Nitzavim

With God’s help we are beginning to read the weekly portion Nitzavim. So, Moshe gathers the whole people of Israel for the renewal, the remaking of the covenant before entering the land of Israel and begins his speech. The continuation of this speech is what we will read here, from verse 9 of chapter 29 of our book Devarim.

Everyone is present here – from the chiefs to the common people. The word kullechém means all of you, and it is very important to understand it. On the one hand, the people of Israel of course consists of persons, of individuals: of me, of you and of all the others, each person is distinctive and valuable in himself. On the other hand, the people of Israel is one great whole, a single organism. One of the teachers of Israel, Hillel ha-Zaken, liked to say: “Im ein aní li – mi li? If I am not for myself, then who is for me?” If I do not take care of my health, of my spiritual growth, of my education, of my holiness, of my relationship with the Most High – who else will take care of it? But, on the other hand, he continued and said: “Im aní rak bishvilí – ma aní? But if I am only for myself, what am I needed for like that?” Very often people make a mistake when they think: “I am saved, I have received peace with God, everything is wonderful with me.” But what are you saved for? What did God save you for? What are you so holy and righteous for, if you do not carry, do not share this light with others? A candle under a vessel, what are you needed for? And each one of Israel is interconnected with all the others, everything is bound into one whole, into one people. And it is precisely all together as a people that you stand before the Most High.

The word shivtechém can also be translated as your tribes, and sometimes the two words, rashechém shivtechém, are translated as heads of the tribes. But this does not fit very well with Hebrew grammar, and most likely the word shivtechém should be translated as coming from the word shévet (scepter) – a sign of authority, that is, your chiefs.

There is no one unimportant here. We cannot say: “Big deal, the blind gut. Not only is it a gut, it is blind on top of that,” and treat this organ with disdain. Neither about the pancreas, nor about the thyroid, nor about any small organ can we speak with disdain. A disease of any of the organs will affect the whole organism, all of Israel. And here everyone stands together. Perhaps somewhere in everyday life these people are on different social levels. In standing before the Most High they are one. And they have gathered in order:

Earlier we read about Avraham (Bereshit 15:10,17) that the making of the covenant took place between the cut-up bodies of animals. We also read in the prophet Yirmeyahu (34:18) about the covenant: “…which they made before Me with that calf which they cut in two and between whose parts they passed.” And apparently the phrase la'avór bivrít (to pass, to lead into the covenant) remained as a fixed expression. In the same way many understand that the crossing of the sea was a kind of passing through the cut-apart body of the sea, and baptism (immersion), when a person passes through water, is also something similar. These are images, you can accept them, you can not accept them, but such an expression exists.

What does through the imprecation mean? It can be explained like this: on the one hand – the promise, on the other hand – alá (imprecation, curse), what is due to a person if he breaks the law, that is, the imprecation, the curse of the covenant.

The LORD has made a covenant in which there is blessing, protection. We have read all these blessings. And there are curses that can overtake the one who does not keep this covenant. You cannot take just one thing out of the covenant.

 There is a certain difficulty here, I am often asked this question. Indeed, the Most High promised the Patriarchs, Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, to bring the people out of Egypt, to lead it into the Promised Land and to give it this Land as an inheritance. But there was no mention at all of the Torah, of some law that the people would have to receive. And from this a difficulty arises: why did the people of Israel come out of Egypt, set out to go to the land, go to the land, and suddenly – there you go, the giving of the Torah, some requirements about which there had been no prior promise, no prior agreement with the Patriarchs. And here there is a certain explanation. That is exactly what the covenant is needed for, so that the promise is fulfilled: “I will be God to them, they will be My people.” In this promise is contained the promise to give His laws and statutes. Any king, anyone whom we enthrone over ourselves, gives us his laws and statutes. And therefore the Most High fulfills His promise to Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov in this way.

What is this about? We already noted in chapter 29 that the Epistle to the Hebrews says that Levi, being in the loins of Avraham, as it were gave a tithe to Malki-Tzedek (the story itself is described in chapter 14 of the book of Bereshit). Levi had not yet been born then, but in the loins of Avraham he is already there. And in exactly the same way we, the descendants of those who stood then on Mount Sinai, we were in the loins of our parents, and, being in the loins, we as it were stood before the Most High on Mount Sinai and also made the covenant at Sinai. But in exactly the same way we also made the covenant that is spoken of here: we took part in it, being inside our parents.

