One of my favorite expressions you will hear throughout the Middle East is Yalla. Yalla is a compound Arabic word meaning O Allah or O God. It is the type of exclamation you can throw in anywhere. If you want your relatives to get a move on because you’re running late to a movie, Yalla works. If you are in the market negotiating a price from a stand, you might say, “Yalla, I’ll take it.” If you are ready to say goodbye to your friends: “Yalla Bye,” works great.
This week’s Torah portion, the third to last in Deuteronomy, is named Vayeilech, but it might as well be named “Parashat Yalla.” A scant twenty-nine verses long, it hardly constitutes a portion at all. In it Moses announces that he is 120-years-old and getting ready to die. He passes leadership on to Joshua, condemns the people for their insolence, and announces that he is ready to perform the poem that we read in next week’s portion Ha’azinu.
Here, at the beginning of the Jewish year, we have just a few more chapters of Deuteronomy to go before rolling the Torah scrolls back to the beginning. These are the last kernels of thought left over from the previous year, a reminder that transitions are never smooth. The overlap between one year to the next provides a runway to give us time to fully prepare for what’s to come. Now that Rosh Hashanah has passed, these portions feel a bit superfluous, as if we are saying to one another: “Yalla! Let’s go already! Enough with 5782, let’s get on with 5783!”
To a sweet and happy year ahead! Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Alex