Returning

Nitzavim

Deut. 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. 30:3-4 “Then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and take you back in love. He will bring you together again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. Even if your outcasts are at the ends of the world, from there the Lord your God will gather you, from there He will fetch you.”  

Mychal Springer has written (Torah from JTS, 9/29/16) that Nitzavim speaks profoundly about t’shuvah (repentance) which is particularly appropriate as we approach Rosh Hashanah. We see in these verses both a literal and figurative attempt to return to God. When we repent with all of our heart and soul, God will gather us again to the Land from which we have been dispersed. Thus, a connection between a return to a life lived according to God’s commands is linked inextricably with a return to the Land we have been promised. As Springer suggests, “Being scattered is a state of disorientation and disconnection.”              

Through t’shuvah, we can achieve a going home, both to God and to the Land. I suggest that in this context, the Land may be something more than a physical location. Through t’shuvah, we can enhance both our lives and our sense of Jewish unity. How? The next verse gives an important clue: even the outcasts are to be gathered up. There is no one so far removed from the Jewish People that it is not within God’s – and our – power to restore them to a place within the Jewish experience.

The Sin of Fear

Ki Tavo

Deut. 26:1-29:8

Précis: The parasha contains numerous religious mandates regarding the formation of a civil and moral community (including tithes of first fruits and tithes to support the Levites). The People are promised that if they follow God’s instructions, they will be transformed into a “holy people.” They are further instructed that they have a choice in their own destiny: there are blessings and curses (the “Admonition”), and they must to choose between the two, and take the consequences. The parasha ends with Moses reminding the People about all that God had done by bringing them from Egypt, providing sustenance, defeating their foes, and giving them the Land.

Deut. 28:67 “In the morning you will say, ‘Would that it were evening,’ and in the evening you will say, ‘Would that it were morning,’ from your heart’s fright with which you will be afraid…”

            Of the curses which are enumerated in this parasha, this is perhaps the most all-encompassing: living with all-consuming fear. FDR told us that the only thing we had to fear was fear itself. While that was a President at his most optimistic, nevertheless he underscored the danger caused by fear.

            Some believe that the current American administration is one which seeks to provoke the kind of fear which FDR (and our parasha) warned against. Others may choose to believe that there is a fearsome conspiracy of the media and so-called "deep-state" which has them wishing it was morning again.

            What both sides have in common is that they are motivated by fear, and see the world through a fearful lens. Our parasha teaches us that this need not be the case. We have a choice in our own destiny and need to overcome those doubts and actions which inhibit our ability to see the best of futures.

            As we approach the Yamim Noraim, perhaps we should repent of a particular sin this year: the sin of giving in to fear.