This is partly a continuation of the previous sentence, through the connective because (ki). Because the people that stands now before Moshe was in fact not in Egypt, that generation died. But, being in the loins of its parents, it lived through all the Egyptian sufferings and remembers everything that happened there, in Egypt. Therefore you remember, that generation remembers what was in Egypt, and we remember what was in Egypt. We say about ourselves: “He brought us out of Egypt, not our ancestors, but us He brought out of Egypt in the loins of our ancestors.” And in exactly the same way we stand and take part in this agreement that is spoken of here.

The word gillulehém – is most likely a play on words. Glúl – is a ball of dung, and elíl– is a little god, an idol. Very often we read this kind of wordplay: gillulehém – these are “dung-gods” of theirs. You saw their little gods, you remember how they behaved, this has stayed in your memory: not only Egypt, not only the miracles, but this has stayed too. And perhaps someone has also kept an inclination toward them.

Hemlock and wormwood – these are examples of poisonous plants that do harm to a person and add bitterness to everything.

That is, a person will think: “This will certainly not happen to me, it is others the curse will overtake, but not me.”

The phrase watering will be added to the quenched – a rather strange expression, and there are many ways to translate it. One can put it like this: crime will be added to crime, the quenching of one passion will be added to the quenching of another. This is as it were a warning on the part of the Most High for all those sins of a person which the Most High has long tolerated. Let us say, when the Most High tolerates sins for a long time, then a suspended punishment hangs over the person, to put it in modern language, he has been given a suspended sentence. But when a person adds the sin of idolatry, he adds to the suspended punishment the punishment for idolatry and gets it in full.

A terrible punishment. After all, people worried about whether their work would endure, whether their estate, their inheritance would remain, whether they would be able to raise children. And here is the punishment: the LORD will blot out the name. Everything that could have been connected with this person will be destroyed.

That is, not all the tribes, but precisely this tribe will be singled out for evil. Here it is already about a whole tribe, because a tribe is the maximum that Moshe speaks of here: if not the whole people, then a tribe.

The whole allotment of this tribe will be a byword among all the nations, tourists will look and be amazed.

You know, we are often told not to live looking over our shoulder at what people will say. But the people of Israel, of whom the Most High said: “You are My witnesses, you are My people,” must carry light to the world. And it becomes a witness before the world, before the Most High. When Moshe intercedes for the people, he says to the Most High: “What will people say if You destroy this people, what will the other nations think?” It is about Israel’s responsibility to be a witness for the other nations, so that people learn something from Israel. And people can learn from the example of Israel’s prosperity, if Israel is blessed. People can also learn from the example of Israel’s not prospering at all, if Israel does not act according to the laws of the Torah.

So, the nations will come, and be amazed, and say: “For what has such anger been poured out on this land?”

The people, any tribe, any person becomes a witness before the whole world, before other nations, to the fact that if you are with God, you are blessed, if you are without God, you are cursed and ready to bear on yourself the whole weight not only of the punishment but also of false testimony.

The hidden is in the jurisdiction of our God, and what we see, those crimes that we see – in the jurisdiction of the judicial system created by us, this is well laid out throughout the whole Torah: if we see people’s crimes, we must judge them.

This is the end of chapter 29, and we will continue reading from verse 1 of chapter 30.

In the literal sense, of course, this is about the fact that Jews, Israelites are held among the nations. And it is precisely them that the LORD will free and bring back. In the figurative sense – all those positive qualities, all that is good, all that we are destined for, that is held captive by our sins, by our impurity – all of this the LORD will bring back. And it can be understood this way too.

It is very important to know and to remember: there is no position, there is no situation from which one cannot return. Even if a person is sitting in a den, smoking opium and surrounded by indecent people, but if at that moment he turns to the LORD from the very depth of depths, then the LORD answers, right away there is an answer. This does not mean that, as at the push of a button, everything will immediately become good and everything will abruptly change. But a movement in the other direction will begin. It may be very hard, very painful and long, but it will begin right away. From any level of falling, from any level of degradation there is a possibility to return to the Most High. He Himself will bring you back, it is enough to turn your heart to Him. You will not have to walk to Him from the edge of the heavens, He Himself will bring you back from there, only turn your heart to Him.

