Dvar Torah Parsha Nitzavim - Vayeilech 5783-2

Devarim 29:9 – 31:30

Two Questions: What about Converts? Moshe and Disappointment?

In our dual parsha reading, Moses speaks again to the people, reminding them of the covenant they were entering into with Hashem. Not just the men, everyone, those who are there and those who were not. He warns them against straying from that covenant and warns them that there is a blessing and a curse. If they are true to the covenant, all will be well, but if not, they will be dispersed from the land and Hashem will not be with them. But if they return to Hashem, then Hashem will seek out the exiles and gather them together. Hashem will circumcise their hearts and the hearts of their descendants. Choose life!

Vayeilech begins with Moshe telling the people that he is 120 years old that day and he will die. It is not his to cross over into the land. He assures them that Hashem is with them. He calls Joshua forward and assures him as well. The Teaching is then written down. He commanded them to read the Teaching at the end of seven years on Shavuot.

Then later they meet at the Tent of Meeting. Hashem tells him he will lie down beside his fathers, and the people will rise and stray His anger will be stirred, and they will fall prey to destruction and many evils. He then has him write down a song to be taught to the people. He then gives Joshua assurance going forward. This song will be the next parsha, Ha’azinu.

Often in writing a Dvar, I find one topic and singularly focus on it. However, in this dual parsha Dvar, I find my focus on more than a single concept. For instance, Nitzavim begins with Adonai speaking through Moshe of the covenant they have with Hashem. Here is what is said:

“You stand this day, all of you, before your G_d Adonai--- you tribal heads, you elders, and you officials, all the men of Israel, you children, you women, even the stranger within your camp, from woodchopper to water drawer --- to enter into the covenant of our G_d Adonai, which your G_d Adonai is concluding with you this day with it’s sanctions; in order to establish you this day as G_d’s people…”. It goes on, “I make this covenant, with its sanctions, not with you alone, but both with those who are standing here with us this day before our G_d Adonai, and those who are not with us here this day.”

That is, the covenant is not only for those who are there that day, but future generations as well. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks of blessed memory offers that according to the Talmud, we are all foresworn from Sinai (Yoma 73b, Nedarim 8a). He goes on to say that converts excepted, we do not choose to be Jews, rather it was our ancestors who passed us this obligation. It remains with us by our behavior to choose what is later referred to as the blessing and the curse, where Adonai calls us to “Choose life.”

I would like however in all of this to toss in another caveat with all due respect to Rabbi Sacks. As a Jew by choice, Kabbalah teaches that I was born with a Jewish soul, and I have returned to my people. I certainly can vouch for the fact that when I began Judaic studies, it felt like I had finally come home. So, I have the very same choice, the blessing, or the curse, and I most definitely choose the blessing. I choose life.

This leads me to Vayeilech. Here Moshe informs the people that on this day, he will die. What must have been going through his head that day. These were people he led out of Egypt 40 years later, all with the dream of the Promised Land at the fore of their dreams. But he has had to relinquish that dream for himself, even as he must prepare the people for what is to come. As I read his words telling his people what is to come, cautioning them again of the perils of straying from the covenant and then meeting with the leaders afterwards and learning indeed the people will indeed stray, but even then, there is hope of they do teshuvah as a people and return to Adonai. I can feel the tears he was folding back, the enormous weight of the disappointment wresting on his shoulders even as he was putting duty before self.

I am not 120 years old, but I am growing old. Growing old can be incredibly lonely sometimes, and sometimes I review the disappointments I have accrued over a lifetime. We all have them, I suspect. But we realize this life is short, and it is far more productive to balance those disappointments with the blessings we accrue in a lifetime. I wish I could have known at 18 how fast it all would pass, knowledge at 76 which is obvious. At 18, I heard the elders caution about just this, but I did not listen. But today, I choose life. Baruch Hashem.