Friday, September 27, 2019

Bring us together


Deut. 29:9 -30:20

PrĂ©cis: 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. 30:2-3 “When you return to Adonai your God, and you and your children heed His command with all your heart and soul, just as I enjoin you this day, then Adonai your God will restore your fortunes and take you back in love. He will bring you together again from all the peoples where Adonai your God has scattered you.”
                As I have noted before, the first verb at the beginning of the verse (“return”) is in Hebrew “shav,” from a root meaning “turn back,” or “return.” The word “return” is repeated three times in the following verses, and this tells us much about the idea of repentance, or “t’shuvah” (from the same Hebrew root). Not coincidentally, the word, in one form or another, appears seven times in this chapter, and we read this chapter this year just days before Rosh Hashanah, when repentance is much on our minds.
            The conclusion of the second verse should be much on our minds: He will bring you together. As I write this week’s d’var, the hope for being brought “together” in Israel seems remote, with an inconclusive second election recently having taken place, and the struggle to form a new government under way. In addition, differences within the American Jewish community about the leadership of the U.S. Administration are divisive. Finally, we face the fact that Israel is in danger of losing its historical bi-partisan support in the United States, due in part to Netanyahu’s identification with a single U.S. political party, and with his warm, personal embrace by our President.
            A dark picture is indeed before as we approach the Yamim Noraim. We are not together in Israel, between the Jews of the Diaspora and those in Israel, nor among Jews in America. Yet, our tradition and our reading this week offers us the hope for unity, through t’shuvah. Self-examination is at the core of t’shuvah, and I personally plan on examining my own feelings about these issues during the coming weeks, and offer a prayer that Jews in Israel, in the United States, and around the world try, with God’s help, to come to an understanding of the need for unity. We have rarely needed it more than we do today.
            I wish all a Shanah Tovah, filled with personal health and happiness, and with new togetherness among k’lal Yisrael.