~Thoughts on the Parsha ~
Parshas Nitzavim
All in Good Standing
By: Daniel Listhaus
אַתֶּם
נִצָּבִים הַיּוֹם כֻּלְּכֶם לִפְנֵי ה' אֱלֹקיכֶם רָאשֵׁיכֶם שִׁבְטֵיכֶם זִקְנֵיכֶם
וְשֹׁטְרֵיכֶם כֹּל אִישׁ יִשְׂרָאֵל:
“You
are all standing this day before Hashem, your God the leaders of your tribes,
your elders and your officers, every man of Israel…”
-Nitzavim 29:9
Rabbeinu Bechayei[1]
writes that K’lal Yisroel stood to
join in a new bris (treaty) with
Hashem as they had done originally at Har
Sinai by mattan Torah.
The original bris had to be forfeited and a new one created because
the members of the original bris had participated in the eigel ha’zahav (golden calf) which
clearly broke the bris. Moshe rabbeinu
therefore notified them that this time they were joining in a bris with a curse and a promise as an incentive
for B’nei Yisroel to “think twice” before
veering from the derech. Obviously the
Torah and mitzvos did not change but B’nei Yisroel were severely warned and
reminded that not following the ways of the Torah will result in strong
negative consequences.
As
leader of K’lal Yisroel, Moshe was challenged to give mussar (rebuke) balancing the reality of the seriousness and effort
required to keep the Toras
Hashem fully, while at the same time encouraging us that it is in our power to
do so. The Torah records Moshe rabbeinu
using the word “netzavim” (standing) to tell B’nai Yisroel,
“You are all standing here today before Hashem…”. Onkeles[2]
translates the word as kaymin – lasting. These words promise that K’lal Yisroel
will stand and never cease that that we will receive great reward in olam
habbah for keeping the torah. Rabbeinu Bechaya explains that this
needed to be promised at that time right after hearing the k’lalos of
the tochacha in order to reassure K’lal Yisroel not to give up after
hearing all the bad things that will occur for not keeping the Torah
because we will always remain. This is why Moshe and the Torah uses language of
“standing”.
We sometimes get so lost and overwhelmed in
the complex web of life. The statement of “you are standing here today” is so
simplistic, yet so deep. Take a breath and realize that you are standing here
today; alive with a future of potential greatness. Our ability to be presently
standing comes directly from Hashem. Life is challenging, but by consciously
recognizing the fact that we are standing today we could realize that all of
the challenges are ones which by definition we were able to overcome and
persist. This realization of our past hashgacha p’ratis offers
inspiration for the future that no matter what hurdles come our way, the hashgacha
tells us that by definition, if it is in our path then we have the agility,
energy, and coordination capacity to make it over. Each person’s raw physical
and spiritual makeup contains the potential ability to overcome and conquer
every growth-challenge he or she will experience in his or her lifetime. Of
course things will be difficult, and certainly we will experience ups and down,
however the knowledge that Hashem is orchestrating the world as King, Director,
and Controller, is really the most comforting thing possible. This is what Rosh
Hashana is all about – the tefillos (prayers) of malchiyus,
zichronos, and shofros effectively remind us that Hashem is the
King, that our past endurance stands witness to our future survival, and that
we ourselves become merit-worthy through teshuva.
Rosh Hashana,
like any new beginning, comes with the opportunity to start anew. Of course really
any time we want we are more than invited to hit the proverbial restart button
with our teshuva, but new beginnings make it easier for us mentally to
notice past trends and make decisions how to move forward. The Medrash Tanchuma[3]
points out that the Torah does not just stay, “You are standing…”, but rather
“You are standing today” in order to
convey that just like the day starts dark and then becomes light[4],
so too each and every individuals should always keep in mind that as long as one
is standing, no matter how dark a night one may be experiencing – there is
daylight for those who make the effort towards it. When analysts view trends in
the stock market and they see growth from point a to point b, it does not mean
that there was constant growth for the span in between. Rather, one day it
drops tremendously, the next day it rises a little, the next it falls, then a
few days up, a few days down, and then at a given point a snapshot is taken to
capture the arbitrary trend of the span in between. Although a snapshot could
be taken at any time, the period of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur
are special in the sense that we as a nation all take the snapshot at the same
time during this special z’man. Looking back over the past year,
certainly there were times of growth and downfalls, achieved goals and major
failures, accomplishments and mistakes, but is the trend going up, staying stagnant
or going down? Standing is what gives us the reassurance that we’re okay and will be okay, but it is the conceptual
cycle of the day which gives us the motivation
to pull out of the darkness and work on reaching the daylight.
The matrix created by the broad three
relationships in life: The relationship between man and fellow man, man and
G-d, and man and himself, is complex indeed. Within each main category exists
multitudes of subcategories, and each person has specific challenges within
categories and subcategories – whether they be obstacles of the yetzer harah
trying to stop us or hurdles that we are supposed to train to overcome. Our job
is to make sure not to get bogged down by our failures to the point that we get
stuck and don’t have the motivation to move forward. Instead we must find
within ourselves the energy to pull ourselves out and move forward through
recognizing that we are still standing and that every night has a following
day.
May Hashem help us use the opportunity of the yomim noraim this year to stop and think
about our past mistakes, be reassured by our current standing in a world where
Hashem is King, and be motivated to complete our proverbial days and move from
our areas of dark night into the daylight. May this Rosh Hashana bring
with it a year full of goodness for ourselves as individuals, and for k’lal Yisroel as a whole!
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