This is already an address to the whole people. And with regard to the whole people of Israel this works: however deeply the people of Israel may have fallen, however much the people of Israel may have degraded, assimilated, turned to foreign gods, thrown itself into communism and other ideologies – at the moment when the people of Israel opens its heart to the Most High just a little bit, the people of Israel returns to the land. The Most High can gather, He is mighty to gather, and we are witnesses of this miracle that has happened: the people returned to its land not simply after a two-thousand-year absence, but after the most terrible genocide, when a huge part of the people was destroyed. I happened to see a man who told how he returned to the ruins of the Warsaw ghetto, sat there and thought that he was the very last Jew on earth, that this was it, the end, the Jewish people was destroyed. But this man learned, fortunately, that he was mistaken. He came to Israel, founded a large family in Israel and told a great deal about the Warsaw ghetto, about serving in the underground, about the miracles which the Most High works, the One who revives the dead. And, naturally, He can also revive the living, return them to the land. I will say once more that this is not always a sweet process. It can be painful and very painful. The process of correction can go with pain, with suffering, but this process will go on, and the Most High will correct, even if it is painful. Whenever we call Him, from whatever state we cry out to Him – He can, He is mighty not just to return and restore, but to give more.

Often we pronounce this phrase with ease – a circumcised heart. When an adult is circumcised, when his foreskin is cut, the pain after the circumcision can last about three days. It can be hard to walk, there are some complications, but in general within three days the pain passes. The circumcision of the heart, an operation on the open, resisting heart of a living person – this is painful, do not take it lightly. There is also pedagogical help here, in the circumcision of the offspring. We ourselves can change, move, but how often our children, our sons and daughters do not go our way. Here the Most High says: “I will instruct you, and I will instruct your offspring, but through the circumcision of the heart, through an operation on your open, living, resisting heart.”

When you begin to return to the Creator, begin to do teshuva, then the LORD first of all heals you spiritually. This spiritual healing does not mean turning a person into a righteous man. A person remains with some dilemmas of his own, with some difficulties of his own, but the LORD makes a person healthy enough that he can keep the Torah, step away, get away from his addictions, from his attachment to other gods.

People thought that there would be success, that there is a blessing in oppressing the people of Israel, that they can harass it and the Most High is probably glad about it somewhere, because that is just what this Israel deserves. They, these Jews (ellipsis: what is not needed – cross out, what is missing – write in)… But the Most High says: “I will punish those who were hostile to you and hated you. Even if I punish you, even if you are exiled and scattered among the nations that are evil toward you, this evil of theirs is sin, it is a crime against Me, and I will punish them.”

And verse 11 explains why we can return to the Most High at any moment.

That is, it is not some complicated, hard-to-understand science that is impossible to master. It is not hidden and not concealed, and there is no need to become a superman in order to comprehend it.

The Torah has been given to the people of Israel, and it would be good, of course, to also have revelation, especially revelation from the Most High. But in order to keep the Torah, revelations are not needed: the Torah – here it is, it already exists. We can fulfill these commandments, we know what the Most High wants from us, He has already revealed it to us. There is no need to wait for some further prophecies – everything is already clear. Do what is said here, do not wait for some additional revelations.

We cannot say: there, in Israel, one could keep it. There is Jerusalem, there are many yeshivót, many teachers. No. In any place on earth: in Frankfurt am Main, and in Helsinki, and in Monte Carlo, and in Seoul, on the Dnieper and on the Missouri you can keep this commandment. It is not in the heavens, it is not beyond the sea, it is not far from you, it is not incomprehensible, it is not unattainable.

The LORD will circumcise your heart. The LORD will give you all the possibilities. And there is no need to wait for some revelations from above, for some prophets who will come and lead you to keeping the Torah. Everything is already prepared for you to live by the Torah.

Any covenant implies the possibility of receiving a blessing and receiving a curse.

You are not simply entering a land – you are entering the Holy Land, the land that the LORD is giving you – the house of the LORD, in essence. And if you begin to bow down to other gods, stop seeing this good that the LORD taught you for forty years, then your way back will begin, destruction will begin. You will be moving in the direction of death.

From the very beginning of the universe the Most High created the heaven and the earth, therefore heaven and earth – that is the whole fullness of Creation. Constantly, every second, at every moment of your life choose life, so that you and your seed may live.

Summing up this whole speech to some extent, Moshe says: “Choose life, choose love for the Most High. Be moved by love for the Most High in order to have life, and not simply to have life, but to have life in this special land which the LORD God has given you as an inheritance, as was promised, as was sworn to Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov. But even if you should suddenly be under the curse, be scattered, bow down to other gods, live among other nations and almost dissolve in them – at any moment you will be able to turn your heart to the Most High. All these curses are needed so that you turn with your heart and return, and not so that you perish. And the LORD will purify, raise you up, bring you back to the land in which you will serve Him. Choose life, choose life constantly, every minute, every hour. In all difficult situations, when choosing to act according to the Torah or somehow differently, choose life, act out of love for the Creator. Be moved by love for the Creator, by such a love as is greater than fear, so as to fear not His anger but to fear grieving Him, so as to be grateful to Him, to rejoice together with Him, to bring Him joy, so that He too rejoices over you, as He rejoiced over your Fathers.

