NITZAVIM
Deuteronomy Chapter 29: Verse 9 - Chapter 30: Verse 20

Here we are at this time of the High Holy Days, a time of beginning and ending, when we have wound down once again to the end of the reading of the Torah. In the Torah portion Nitzavim, Moses has gathered the people Israel to him and the Covenant at Sinai is renewed. The Covenant is inclusive, it involves a binding long-term agreement, and we are reminded that the teaching and the path toward blessing and life is not too hard for us. So in this time of teshuva, returning, let us recall the scene in Deuteronomy where the text says:

“You stand this day, all of you, before the Lord your G-d - …your elders…your officials, your children…even the stranger within your camp… I make this covenant, with its sanctions, not with you alone, but both with those who are standing here with us this day…and with those who are not with us here this day.” (Deut. 29:9-14)

There is a timelessness about this passage.1 It is inclusive of the whole community of Dor Hadash and all of the Jewish people, those who have come before us and who will come after. Each one of us has a unique and irreplaceable role in the Covenant. And yet I wonder what a covenant means to us today and how can we accept the "yoke of the Covenant" when there is so much of the Covenant, what came to be understood as 613 commandments, that may not seem to pertain to us?

A covenant is a “binding agreement between persons, nations or parties.”2 Unlike a contract, it has no time limit, it is a “permanent arrangement.”3 The Hittites used covenants to define the relationship between the king and his vassals, the vassal swearing his loyalty and stating at the same time terrible punishments for the vassal’s rebellion or disobediance.4 In the Torah, in Genesis, “a covenant was established by a ceremony such as passing between two halves of a sacrificed animal (Gen. 15:9-11),” a gateway to the divine so to speak. The covenant between G-d and people was also “accompanied by an external sign,” such as where “the covenant made with Noah was symbolized by a rainbow (Gen. 9:13), the covenant with Abraham by the act of circumcision (Gen. 17:10), and the covenant with the people Israel was symbolized by the Sabbath.” 5

In Deuteronomy the mark of the covenant is a little different. In Nitzavim, the mark of the covenant is in our hearts, placed there by G-d. The text says: “Then the Lord your G-d will open up your heart and the hearts of your offspring to love the Lord your G-d with all your heart and soul, in order that you may live.” (Deut 30:6) This is also literally translated as: “The Lord… will open up [lit. ‘circumcise’] your heart.” 6

In a previous parsha in Deuteronomy, Eikev, (10:16), however, we read, “Cut away, therefore the thickening about your hearts…” 7 So, before, we were told to open up our hearts ourselves; where here in Nitzavim, G-d will do the work of dissolving that which bars our wholehearted participation in the Covenant. G-d will do the work. If G-d does the work, how can we fail? On the other hand, do we have a choice? What about free will?

Mordechai Kaplan rejected the idea of G-d as a person who intervenes supernaturally in human affairs, yet he did not reject the existence of G-d. For Reconstructionists, together and alone we must determine the lived values that determine the path we walk and it is through our dialogue with each other in community and with our sense of what is godly that that is determined. We value connections to the Jewish people through a sacred body of historical rituals and an inherited wisdom. But if “G-d is not an omnipotent commander who rewards and punishes,” as Rebecca Alpert and Jacob Staub wrote in Exploring Judaism, “[I]n what sense are we commanded?”8

In a passage well-known to us from this parsha, we read, “I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day: I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life...by loving the Eternal your G-d, heeding G-d's commands, and holding fast to G-d.” (Deut. 30:19-20). “This verse,” says Rabbi Steven Pik-Nathan, “is meant to remind us that, though we are given a suggested path down which we should walk, we must ultimately exercise our free will and choose the path we are to take. Hopefully this will be the path towards blessing and life and not the path towards curse and self-destruction.” 9

Nitzavim admonishes us not to turn to “the service of other gods and worship them.” (Deut. 29:25) And further, “When such a one hears the words of these sanctions, he may fancy himself immune, thinking, ‘I shall be safe, though I follow my own willful heart’….” (Deut. 29:18) Who or what might those other gods be as we think of it today? And what is worship exactly? My dictionary includes this idea about worship: “extravagant respect or admiration for or devotion to an object of esteem.” 10

Extravagant. The archaic meaning of the word extravagant is to wander.11 And I think wander is a useful word when we consider what this reading is telling us: that by adhering to our religious and spiritual path instead of our wandering away from it and paying excessive time, energy and attention to other things that we “worship” on a daily basis and distract us from the path of this teaching, that we will be developing the highest aspirations of the Jewish people.

