Rabbi Ed Farber & Rabbi Mario Rojzman

Hang in there – Shabbat is coming!

September 3, 2010

Elul 24, 5770

Parshat Nitzavim  - Vayelech

Parshat Nitzavim - Vayelech – Deuteronomy 29:9 – 32:52

SUMMARY:

Moses continues his farewell to the people. He tells them that this day they stand before God concluding their covenant. Moses informs the people that the covenant is not only made with them, but also with those not present. All Israel - past, present and future is bound to the covenant for all time.

Moses foretells of a future rebellion against God’s covenant and describes the evils that will then befall the Israelites. After a time, the people will repent and God will restore them back to the Land in blessing.

The portion of Nitzavim closes with Moses telling the people that they have a choice between life and prosperity or death and adversity. In choosing to obey God’s commandments, the people choose life and will be able to enjoy the land that God promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The second portion is called Vayelech. Moses explains to the people that he is old and is no longer able to be an active leader. He appoints Joshua to be the next leader of Israel. Moses completes the writing of the Teaching. He give it to the Levites (who carried the Ark) and to all the elders of Israel. He charges them to read this Teaching every seventh year at the Feast of Booths (Sukkot). God then tells Moses and Joshua that the people will rebel shortly after Moses’ death. God instructs Moses to write down a poem that will serve as a witness warning the people. The portion closes as Moses prepares to recite the poem to the whole congregation of Israel.

COMMENTARY:

We read this portion of the Torah the week before Rosh HaShanah every year.  The first verse is very instructive: “You stand this day all of you before Adonai your God...from the hewer of your wood to the drawer of your water.” The imagery is powerful.  Moses reminds everyone in the community – “your tribal heads, your elders and your officials…your children and your wives, the stranger in your camp, from the woodchopper to the water drawer” that they are all sharing the same destiny. They all stand in covenant with God and together they will determine the direction and fate of their community. This coming Shabbat (between RH and Yom Kippur) we will commemorate the worse attack on US soil – the 9/11 terrorist attacks which killed over 3000 and brought down the Twin Towers, damaged the Pentagon and changed our lives forever. The attackers didn’t care who was in those buildings or on those planes. They didn’t care if they were officials, heads of corporations, secretaries, maintenance people or just passersby. They didn’t care if they were Americans or foreigners, immigrants or native born. They didn’t care if they were husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters or just friends. The fate of the ‘officials and the water drawers’ was the same. Moses was trying to remind the people that they shared one thing in common that was stronger than anything that might divide them by social or economic status and that was the covenant they had entered into with God. Being part of that covenant connected them all to each other, to the generation which stood at Sinai and to the future generations. The idea of America – a land of freedom where one can worship as he/she chooses, speak his/her mind, elect and un-elect officials – a land that strives for equality – a land where everyone has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – it was this idea that was attacked on 9/11. September 11^th signaled the beginning of WW III but we didn’t and probably still don’t in many cases realize it. That is because we are used to wars taking place between nations. WW II was a war between the allied nations and the axis powers and the armies were recognizable and the territory clearly defined. But WW II was a war of one civilization against the other. We were not making war on the German people or the Italians or the Japanese. We were fighting Nazism, Fascism and Imperialism. When those peoples abandoned those ideologies we made peace and now we are the best of allies because we now share an ideology of democracy and freedom. I’m even driving a Toyota (it’s not my fault they stopped making the Gran Prix Pontiac – how I loved that car – but fear not we still have a Sable and a Studebaker!). WW III is also a war of ideologies – Radical Islamic ideology is totalitarian and believes in the imposition of strict version of Shariyah law that leaves women back in the dark ages with no rights or freedoms, no dignity and no protection and opposes any idea of freedom of religion, separation of Church or State or democracy. Western democracy stands for all those things which Radical Islam seeks to eradicate and their basic mode of war making is terror because they lack the state apparatus to create armies and wage war and because America is too strong to wage war against even if they had a state (remember they did have Afghanistan as a State under Taliban rule). Western Civilization is based on “Old” Testament (Hebrew Bible) ideals while Radical Islam is based on a narrow and distorted interpretation of the Koran.

Moses was telling the people that their commitment to the ideals of the Torah covenant they had entered into was what bound them together and would result in their sharing the same fate. This is a message that all Americans and all democracies need to understand. Our fate is tied together by our shared values. There is no avoiding it as evidenced by attacks in England, France , Spain and other countries around the world. When a group of people watching a soccer match were attacked by Al Queda it was not an attack on a government or one class or segment of society. They were female or male, adult or children. All were victims. When Haman sought to destroy the Jews it was all the Jews. Every year we are told to remember Haman and we read the story. Only a people who remember Haman can recognize and fight the new Haman when he arises.