NITZAVIM
(same reading for both triennial and annual practice)
D’varim 29:9 - 31:20
Hertz: 878-883; Plaut: 1537-41; Eitz Hayim 1165-72

Nitzavim is a short parashah and one of only four parashiot, two of which follow in the weeks immediately after Nitzaim, for which the annual and the triennial readings are the same.   Perhaps that is a good thing, for Nitzaim is a staggeringly important parashah from every perspective, so the less we have to review the better.

Those are my words, but not just my opinion.  In preparing this d’var, I looked at three chumashim for guidance–one Reform, one Conservative, and one Orthodox–and their commentaries are remarkably similar.  Of course, they differ on specific points, as with the text in 29:14 where Moses says that this covenant is being made “both with those who are standing here with us today . . . and with those who are not with us here today.”  That statement leaves lots of room for interpretation.  Should we understand it horizontally, that is all Jews living at that time but who were simply not able to get to this gathering, or who were infirm, or were tending animals?  Or should we interpret it vertically, that is not only the Jews living at that time but all future and past generations?  Or both horizontally and vertically?  Yes, differences exist, but taking the parashah as a whole, there is little difference among the three chumashim.  

Clearly Nitzavim is a parashah for us to ponder.  Even more than at Sinai, the Israelites–close now to being the Jewish people–are making a covenant for eternity, and that includes all of us.

Let me set the scene, for it is partly the setting that makes Nitzavim so important.  It contains Moses’ third and final speech to the assembled Israelites. His people have often disappointed him, but he does represent their one and only link to their invisible, inscrutable and eternal God.

Moses is tired. Some say that he died the very next day; some, a week or a month later.  It makes no difference. He is trying to summarize all that he has said in the two previous speeches, which is why this speech requires oratory at its very best.  Parashat Nitzavim is the last time that we will hear Moses in the first person

SKIP FOR ORAL PRESENTATION
One short digression: It is customary to recite special blessings on the Shabbat just before a new moon and therefore a new month in the Jewish calendar.  But not with Shabbat Nitzavim, which is always read on the last Shabbat just before the month of Elul, and the High Holy Days.  According to Rabbi Plaut (1545), this variation comes “Because on this Sabbath God blesses the new month and the new year.”
What really takes one’s breath away when reading Nitzavim is not that there are new ideas, but the power with which those ideas are delivered. In earlier orations, Moses gave us specific details; in this oration he gives us broad generalities.  In his earlier speeches, Moses uses many words to describe the curses in detail. Here he uses few words, but they are all the more powerful for their brevity.

Moses is particularly effective when describing the potential for restoration.  Many commentators have noted that the first 10 verses of Chapter 30 use the root shuv 
(shin-vav-vet), which has the general meaning of return, seven times.  The people Israel not only can but must return to their God.  Throughout, they will remain chosen, but they will not get the benefits of being chosen unless they return.  And not just individually, but as a people!  No wonder that this parashah is always read just before Rosh HaShanah when we are directed to reconsider what we have done in the previous year and identify those statements and actions that require penitence.

I said above that there is nothing really new in Moses’ final oration, but there are two ideas that are delivered in such a dramatic way that they can well be considered as new.  To now, when giving instructions, Moses has mostly spoken to Aaron and his sons, or to the priests. From here on Moses is talking directly to the Israelite nation. His words begin with four verses near the end of his oration (30:11 - 30:14), that make it clear beyond doubt that the Torah and all that stems from it are written for us, not for some mystical beings (see further on Eitz Hayim, pp.1170-1171):

Surely this Instruction which I enjoin upon you this day is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach.  It is not in the heavens, that you should say, “Who among us can go up to the heavens and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?”  Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who among us can cross to the other side of the sea and get it for us that we may observe it?” No, the thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to observe it.

Put more simply, the Torah is written with human words that humans can understand. That is why we must read them again and yet again to learn all that may be there.  

SKIP FOR ORAL PRESENTATION
Of course, there are hidden things in the words of Torah, but don’t worry about them.  As 29:28 makes clear, the hidden things are for God to ponder. Psalm 115 makes this point succinctly (with adjustment to make it gender neutral): “The heavens belong to the Lord, but the earth was given over to human beings.” That is a major step that I do not think is found in any other ancient religion, and not in many modern ones either!

But Moses is not through.  He has another and even more important point to make, and he makes it in the final six verses of the parashah (Dvr 30:15-20), the final sentences of his final speech.  Moses begins his conclusion with a simple indicative sentence (1171):

See, I have set before you this day life and prosperity, death and adversity.

Perhaps the now tired Israelites–remember, they have been standing throughout all of the speech–think to themselves, “Of course, so what else is new; we all die.”  But Moses elaborates briefly and then comes to his real conclusion. Moreover, by using singular, not plural, wording he directs this message to each Israelite, indeed to each of us (1172), and provides the proof text for the existence of free will for human beings:

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today:  I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse.  Therefore, choose life if you and your offspring would live . . . 

No wonder that we read these words every year, not just once in three years!  Maybe we should read them every week, even every day. And then we can focus on how to learn just what is a choice for life.  As Jews in the modern world, the choices may not be so clear as they seemed to be for Moses and the Israelites.
 
Shabbat shalom,