Nitzavim-2015

 

·        Parsha Nitzavim is not subtle.

·        The words of the Parsha are direct and clear – there’s no beating around the bush, no sugar-coating. 

 

·        29:11 – This is your passage into the covenant of Hashem and Baalato (His oath-curse) that Hashem is making with you today.

·        Artscroll translates Ala as “a curse that will come upon those who defy the covenant”.

·        17 – Perhaps there is someone among you   …whose thoughts stray from being with Hashem… saying, ‘Everything will be fine when I follow my own thoughts”

·        (Rashi: Up until now Hashem overlooked his sins that were unintentional (shogeg), but now Hashem will punish him for everything.)

·        19 – Hashem will be unwilling to forgive him, then Hashem’s nostrils will fume and His vengeful fury enflame against that man, and Col Ha’ala (the entire oath-curse) written in this book will cling to him

 

·        21 – Strangers will come from distant lands; and they will see the plagues of  (Eretz Yisroel) … no grass will grow there… And the nations will ask, Why did Hashem do this to this land?  What was the cause of His great anger.  And the reply will be, “Because they abandoned the covenant of Hashem”

 

·        30:1 – You will open your eyes among all the nations where Hashem has exiled you.  You will return to Hashem and obey Him exactly as I am commanding you today, wholeheartedly and with your whole being.

 

·        15 – I have placed before you today life and good, and death and bad.  I command you this day, to love Hashem, to go in His ways, and to guard His commandments, and His statutes and His laws, and you will live and you will flourish.

·        19 – Life and death have I placed before you, blessing and curse; choose life in order that you live, you and your descendants.

 

·        There’s nothing ‘fuzzy’ or unclear about this.  It’s not round-about, it’s very direct.   It’s serious business, it doesn’t pull any punches.  It’s “in your face.”

·        And yet, so many people who hear it – the words go in one ear and out the other – it doesn’t touch them.

·        There’s an expression ‘Orlah of the heart’ – If the heart is surrounded by an Orlah, the heart remains untouched even by a sledge-hammer approach.

·        This is a testament to the power of Bechira, free-will. 

·        “I’ve made up my mind, don’t confuse me with the facts.”

 

·        I thought of an analogy, a metaphor.

·        Let say you’re driving at night on a dark road in a remote countryside.

·        You come to an old bridge that goes over a very deep gorge, ravine.

·        As you go over the bridge, it starts to collapse – you just manage to get out of the car and scurry back to the start of the bridge, and you see your car slide down into the deep ravine, and hear it crash. 

·        Your cell phone was in your jacket on the seat next to you, and you have no way of getting in touch with anyone. .

 

·        As you start walking the 5 miles back on the dark road to the nearest town, you see cars heading for the bridge.

·        You try to flag them down to warn them, but it’s dark and they can hardly see you and they don’t feel inclined to stop for a stranger on a dark road at night.

·        You try to shout at them, THE BRIDGE IS OUT, YOU’LL PROBABLY FALL TO YOUR DEATH.

·        But their car windows are closed because of the air-conditioning, or they’re listening to music, and they hurtle along to their probably death.

·        Gruesome image. You feel helpless – it may be hours before you can get to the nearest town.

·        The cars speed past you, to fall off the broken bridge, to their likely death.

·        And people in their cars are not stopping, or listening.

·        They can’t hear, they blithely speed by.

 

·        This is how Eliyahu felt when he tried to warn the Northern Kingdom of the error of their ways.

·        Then the Assyrians came and killed or exiled the 10 Northern tribes.

·        This is how Yirmayhu felt when he saw the impending doom of the 1st Bais Hamikdosh.

·        The Gemorah in Megilla 14a says that there were 48 Neviim and 7 Neviot, and in general, the people ignored them.

 

·        Then the Greeks came and influenced so many of Jews with Philosophy extoling the mind and body. 

·        They were called Misyavmim. Traditional Judaism seemed old fashioned.

·        Then the 2nd Bais Hamikdosh was destroyed.

·        During the enlightenment, Haskalah, the Maskilim were successful in turning the Jewish world from 90 percent frum to 90 percent non-frum.

 

·        There’s a documentary called Image Before My Eyes about the Jewish world between World War I and II.  There was every Ism – communism, socialism, yiddishism, modernism. 

·        Parents tried to hold on to their children.  They tried to read to them Nitzavim.  The parents were ignored as old fashioned and irrelevant.

·        We know how European Jewry ended.

 

·        If you tried to read Nitzavim to non-religious Jews in Israel or America, they wouldn’t even consider listening to the message.

 

·        And as we are on the threshold of the days of Awe, the Aseres Yemai Tschuva, do WE listen to the worlds? 

·        The message is, “Before you is life and blessing, death and curse.  Make the right choice.”

·        Are we capable of waking up to our own shortcoming, so that we can change and improve and warrant Hashem’s Rachamim, to accept our sincere and wholehearted Tshuva?

 

·        Some people object, and say, “It’s not that simple.”

·        But Hashem is expressing it very simply, in black and white language – “I give you a choice, between life or death, blessing or curse.”

 

·        Blindness of the heart is a very peculiar aspect of free-will.

·        May Hashem help us to circumcise our hearts, so that we can see and hear His message more clearly.

·        Tshuva means to return.  Let’s return to Hashem, and choose life.

·        And let us pray that all the Jewish People find the ability within themselves to see and hear and choose life.