Parshas Vayeilech

Chumash Devarim · Torah of Rabbi Kalman Worch (ICJS) · 2 shiurim

תורה א — The Providence Within

Arvei Nachal 45 · Aug 31, 2026 · 56 min · 🎧 audio

On the pesukim of hester panim at the end of Vayeilech (Devarim 31:16–18), through the Arvei Nachal (R' Dovid Shlomo Eibeschutz).

The question

Tehillim 46: עֶזְרָה בְצָרוֹת נִמְצָא מְאֹד — "a help in troubles, very much found." The Arvei Nachal asks: what is "very much found"? Salvation either comes or it doesn't — help from trouble isn't measured in "more" or "less." And why does the next pasuk continue "therefore we shall not fear when the earth changes" — how does one follow from the other?

The yesod: every tzarah is powered by a spark

Every trouble, individual or communal, is the sitra achra — and Hashem, who is tov u'meitiv, does not want your trouble. He created existence only to bestow good.
So how does a force opposing Hashem's will exist at all? Other religions were so bothered by this they invented an independent evil power — which is avodah zarah. Our answer: within every sitra achra is a holy spark of Hashem's ratzon — the specific good that is destined to emerge from that trouble. That spark alone sustains the trouble's existence.
Things that are intrinsically good carry the fire of Hashem's will and endure. Things that are not good carry only a spark — they exist solely for the good that will come out of them, and the moment that good is extracted, they vanish, because the will was never in the evil; it was in the good hiding inside it.

The avodah: find the spark, end the trouble

When you're in a tzarah, ask literally: Hashem, what do you want from me? Search for the kavanah of the trouble — is it meant to better your deeds? To humble you? "Instead of sitting ten years in the trouble, if you find the good in five minutes, you can end the trouble." Two things are accomplished: the holy spark is redeemed from the klipah, and the tzarah, emptied of its sustaining spark, is batel — it has no existence left.

Proof — Achav: the second-worst Jew of all time humbles himself, and Hashem says "Have you seen that Achav has humbled himself before Me? I will not bring the evil in his days" (Melachim I 21:29). The decree was powered by his arrogance; humility extracted the spark and killed the decree.

Why the nations vanish and Yisrael cannot

A nation of the sitra achra exists only while it holds a holy spark — a purpose. Bavel destroys the Beis HaMikdash, fulfills its role, and disappears overnight. Paras exists for the sake of kabbalas haTorah of Purim — and once the Purim story ends and the second Beis HaMikdash rises, the empire falls to Yavan. And so on through history: nations that seem to melt "naturally" off the earth have simply spent their spark.

Yisrael is the mirror image: sourced in kedushah itself, our troubles are only the temporary casing of a spark waiting to be pulled out — "I will make an end of all the nations where I scattered you, but of you I will not make an end" (Yirmiyahu 30:11). Hashem's rod (אַשּׁוּר שֵׁבֶט אַפִּי) is a father's rod — the instant the son improves, the rod is discarded.

And the Arvei Nachal makes a striking claim: a Jew has the knowledge — every individual Jew can look at his own situation, ask what Hashem wants, and arrive at the answer; and the einei ha'eidah, the tzaddikim, can do so for the klal.

The hardest case: when no good can be found

Sometimes — rarely — a tzarah comes and even the wisest cannot find the good in it. The Arvei Nachal writes (c. 1800) of a gezeirah in his day in which Jewish children were lost to bad ways, and says plainly: I could not find the good, and I never heard of such a thing in the days of our forefathers. The danger of such a moment is the argument "Hashem has abandoned us" — the very claim of the generation of Yechezkel after the first churban ("a servant sold off need not serve his old master").

This, he says, is what the end of Vayeilech is teaching. וְאָנֹכִי הַסְתֵּר אַסְתִּיר פָּנַי — Hashem says: I will hide My face — not remove it. There are troubles Hashem arranges to occur without His visible watchfulness, so that Klal Yisrael passes through the experience of unexplainable suffering — and that hiddenness is itself the deepest providence. (The Rav connected this to the Vilna Gaon's teaching that history moves through the parshiyos — placing Vayeilech's hester panim as the churban of Europe — and to the Eish Kodesh: Hashem is in the burning bush, with us in the trouble, most of all when He cannot be seen.)

Hence Chazal's stunning words: a Jew who has never tasted hester panim and "v'haya le'echol" — is not of this people. All other reproofs in the Torah can befall anyone or no one; these two are the signature of Hashem's most direct hashgachah on His own children.

Takeaway

Re-read Tehillim 46 with new kavanah: the salvation within your troubles — you can very much find it. You have the knowledge. Find the spark, redeem it, and the trouble has nothing left to stand on.

תורה ב — No Longer to Go Out and Come In

WiFi Dvar Torah, Vayeilech/Shabbos Shuva 5780 · 6 min · 🎧 audio

The question

All these parshiyos are about walking: Ki Seitzei (going out), Ki Savo (coming in), Nitzavim (standing), Vayeilech (walking). וַיֵּלֶךְ מֹשֶׁה — where did Moshe go? And Moshe says לֹא אוּכַל עוֹד לָצֵאת וְלָבוֹא — "I can no longer go out and come in." Rashi insists this is not physical decline — his vigor at 120 was as at 80. So what could Moshe no longer do?

Teshuvah that reaches backward

Why do we rush to pile up mitzvos during the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah — aren't those on this year's account? Because there are two teshuvos: teshuvah mi'yirah downgrades intentional sins to shgagos, but teshuvah mei'ahavah transforms sins into zechuyos — merits.
Why should aveiros become merits? Because we are human, we fall — and the falling is the climbing. "In the place where ba'alei teshuvah stand, even perfect tzaddikim cannot stand." Without going out, there is no coming back in.
The mitzvos of these days are what convert our teshuvah into teshuvah mei'ahavah — they demonstrate that where we truly want to stand is close to Hashem. That is the irbuv haSatan: the Satan fears to mention our aveiros on Rosh Hashanah, because done-with-love teshuvah would flip every one of them into a merit for us.

The answer

לֹא אוּכַל עוֹד לָצֵאת וְלָבוֹא — Moshe Rabbeinu had no more room to fall and climb back. He could no longer "go out and come in" — no longer leave his place and return greater. He was complete; and that is precisely how he knew it was his last day. We, who still have challenges — that is our advantage. Welcome them: do teshuvah for the past, fill these days with mitzvos done in love, and last year's failures themselves become this year's merits.

Transcribed from the ICJS Torah podcast (icjstorah.libsyn.com) · compiled le'zikui harabbim. Full transcripts: transcripts/