The events of Moses’ final day on earth are described in the Parasha Vayelech (“and he went”). He tells the crowd, “I am one hundred and twenty years old today, and I can no longer go forth and come in. Joshua takes over as leader, and he writes down (or completes writing) the Torah on a scroll that he gives to the Levites to store in the Ark of the Covenant.
Every seven years, during the Sukkot holiday of the first shemita cycle, the entire population of Israel—men, women, and children—shall assemble at the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, where the king should read to them from the Torah. This is known as the mitzvah of hakhel, or “gather.”
In addition to predicting that the Israelites will break their bond with God and cause Him to hide His face from them, Vayelech ends by promising that the Torah’s teachings “will not be forgotten out of the mouths of their descendants.”
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