A double portion, including what is one of two portions competing for the distinction of shortest. Vayeilech apparently contains the least verses but not the fewest letters or words, a distinction which apparently goes to the final parsha of the cycle.

This portion we have a lot of back and forth about the curses and blessings from the previous portion and how G-d will always return the people from exile, as well as Moses acknowledging that he's going to die that day. He also takes aside Joshua to the Tent of Meeting, in which G-d tells them both that the people are going to fuck up again, gives them a song to witness it¹, and Moses chews out the Levites for similar reason. He then left us on a cliffhanger about a poem he was about to recite to everyone.

Tbh i'm pretty out of it today, so I don't super recall a lot of what we discussed in sufficient detail to record here.

Anyways.

We learn in Deuteronomy 29:18 that everything can be divided into things that are dry and things that are moist

Rashi also comments on the phenomenon of getting so mad smoke comes out of you

In chapter 30, Moses assures us that we will be able to understand the Torah and it won't be too baffling or anything

A fun feature of this portion is how we also have the origin for the phrase "it is not in heaven"

1. the commentaries note that it also guarantees that the Torah will still be passed down to their children

So, Sefaria.org is doing a thing for its 10th anniversary, the Global Community Torah, where anyone can sign up to add a letter to a digital copy of the Torah! We got one as a chat and it turns out we got a letter in the verse about Cain and sevenfold vengence which is honestly really funny for a jennagames discord server. Assigned Chestnut Law by Sefaria.