By Zach Pekarsky

This week’s parasha is וילך -- Vayelech, and it resonates especially personally for me as I spend my last days on the Mazkirut Artzit and my last weeks living in the Diaspora.

In this week’s Torah reading we encounter two particularly poignant moments. In the first, Moses says goodbye to Am Yisrael. He reaffirms that he will not cross the Jordan River with people. Instead, they will move onward without him, guided by new leaders like Yehoshua Bin-Nun. A new generation of Israelites embarks on their new adventures and Moses is left behind in the dust.

In this moment, as I leave the Mazkirut and the youth movement, I feel great empathy for Moses. I have been a chaver tnuasince 2002 and have been leading chanichim through the desert of North American Jewish life since 2010. It’s hard to let go. It’s a bit scary. But though difficult, this ability to step back is crucial to the autonomy and youthfulness of our movement.

Since Kali addressed these challenges in the summer, I’ll point you to her Dvar Torah and not repeat her words. Instead, we’ll move on to the second major moment in the parsha.

Am Yisrael is encamped me’ever la’yarden – across the Jordan River. They rest a short walk from Israel. I can only imagine that they tremble with excitement to abandon the desert for the land of (coconut) milk and (date) honey. They are preparing to enter the land, and probably feel that they’ve succeeded. They’re leaving the desert and entering the land – what challenges could possibly be left? But first, Moses gives one last piece of advice – חזקו ואמצו – chizku v’imtzu – be strong/strengthened and be bold/brave/courageous. Entering the land is not the end of your challenges; it the beginning of new and important challenges. He reminds them that excitement and satisfaction are not enough; there is still work to be done.

And this is clearly important advice to him,

as Moses reiterates it twice -- once to the whole Jewish People and once to Joshua directly. And when I read that advice, I can’t help but think he’s talking to me – and maybe to you -- as well. I too am waiting breathlessly to finally enter the land, excited for the next steps of my life. I feel jubilation and enthusiasm to be making Aliyah.

And just as Moses reminds the Israelites, so too am I reminded that my fulfillment is not enough. I am not just making Aliyah because I think living in Israel will be nice. I go to participate in a movement and to find partners, to fight for a more just society that does not tolerate racism and bigotry, to build a Jewish state whose Jewishness springs forth from the visions of the prophets and the values of the chalutzim, and to live in a kvutza that is a microcosm of that reality we are building.

For these things, excitement, joy, and jubilation are not enough. We cannot and will not succeed without courage, strength and boldness. As I move on from the youth movement, I, like Moses, want to offer all of you one last reminder. This is a quote that Moses’ advice evoked for me.

Our strength is limited; our purpose is high…Our struggle does not demand money, but boundless love for our people and our land and an endless supply of heroism and endurance.

-Yosef Vitkin, Call to the Youth of Israel, 1904