It's not in heaven, to say, "Who can ascend to the heaven for us and take it for us, so that we can listen to it and perform it?".Rather, the matter is very near to you- in your mouth and your heart- to perform it." (30:11-14)
I would like to understand this verse in an original fashion, Bezrat Hashem. When Moses was declaring this verse to the Jewish people, he was actually referring to himself with the intent of trying to teach the Jewish people a very valuable lesson. How so? Moses was not permitted to enter the land of Israel, and was to die on the other side of the Jordan river. This caused him much distress. We find a very fascinating statement in Sotah 16b,as follows:" Rabbi Simlai expounded: Why did Moses desire to enter the land of Israel? Because Moses wanted to fulfill the many Mitzvoth that are specifically pertinent to the Land of Israel.Therefore, G-d said to him I will consider it as if you performed them.." (Please refer to Sotah 16b for further
Parashas Nitzavim/Vayeilech – Return to Your Heart!
This week we have the last of the Torahs double sedras as we near the conclusion of this years reading with Parashas Nitzavim and Vayeilech. They also happen to be two of the shortest Parashas in the Torah with a mere 40 possukim in Nitzavim and only 30 in Vayeilech, so expect an early lunch this Shabbos! In gemara Megillas, Tosfos discusses why these sedras are sometimes read separately (The Baal HaTurim in his opening commentary to Parashas Vayeilech informs us that this separation occurs when Rosh Hashannah falls on a monday or a tuesday), where as the last two sedras of the book of Bamidbar, Mattos and Masei, are always read together... even though they are nearly 250 possukim in size!! Wouldn't it therefore be more logical to separate these two longer Parashas and always read Nitzavim with Vayeilech as a double sedra? Tosfos answers in his commentary there, that the reason this order is sometimes undertaken is because we want to distance the curses found in Parashas Ki Savo (last week's sedra) from Rosh Hashannah, and we are therefore more likely to
Pasuk 6 of perek 30 reports that HaShem will help us reach a level of love for HaShem by removing (lit. ‘circumcising’) our decontaminating aspects that repel spirituality. The Ramban here notes that this is the source for the important concept (gemarra Shabbos 104a) ‘one who seeks to purify himself, they will purify him.’ In other words, if we make a genuine effort and really want to be pure people who serve HaShem, then HaShem will see to it that we do reach such heights and achieve our spiritual goals. As Chazal tell us, HaShem says ‘open for Me a hole the size of a needle, and I will open for you a breach big enough for wagons to go through.’
Rabeinu Bachayei cites an important principle and novel understanding of the pasuk (29:28) ‘the hidden things are for HaShem, our God, and the revealed things are for us and our children…’ in the name of the Rambam. He writes that all mitzvos have reasons for them, but these reasons are beyond our full comprehension. We might try to ascribe certain reasons for individual mitzvos, but they are ultimately beyond our comprehension - they are reflections of Divine wisdom, after all. Our main job is to perform the mitzvos and make sure to fulfil all their various halachos, regardless of what the reason for the mitzvah is. ‘The hidden ones are for HaShem’ - let Him worry about the reasons for the mitzvos, whilst ‘the revealed ones are for us’ - we should just worry about the halachos of the mitzvos; the things that we can be sure about.
The sedra opens with the words ‘you are all standing today,’ which the Ibn Ezra explains to mean that Klal Yisrael were encamped around the Aron. This represents the fact that when it comes to Klal Yisrael, the Torah is always at our centre. As Rav Elchonon Wasserman used to stress, not only is learning Torah the most important mitzvah (each word of Torah carries the reward of thousands of mitzvos), the Torah is the key to the survival of Klal Yisrael. If we put our hope in any other ideology other than Torah then we will not succeed.
It is a really short sedra this week; with 40 psukim, it’s more of a rugby score than the usual cricket score. But as one of my [short] friends used to say to me, good things come in small packages. This week, we are simply going to re-stress a bit of advice that we mentioned two weeks ago, finding new impetus and depth to it from our sedra and beyond. The Chofetz Chaim quotes a midrash [1] that if one speaks good and positively of other people, the angels will speak good of you to HaShem. We said that this is a great way to build up towards Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, when we are looking for HaShem to show mercy and good favour to us in judgment. In fact, on Wednesday it was the Chofetz Chaim’s yartzheit, which makes this idea a more meaningful and pertinent undertaking. This idea of stressing the positive has several expressions in the Torah and Chazal.
First, to our sedra. Although the following is true of the sedras of Bechukosai and Ki Savo too, the first time I noticed it was in our sedra. I am referring to the fact that whenever Bnei Yisrael are given blessings and curses for following
If you look carefully at our sedra, Moshe constantly switches between referring to Bnei Yisrael in the singular (lecha) and plural (lachem). What's the meaning here? I first thought that an answer could be that every time we are referred to in the plural it is in the contect of something bad, and in the singular it's re something good. This is certainly true in the final perek of our sedra. Therefore, the message would be that when we are together (singular) like one person with one body we'll get bracha, and if we are plural, separate, and not unified we get bad things. But though the message is correct, the theory doesn't work out for the beginning of the sedra's switching between sing-plural. So we need a new answer?!?! Maybe we can answer via the Vilna Gaon. He says elsewhere that even though the brachos (and curses) are given to klal yisrael as a whole, any individual can tap into them themselves even if klal yisrael don't all deserve them. That means that even if klal yisrael are not serving HaShem properly, if you are properly then you can get the wonderful brachos in parshas Bechukosai and Ki Savo yourself. Therefore, the message behind the switching between singular and plural is to tell us that the blessings and curses can happen to us as indivduals (singular) or to us as one nation (plural). GOOD SHABBES
To sponsor this website or to advertise to the thousands of people that see ShortVort.com every month or hundreds that receive the weekly email contact moishe@shortvort.com
Site Dedication
This website is dedicated to the memories of
Moshe Shlomo ben R'Shmuel | Shlomo ben R'Chaim | Aryeh Leib ben Pinchas Tzvi
