וְזֹאת הַבְּרָכָה *This is the blessing.*In one of the most intense convergences in Jewish time, this Torah reading brings together the last day in the life of Israel’s greatest leader, the completion of the Torah, the last day of the “season of our joy,” and the culmination of the long sequence of the holy days of the seventh month that began on Rosh HaShana. Appropriately, it consists of words of benediction. Following the precedent of Jacob on his death-bed (Gen. 49), Moses takes leave of the living by conferring on them his blessings.