Parashat Nitzavim – 5785

A D’var Torah for Parashat Nitzavim

By Rabbi Susan Elkodsi (AJR ’15)

Parashat Nitzavim is usually read a week or two before Rosh Hashanah, and begins with Moses reminding us that following Torah, God’s commandments, isn’t so difficult, or at least it shouldn’t be.

The parashah begins with Moses acknowledging the entire community standing before him; the elders, the tribal leaders, the children, men and women, resident aliens, everyone from the woodchopper to the water drawers. (Dev. 29:9-10)

I’ve always wondered why the professions of wood chopping and water drawing would not only be singled out, but presented in a way that suggests that they’re two ends of spectrum, or that perhaps these are unskilled laborers who might not be as learned as the elders of the community. And I also wonder, when we say “from alef to tav,” for example, there are usually steps in between. Here, we’re not told about thing in the middle. Hizkuni (mid 13th c. France) understands the woodchopper to be a male servant and the water drawer to mean a female servant, and that basically completes the categories of people who make up the population.

I’d like to jump over all of the yucky stuff that comes next, about exile, diseases, famine and destruction, and go to Devarim 30:12, lo bashamayim hi, “She, Torah/Instruction/Wisdom, is not in the heavens.” I imagine that Moses is anticipating pushback from the community with respect to following the mitzvot; they’re too “far away,” not accessible, hard to understand, or perhaps, “hidden.”

Verses 11-14 are often discussed as a unit, a way to remind us that the Torah is for all, that everyone has the ability to learn and do, and it’s not some esoteric, ethereal concept that only a few elite can comprehend.

This time, I see these verses in a different light. It’s not the mitzvot that the people need to follow, they need to follow–and by extension worship–God. We’ve just finished reading a litany of disasters (which yes, I skipped over) that will befall the people if they turn away from Adonai and worship other gods, thinking we’ll be safe. We won’t be–we’ll suffer the consequences of that action–but we will have a pathway back, and that’s called teshuvah, repentance or turning back. Moses knows what’s going to happen, not because he knows the future, but because he knows the past (thank you Rabbi Jef Segelman).

Reminding the people of the accessibility of God’s mitzvot is reminding them that there is a way to return to God, and that God will take them back in love. The commentator Sforno (16^th c. Italy) understands 30:12–lo bashamayim hi–to mean “in order to repent you do not need to turn to a prophet who represents heaven.”

In the context of Nitzavim, Moses wants the people to know that they can choose how they’re going to behave, with full understanding of the benefits and consequences of their actions. Everyone makes mistakes, everyone chooses the wrong path at one point in their lives or another. That’s part of being human, the imperfect species that we are.

Chances are, none of us will ever go so far astray as to worship idols and bring down the house (see BT Horayot 6, hinting at the time of Zedekiah, the last King of the Davidic line when the Temple was destroyed), but we will mess up, and our tradition gives us a way to repair things, teshuvah, meaning “turning back” or “repenting.” We have the opportunity to make things right.

The chapter and this parashah end with Moses reminding the people, ha-hayim v’hamavet natati lifanekha, ha-berakha v’haklalah, u’vaharta bahayim, “I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life.”

Torah and teshuvah are accessible to all, and through them, may we be granted the ability to live our best lives.