At the very beginning of our weekly portion Nitzavim, from verse 9 of chapter 29 of the book of Devarim, we read: “All of you are standing today (hayom) before the LORD, your God: your chiefs in your tribes, your elders and your overseers, all the Israelites. Your little ones and your wives, and your stranger who is in the midst of your camp, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water, so that you may enter into the alliance, into the covenant with the LORD, your God, into the sworn agreement with Him, which the LORD, your God, makes with you today (hayom).”

 And from verse 13 we read: “And not with you alone do I make this covenant and this sworn agreement, with those who are standing this day (hayom) here with us before the LORD, our God, but also with those who are not here with us this day (hayom).”

Throughout the whole portion Nitzavim and in the following portioniThe Russian word used here means both “portion” and “chapter”, so this could also be read as “the following chapter”. It is rendered as “portion”, matching “the whole portion Nitzavim” just before it. we encounter the word today (this day) – hayom – about twenty times. And one can say that this is the most guiding word in our weekly portion.

In the Torah there are very many different dates. We of course know to the exact day when, on which day of the calendar, the Jews came out of Egypt. We know when the people of Israel began to eat the man. We know the dates of many other events. But regarding what is written in our weekly portion, regarding the making of the covenant, there is no specific date. In exactly the same way the Torah does not directly state the date of the giving of the Torah at Sinai; it can be calculated in one way or another, but it is not stated directly. In the relationship between Israel and the Most High the wedding day is not recorded.

 There is a well-known, commonplace anecdote like this. A wife asks her husband: “If I suddenly want to leave you, will you fight for me?” And he answers her: “I fight for you every day.” In family interaction, in family life, every day one needs to show love to one’s spouse, one needs to do something to preserve the family hearth, the family union. Not because it is under threat of collapse, but because it both lives and exists by these very efforts. Therefore, if we speak of the wedding day, of the day of union, then this day of union (of spouses or of the people of Israel with the Most High) takes place every day. And the question is not what the Most High does for us today. The question is what we do for each other today, what we do for the Most High today. Therefore the word hayom means that precisely today, as on the first day, as on the wedding day, we must feel the entering into the covenant, must feel the freshness of this relationship, the newness of this relationship – not later, not someday, but precisely today.

There is the month of Tishrei, the seventh month, in which there are very many dates: the Day of the Trumpet Sound, then the fast of the seventh month, then the Day of Atonement, then the Feast of Booths. There are many conversations, many teachings in connection with each of these holidays, and there is a certain work that must be done on these holidays. For us a holiday is the most working day of all.

But at the same time there is also everyday life. There is everyday life, which is precisely what is called hayom – the workaday, today. And the question remains: what happens today, when the day is not a holiday, not Shabbat and not the new moon? What do we do on this day for our relationship with the Most High? And here the Torah tells us through Moshe that in this relationship every day is like the wedding day. And when we read this word, hayom, today, we must understand that it refers directly to our own today as well.

The name of our weekly portion Nitzavim, the word nitzavím itself, is translated as you are standing, from the verb nitzáv (to stand). The word to stand can be translated into Hebrew in different ways, but Moshe uses precisely this verb. And although in Russian different Hebrew words may be translated by the word to stand, I will note that in biblical Hebrew there are no synonyms: every word has certain shades. It is about the shades of this word that I would like to talk, to look more closely at the word nitzavím.

First of all, this word is used with regard to the standing at Mount Sinai. And the first allusion that arises for the reader is a reminder of the covenant, or to some extent it is a restoration, a renewal of the Sinai covenant. But here Moshe says you are standing, all of you and lists both social statuses and age statuses. And by this he shows us that the covenant here is made not the way it was at Sinai, when the covenant was made with each one individually, each one, as it were, made the covenant with the Most High by himself. Here, however, not only does each one make the covenant, but also the whole people as a people, as a community, makes a covenant with the Most High. Besides the fact that there is a people, there is also a community, and it is precisely with regard to the people as a community that the Most High has a plan. And therefore those who will later be born in this people, those who were not yet born then, are already, as it were, standing with this standing that Moshe speaks about. And Moshe himself will say that those who are not yet with us are nevertheless already potentially standing here with us. This is the first understanding that arises at the very simplest look at the word nitzavím.

