פָּרָשַׁת וַיֵּלֶךְ

Parshat Vayeilech tells how Moshe Rabbeinu prepares Bnei Yisrael (the children of Israel) for his death, so that the Torah and its leadership continue after him. Moshe tells the people he is a hundred and twenty years old today, and Hashem has told him he will not cross the Yarden (Jordan); Hashem Himself will cross before them, and Yehoshua will lead them. "Chizku ve'imtzu" — be strong and courageous, for Hashem goes with you and will not abandon you. Moshe tells Yehoshua, before all of Bnei Yisrael, to be strong and courageous, for he will bring the people into the land.

Moshe writes this Torah and gives it to the kohanim (priests), who carry the Aron (Ark), and to the elders. He commands the mitzvah of hakhel (gathering): at the end of every seven years, on Sukkot, the whole people — men, women, children and the ger (stranger, convert) — gathers at the place Hashem chooses to hear the Torah read, so that they and their children learn to fear Hashem and keep His Torah.

Hashem appears in a pillar of cloud at the Ohel Moed (Tent of Meeting) and tells Moshe that his death is near, and that afterward the people will stray after foreign gods; Hashem will hide His face from them (hester panim), and many troubles will find them. So Hashem commands Moshe and Yehoshua to write this shirah (song) and teach it to Bnei Yisrael, as a witness that will never be forgotten from the mouths of their descendants (from this the Chachamim (Sages) learn the mitzvah for every Jew to write a Sefer Torah). Moshe has the Leviim (Levites) place the finished Sefer Torah beside the Aron as a witness. Knowing their rebelliousness, he calls the heavens and the earth as witnesses and speaks the words of the shirah to the whole congregation. In many years Parshat Vayeilech is read together with Nitzavim as a double parsha.