Vedibarta Bam � And You Shall Speak of Them: Siyum

"And all the awesome power that Moshe performed before the eyes of all Israel... In the beginning of G-d's creating." (Devarim 34:12, Bereishit 1:1)

QUESTION: On Simchat Torah, as soon as we conclude the reading of Devarim, we immediately start anew from Bereishit, to demonstrate that Torah is like a circle; it has no end and no beginning. To accentuate this, it is customary to connect the final words of Devarim with the first words of Bereishit.

What message can be derived from this connection?

ANSWER: One connection between the beginning and the end of the Torah can be understood according to a famous story related in the Gemara (Megillah 9a). The Egyptian king, Ptolemy II (3476-3515 or 246-285 BCE) commanded 72 Torah Sages to translate the Written Torah into Greek.

He placed them in separate rooms, where they would be unable to communicate with each other. By placing them in solitary confinement, he hoped to demonstrate that their separate translations would reflect many differences of opinion, proving that the Torah is not Divine in origin (G-d forbid).

Hashem inspired them all to produce the exact same translation, known among non-Jews to this day as the Septuagint, from the Greek word meaning "seventy." All 72 Sages made certain identical changes from the literal meaning of the Torah in several places to forestall possible misunderstandings by non-Jews seeking to confirm their own mistaken beliefs.

One of these changes was at the beginning of the Torah, in the words, "Bereishit bara Elokim." The Sages were worried that non-Jews, seeking to prove that our Torah substantiates their belief in the existence of more than one god, would try to bring proof that some other god called "Bereishit" created G-d!

Therefore, all the Sages individually reversed the order of these words to read, "Elokim bara bereishit" - "G-d created in the beginning." This shows that G-d is but one, and He was the First Being and the sole Creator of the world and all other beings.

This change, however, was only for the sake of non-Jews, whose mistaken beliefs could bring them to a false interpretation of the verse. But when Hashem commanded Moshe to write down the words of Torah that He taught him, He knew that the Jewish people would not misinterpret these words. He, therefore, told Moshe to write them in their true order. (Many profound meanings lie in the order of the Torah's words and letters.)

This, then, is the connection between the very first words of the Torah and its last phrase: "Le'einei kol Yisrael" - "before the eyes of all Israel" (Devarim 34:12). Hashem told Moshe that "le'einei kol Yisrael" - "before the eyes of all Israel," [he should write] "Bereishit bara Elokim," and there is no need to reverse the order of the words, since the Jewish people believe in only one G-d, and that He alone created everything.

"Before the eyes of all Israel ... In the beginning."

QUESTION: What message is Hashem conveying by His ending the Torah with the letter lamed and starting it with the letter beit?

ANSWER: The final letter of the Torah, lamed (Yisrael), and the opening letter, beit (Bereishit), spells the word "leiv" - "heart." This alludes to what our Sages say (Sanhedrin 106b), "Hashem desires the heart" i.e., righteousness, as it is written, "Hashem sees into the heart" (I Samuel 16:7)

The message implied is that Hashem does not judge people merely by the extent of their Torah scholarship, but rather by the righteousness and devotion to Him that is in their heart.

An additional profound message conveyed by the Torah ending with a lamed and starting with a beit is the following.

The letters of the alef-beit preceding beit and lamed are alef and chaf which spells the word ach. The letters that follow beit and lamed are gimmel and mem which spells the word gam. The Gemara (Yerushalmi Berachot 9:7) says that all gam is lerabot to include additional and all ach is lema'et - to limit and exclude.

Thus, the Torahs ending and starting with the letters lamed and beit alludes to what our Sages said in (Menachot 11a) that echad hamarbeh ve'echad hamamit ubilvad sheyechaven libo lashamayim - one who does more is the same as one who does less, as long as his heart is directed to Heaven.