in awe of God when they understand the greatness that comes with the Torah and God's wondrous intellect.
(1) ובניהם אשר לא ידעו, because of their young age, they are unable to ask their questions. (2) ישמעו, either that their ears will hear sounds, or, if they are a little older, that they will hear words. (3) ולמדו, they will ask adults and learn from people who do understand.
- When Sforno sees these sequences of verbs, and the progression from one verse to the next, how does he understand those progressions?
- When you take all of Sforno's comments and imagine them taking place in your mind, how would you describe the gathering that is taking place?
It sometimes also happens that an individual falls short in some duties and exceeds in others. The intellectual stimulus varies in different individuals in accordance with their capacity of recognition. But the urge of the Torah is not subject to variation. Its form is the same for the child, the youth, the one advanced in years and the elderly, the wise and the foolish, even though the resulting practice varies in different groups of individuals. And so Scripture says in regard to the all encompassing character of the instruction of the Torah for all the people, "Gather the people together, men and women, and children, and the stranger that is within your gate, (that they may hear and that they may learn and fear the Eternal your G-d . . .)" (Devarim 31:12). Further, it is said, ". . . you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing." (Devarim 31:11).
- Here is what I see here:
- An all encompassing gathering of the entire people; everyone is present or at least expected, no exceptions.
- There is a shared oral experience of the entire Torah, from beginning to end. This is a stable, unchanging "urge of the Torah," God's voice speaking from the text for everyone to hear. In a way, this is a seven-year recreation of the Sinai experience, which had similar goals. But instant of being at Mount Sinai, they will be at the Temple Mount, which contains a small piece of Sinai in it, namely the stone tablets that Moses carved.
- With the oral presentation of the Torah, now we have a multi-generational Beit Midrash. Those who understand the most teach those who understand less, and so on around the people. The understanding of the individual is not enough. There is a responsibility to make sure that everyone present understands the content of the Torah.
- This calls for a lot of skills, including Hebrew, translation, interpretation, knowing how to explain an idea to various kinds of people of various ages, backgrounds and experience.
- The wise teach those who are not as wise. Children, who either just hear something or hear words, then ask the adults near them to explain what is going on. This continues to spark the conversation with parents and adults now teaching children, who are curious and asking questions about what they are hearing, why they are there, what all of this is about.
- The goal is not uniformity. That is impossible. As Duties of the Heart mentions, how the Torah is carried out will vary from place to place, person to person, but it all has the same root in the Urge, the Call, the Voice from the Fire of Sinai. The main point is to hear, seek to understand, and then to do.
- In short: Hakhel may be a once every seven year event, but it teaches all of us how Talmud Torah is to be done: out loud, everyone in the room, people teaching each other, everyone hearing and understanding at their level and in their own way, kids asking questions, adults thoughtfully, hopefully, answering them, and a shared commitment not only to this process, but also to helping everyone do all that is being asked of them.
- The literacy and competence of Talmud Torah
(19) Therefore, write down (pl) this poem for your and teach (sg) it to the people of Israel; put it in their mouths, in order that this poem may be My witness against the people of Israel.
It is a positive commandment for each and every Jewish person to write a Torah scroll for themself, as [implied by the commandment (Deuteronomy 31:19 ]: "And now, write down this song for yourselves," i.e., write down the [entire] Torah which contains this song. [The basis for this interpretation is] that the Torah should not be written passage by passage. Even if a person's ancestors left them a Torah scroll, it is a mitzvah to write their own. If a person writes the scroll by hand, it is considered as if they received it on Mount Sinai. If they do not know how to write, [they should have] others write it on their behalf. Anyone who checks even a single letter of a Torah scroll is considered as if he wrote the entire scroll.
Rambam here writes based on the classic rabbinic understanding of verse 19, which understand that Moses is not referring to Ha'azinu, the poem he is about the recite, nor the entire book of Devarim, but the entire Sefer Torah.