Besides that, the root of the word nitzavím, yud-tzádi-bet, is used for the word steady, steadfast. That is, nitzáv means to stand firmly, at full height. It is no simple matter – standing before one's superiors, especially before a king. Well, today we have rather liberal, democratic times. But in the past, like a schoolboy before a teacher, like an employee at fault before his boss, one had to stand with head bowed, eyes cast down to the ground, and not raise one's eyes. The Most High says: “In My covenant you stand before Me firmly, you stand with your head raised. My covenant allows the possibility of standing firmly.” Someone's servant may be unfree, may stand with downcast eyes. But the servant of the LORD is free, where the spirit of the LORD is, there is freedom. Therefore the word nitzavím means (perhaps in contrast to the word omdím, very close in meaning) that firmly, straight, without bending, without stooping, without embarrassment, you stand before the Most High, it points to the nature of the relationship of a person with the Most High.

The book of Rut tells how the boss, wishing to help Rut, gave an instruction to the man who was placed (nitzáv) over the reapers, that is, the very same word is used. In other words, you are placed next to one another like stones in masonry, which are laid tightly against one another, and if one goes askew, the whole masonry will go askew too. As the saying goes, all Israelites, all members of God's people are responsible for one another.

We cannot say: “Ah, it doesn't matter to me what my neighbor eats in his kitchen – that is his private kitchen, his private business.” Yes, it is his kitchen, his private business, his relationship with the Most High, but I am also responsible for his actions in his kitchen, in the room of rooms, in the chamber of chambers. My indifference, my I don't care, can have consequences for me too, because in God's people we are interconnected, we are bound into a single whole. And again this says that we exist not only as separate people, we are bound into a single whole body or, like stones, into a single whole Temple, where one stone that has come loose can lead to the whole wall coming loose. So we are placed next to one another, and we bear responsibility for the other, to convey to him some moral, spiritual values. We bear responsibility for this. This does not mean, of course, that one must cross the boundary of another and interfere in someone else's life. One needs to find the golden mean between respecting boundaries and responsibility for the other.

Here is another meaning of the root of the word standing (nitzáv). It is the word matzevá – like a monument, like a gravestone, like some kind of memorial. You are a memorial. That is, we often see in Scripture that stones are set up somewhere in memory of something, of some event. The people of Israel stands – it is people standing, it is stones standing. That is, a person is mortal, and a leader is mortal, Moshe is mortal, and Yehoshua ben Nun is mortal, and the leaders of the epoch, kings, authorities, rulers. Everything can change, but the people is eternal. To some extent each of those standing – he is a monument, because he has a relation to eternity, has a relation to eternal life. Therefore the Torah, the Word of God, is a book with a long plot, in which the end is not always seen right away, it is not always seen right away that some storyline closes, and sometimes, perhaps, it will close after many centuries. No one is eternal, but the people of Israel is eternal. Eternity is predestined, salvation is predestined for the people of Israel as a community – not for each one of the people of Israel, but for the people of Israel as a memorial, as an eternal monument, a people that will preserve in eternity its belonging to the Most High, its relationship with the Most High, in this salvation is predestined. Therefore you stand not only here and today, but you stand here and always, that is, here and today eternity begins for you. This is one more shade of the word nitzavím.

And one more meaning that can be mentioned. Today, when roles are distributed in various plays or films, when some role is determined for a person, it is said: you are designated for some role, set up, tuned for some role, placed in some role. Every person has some mission which he is placed to fulfill, there is a certain task which he is assigned to carry out. That is, you are standing here now, and each of you has his own task in the unfolding of this Divine plan. For each of you there is something that only you can do, there is some small musical part that is only yours, a part in an episode or some long storyline, it doesn't matter, without which there will be no single whole.

Yes, we are organs of one body, but each organ has its own tasks. In exactly the same way every person has his own tasks, and every person is in a certain sense irreplaceable, he has his own role, his own task, every person is created for something. And you are all created for some tasks, you are all useful, you are all involved in carrying out the Divine plan. Probably it would be most correct to put it this way. Today you are all standing, and no one here is superfluous, no one can be removed, no one can be crossed off this list, all are involved, you are all needed, from the greatest to the smallest. It doesn't matter what position you have, what social status you have, you are all needed.

Such are the facets, very briefly, in outline, with regard to the word nitzavím. Amazing is the Hebrew language, amazing is the language of the Torah, where, I repeat, there are no synonyms and every word has its own special meanings, which, despite the similarity, always differ one from another.

Read also the portion Ki Tavo, the talk about the covenants, the talk about Elul and correction and the weekly portions of the Torah.