Posted on 09/26/25
Someone once approached the Tchebiner Rav zt”l – HaRav Dov Berish Weidenfeld (1881-1965) – and told him that he has older children who have not found their shidduch yet.
The Tchebiner Rav told him the following story: “One Erev Yom Kippur, before dawn, a yid was walking to do kaparos. He was holding a chicken in one hand and a machzor in his other hand. Right then, his eyeglasses began to slide off his nose and fell to the ground. The yid had quite a dilemma. What should he do? Both of his hands were occupied, how could he pick up his eyeglasses? If he put the chicken down, even for a moment, it would run away. And he certainly couldn’t put the machzor on the ground. The yid stood there perplexed, not knowing what to do.”
“Nu, so what did he do?!” the man asked.
“I don’t know,” the Tchebiner Rav replied, “but one thing I’m quite certain of, he’s not standing there anymore.”
After sharing this story, Rav Meilech Biderman explained that the Tchebiner Rav was telling this man: “Life goes on. Yes, there are hurdles and challenges along the way, but they pass. The difficulties aren’t forever.”
The simple yet profound story from the Tchebiner Rav really touches at the core of what it means to be a yid. A yid is a הולך, a goer. A yid doesn’t stay in one place; he is constantly striving, yearning, growing, and going places.
The Parshah begins with the words: וילך משה – “And Moshe went...” The Torah itself doesn’t say where he went. It’s a bit of a mystery. Only once we read the commentaries, are we told where he went. Ibn Ezra tells us he went to the camp of each tribe individually. Targum Yonasan tells us he went to the House of Study. Baal HaTurim tells us he went to Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, to inform them that Hashem was fulfilling His promise to bring the Jewish people to the Holy Land. Ramban tells us that he left the Levite camp and went over to the Israelite camp, like a person who wishes to depart from his friend, and comes to ask permission from him; he went to bid farewell to his beloved people before he passed away.
Of course, Moshe actually went somewhere. But the Torah doesn’t tell us where, perhaps conveying a most basic and important teaching: that is, it doesn’t really matter where Moshe went, the point is: he went! Wherever it is that he went, the Torah wants us to know, quite plain and simply: וילך משה – he went!
Moshe Rabbeinu didn’t get stuck in whatever situation he was in. He wasn’t satisfied on whatever spiritual level he was currently on. He wasn’t consumed by whatever present dilemma existed before him. He was a הולך. He just went!
One of the greatest parting lessons of our leader, Moshe Rabbeinu, was this: וילך משה. He found a way to move, to travel on, to progress forward in life, no matter what.
The Passuk in Micha (4:5) says: ואנחנו נלך בשם ה’ אלקינו לעולם ועד – “We will walk in the name of Hashem, our G-d, forever and ever!” Our way is one of perpetual movement. We are meant to echo the constant growth and expansion of the very universe in which we reside.
Like the constant spin of Earth on its axis along with its continual orbital movement, a yid is meant to move – ceaselessly and perpetually – to new spiritual awakenings and holy vistas.
Good shabbos!
The author can be reached at: rabbistrumo@gmail.com