Nitzavim
Deuteronomy 29:9 -30:20
Précis: Moses continues to address the People: You stand (nitzavim) this day before Adonai. In his final words to the
People, Moses recounts the wonders Adonai had done for them, and calls upon
them to remain loyal to God by observing the Covenant. The extent of the
relationship is explained: it will survive exile and captivity with a return to
the Land. The Torah is an “open book” that is accessible to all. A blessing and
a curse have been set before the People, and Moses urges them to choose the
blessing, to choose life.
Deut.
30:15,19 “See, I set before you this
day life and good, death and evil . . . I have put before you life and death,
blessing and curse. Choose life—so that you and your children after you will
live.”
This year, we read this parasha on
the Shabbat immediately prior to Rosh Hashanah, when the idea of repentance and
change is squarely before us. As Chancellor Arnold Eisen noted in a d’var torah
(JTS Torah 9/19/14), Maimonides, in his Laws of T’shuvah (Repentance), focuses on these verses to eliminate
any doubt that we human beings have a choice: good or evil. Moses is ending his
final presentation to the Israelites, stressing that the Torah provides a road
map for all generations, and that by following the correct route, blessings are
possible.
But Moses is a realist. He knows
that what lies across the river he personally will not cross is not an Eden,
but a land of milk and honey which must be won. It is a metaphor for the battle
which each of us face every year, every month, every day.
Moses knows that life is not going
to be easy, that there will be challenges to face, failures as well as success.
We cannot alter the past; we can only commit to change in the future, to make
it and mold it as best we can. Much of what will happen seems random and out of
our control, but nevertheless, we must keep trying.
As we approach the New Year, my
personal hope is to live a life worth living by trying to do the right thing,
knowing full well that I will make mistakes along the way (as I have during the
year now ending), but relying upon the possibility of repentance to make my
life, and the lives around me, more meaningful. That, in a sense, is what Moses
means when he says “choose life.”