- What is the nature of this commandment? What is it actually requiring people to do?
- Upon whom does this commandment fall?
- How is this similar to Hakhel? How is this different from Hakhel?
(1) NOW…WRITE THIS. A commandment that Moses, and all who know how to write, should write it. (2) AND TEACH THOU IT. Explain to them the difficult meanings. (3) PUT IT IN THEIR MOUTHS. That they should be able to recite it orally.
What does Ibn Ezra add to the commandment of Writing a Sefer Torah?
Here is what I see here in this verse:
- The general commandment for each person to write a Sefer Torah, which would be a huge undertaking.
- It would entail learning Biblical Hebrew script, how to write it, how to make the ink, the quills, getting enough material, making enough time and space to accomplish this task.
- Clearly, not in hardly everyone's wheelhouse to do this, hence the notion of having others do it for you, or even fixing one letter (which changes a pasul Torah into a kosher Torah).
- A responsibility not merely to take what is passed down from previous generations, but to create a new Sefer Torah, or perhaps more broadly, to be part of the writing of new books of Torah. Implied by Ibn Ezra.
- To actively take part in the transmission of Torah from Moses to you and beyond. To add to the works of the Oral Torah, as well as the more concrete directive to create a new copy of the Five Books of Moses.
- Torah explanation across generations is important. It is not enough to merely receive The Who-What-When-Where-Why of the past, but it is also incumbent to add to the Why for this generation.
- Especially in our time when we are still reeling from the disconnect after WWII and the Shoah. So much was lost by people's physical death and by the patterns of silence following WWII and the Shoah.
- Ibn Ezra also adds that it is never enough to write books, even new books, but as an individual, there is an obligation to create more Torah Talk, more conversation, more debate, and so on.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks writes:
Note the beautiful complementarity of the two commands. Hakhel, the national assembly, is directed at the people as a totality. Writing a Sefer Torah is directed at individuals. This is the essence of covenantal politics. We have individual responsibility and we have collective responsibility.
In Hillel’s words, “If I am not for myself, who will be, but if I am only for myself, what am I?”
In Judaism, the state is not all, as it is in authoritarian regimes. Nor is the individual all, as it is in the radically individualist liberal democracies of today.
A covenantal society is made by each accepting responsibility for all, by individuals committing themselves to the common good. Hence the Sefer Torah – our written constitution as a nation – must be renewed in the life of the individual (command 613) and of the nation (command 612).
For me Rabbi Sack's comment reminds me that not only do I have an obligation to study and learn Torah, and of course, to teach, but we all do, both as a community and as individuals.
Here is what I propose for the coming year: I challenge everyone to make a Torah learning goal for themself for this year. It can be small, medium or large. As long as it is doable for you, consistent, and persistent.
If you want to read the entire Torah portion each week before Shabbat services.
If you want to choose one commentary on the weekly Torah portion each week.
If you want to learn one Mishnah a day,
If you want to learn one Halacha, an aspect of Jewish practice,
If you want to do one chapter of Tanakh a day,
If you want to read a certain number of books on Jewish topics over the course of the year,
If you want to do one of my learning series this year (Rambam, and either a Hasidic master or Kabbalistic text)
If you want to come to whatever learning sessions we offer over the course of the year,
If you want to do an online course of Jewish learning this year,
If you want to do an online film series (mention Cantor's Moishe Fisher series from the CA)
If you want to learn Hebrew this year,
If you want to learn to chant a Torah portion this year,
Whatever you can do to take it up a notch.
You can do it.
There has never been a time in Jewish history when more Torah learning resources were so easily accessible. The smartphone is the next technology for Torah accessibility, standing on the shoulders of moving from tablets to parchment, to the printing press, to the photo copier, to the internet. The website I use, Safari, literally makes the vast majority of Written and Oral Torah available in the palm of your hand, for no cost, and with a majority of it in English.
Even a small amount of Torah each day will build up over time. It just takes patience and diligence.