“Choosing the right path,” says Rabbi Stephen Pik-Nathan, “is a difficult task, but we have the teachings of our people and the power of the Divine working through us to help us make the choice… However, if we walk the path together as a community of seekers and if we trust ourselves and choose the path that may at first seem more difficult, we will eventually end up on the clear and even path that is filled with peace and that leads us to a meaningful life.”12

Difficult it may be to follow the teaching, but Nitzavim reassures us that it’s not too hard for us. The text says: “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…’ No, the thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to observe it.” (Deut. 30:11-14)

In one translation of Nitzavim it says: “There are secret things that belong only to G-d. The words of this Teaching, however, are revealed.”13 By following the path, by following that which has been revealed (however we as Reconstructionists interpret that), it becomes known to us what the secret things of G-d are - but only by doing may we know them. The lessons of experience are tempered by G-d’s love - even as we may wander away from the teaching again and again, so too does G-d forgive again and again, for the mark of the Covenant has already been placed in our hearts.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share some of these thoughts with you.

Beverly Brown
14 October 2005
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1 The idea of timelessness in Nitzavim comes from D’var Torah, Parshat Nitzavim-Vayelech, “Standing Together in Covenant,” Rabbi Howard Cohen, May 20, 2002, on the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation website at www.jrf.org.

2 This definition and the following description of covenant comes from the MyJewishLearning.com website glossary at www.myjewishlearning.com.

3 Definition of covenant in contrast to a contract from Ronald F. Youngblood, F.F. Bruce and R.K. Harrison. Nelson’s Compact Bible Dictionary. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2004. p.152.

4 For more on covenants in the biblical tradition see “The Covenant: A Relationship with Consequences,” Richard Rubenstein, 1987, on the My Jewish Learning website at www.myjewishlearning.com.

5 This description of covenant comes from the My Jewish Learning website glossary as noted above.

6 As noted in the Jewish Study Bible Featuring the JPS Tanakh Translation, Ed. Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2004. p. 436.

7 The idea of comparing the two passages comes from the Jewish Study Bible, p. 436.

8 This quote (p. 32) and the information about Mordechai Kaplan and the Reconstructionist perspective on G-d come from the chapter “G-d” in Rebecca T. Alpert and Jacob J. Staub. Exploring Judaism: A Reconstructionist Approach, Expanded and Updated. Elkins Park, PA. The Reconstructionist Press, 2000. p. 25-38.

9 This comes from D’var Torah, Parshat Nitsavim-Vayelech, “Choose Life,” Rabbi Steven Pik-Nathan, August 29, 2002, on the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation website at www.jrf.org.

He also says in the same d’var Torah: “Traditionally, the way to connect with the Divine has been by following the path of mitzvoth/commandments. The Halakha, usually mistranslated as ‘Jewish law,’ but coming from the Hebrew word for ‘to walk’ has traditionally shown us the path. For us today we often ignore about Halakha because, as Reconstructionists, we don't see ourselves as Halakhic Jews (as do the Conservative and Orthodox branches of Judaism). But the reality is that we still need Halakha - a way to go or path to walk - to help us connect to God and the Jewish people. We may need to continually reconstruct the Halakha to give it meaning for us today, but as Reconstructionist we should remember that we consider ourselves to be a movement that is constantly creating new ways of relating to tradition. In a recent issue of ‘Reconstructionism Today’ Dan Cederbaum wrote an article titled ‘Reconstructing Halakha’ and subtitled ‘Think kosher, act treyf.’ Though this statement might seem heretical to some traditionally minded Jews, it makes perfect sense in a Reconstructionist context. We may outwardly seem to be not observing Halakha as it is traditionally understood, but it is the intention of using our actions to connect us to God and the Jewish people that makes our actions ‘kosher’ or within the realm of a Reconstructionist understanding of Halakha.”

10 Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster Inc., 1990. p. 1361.

11 Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster Inc., 1990. p. 441.

12 This comes from D’var Torah, Parshat Nitsavim-Vayelech, “Choose Life,” Rabbi Steven Pik-Nathan, August 29, 2002, on the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation website at www.jrf.org.

13 Regrettably I’ve lost the reference to this quote. Similarly there is the translation: “The hidden things belong to YHWH, our G-d, and the revealed things belong to us….” Richard Elliott Friedman. Commentary on the Torah with a New English Translation. HarperSanFrancisco. 2001. p. 657.

All other quoted material is from the JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh. Philadelphia, PA: The Jewish Publication Society. 2003. p.439-442.