Write for yourselves this song

(Deuteronomy 31:19)
Tishrei 12, 5776/September 25, 2015

"And now, write for yourselves this song, and teach it to the children of Israel."(Deuteronomy 31:19) Thus, writing a song was commanded by G-d to be Moshe's final act on earth before blessing his people and being gathered up unto his fathers. This beautiful commandment, and the "swan song" it inspired, are an amazing testimony to the depth and perfection of the Torah G-d gifted to Israel.

In his teaching about Yom Kippur, Rabbi Chaim Richman shares with us the insight that a person who effects real change in his life for the better, in effect rewrites his own past in G-d's eyes, thereby rewriting history. Rabbi Richman also reveals to us that it is none other than our own hand which signs our fate into the Books of Judgement on Yom Kippur. Even as we stand naked before G-d on Yom Kippur, exposed in all our imperfections and smallness, He insists that we are the ultimate masters of our own fate, and that only we can sign off on our future. This week, in parashat Ha'azinu, G-d commands Moshe, and, indeed, all of us, to write our own song, to find our own voice, and to teach and to share who we are with the world.

From this unique commandment to find our own voice we learn a vital message about the very nature of G-d's commandments: Commandments are not a homework assignment. They are not to be "completed" in our free time and they are not to be done for G-d's sake. Commandments are challenges and opportunities to explore and discover our own selves in G-d's great world. Every commandment, from the simplest to the most involved, are a song to be composed and sung by each and every one of us, each in his and her own unique way. The Hebrew word for commandment is mitzva, derived from the root which means to connect. Mitzvot connect us to G-d , to our fellow man, and to ourselves.

We are all commanded to compose, orchestrate and to sing our own song, our own personal "Torah" that comes not to replace, G-d forbid, the Torah G-d commanded us, but to discover and to inherit our place, and ours alone, in the vast universe contained in Torah. Together, all our songs are a symphony to G-d's ear, creating a harmony which informs and sustains G-d's creation.

If you have not yet begun writing your song, today is the perfect time to start. The four rarefied days which separate and connect Yom Kippur to Sukkot, are the finest time to begin to find our own key and to begin hitting our own notes. The new year of 5776 is opening up before us a brand new opportunity to add our own voice to to G-d's ever perfecting universe. May we all take G-d up on His challenge, and may our song always be sung!

-The Temple Institute