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Nitzavim-Vayelech
Deuteronomy
29:9 - 31:30
The Parshah of Nitzavim includes some of the most
fundamental principles of the Jewish faith:
The unity of Israel: "You stand today, all of you,
before the L-rd your G-d: your heads, your tribes, your
elders, your officers, and every Israelite man; your
young ones, your wives, the stranger in your gate; from
your wood hewer to your water drawer."
The future redemption: Moses warns of the exile and
desolation of the Land that will result if Israel
abandons G-d's laws, but then he prophesies that, in the
end, "You will return to the L-rd your G-d... If your
outcasts shall be at the ends of the heavens, from there
will the L-rd your G-d gather you... and bring you into
the Land which your fathers have possessed."
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The practicality of Torah: "For the Mitzvah which I
command you this day, it is not beyond you nor is it
remote from you. It is not in heaven... It is not across
the sea.... Rather, it is very close to you, in your
mouth, in your heart, that you may do it."
Freedom of choice: "I have set before you life and
goodness, and death and evil; in that I command you this
day to love G-d, to walk in His ways and to keep His
commandments... Life and death I have set before you,
blessing and curse. And you shall choose life."
The Parshah of Vayelech ("And He Went") recounts the
events on Moses' last day of earthly life. "I am one
hundred and twenty years old today," he says to the
people, "and I can no longer go forth and come in." He
transfers the leadership to Joshua, and writes (or
concludes writing) the Torah in a scroll which he
entrusts to the Levites for safekeeping in the Ark of
the Covenant.
The mitzvah of Hak'hel ("Gather") is given: every
seven years, during the festival of Sukkot of the first
year of the shemittah cycle, the entire people of Israel
-- men, women and children -- should gather at the Holy
Temple in Jerusalem, where the king should read to them
from the Torah.
Vayelech concludes with the prediction that the
people of Israel will turn away from their covenant with
G-d causing Him to hide His face from them, but also
with the promise that the words of the Torah "shall not
be forgotten out of the mouths of their descendants."
FROM THE WORDS OF OUR SAGES ON
THE PARSHAH:
--You stand upright this day, all of you, before the
L-rd your G-d: your heads, your tribes, your elders, and
your officers, and all the men of Israel; your little
ones, your wives, and your stranger that is in your
camp, from the hewer of your wood to the drawer of your
water (Deuteronomy 29:9-10)
Our sages have said: "All Israel are guarantors for
each other" (Talmud, Shevuot 39a). But a person cannot
serve as a guarantor unless he is more resourceful in
some way than the one he is guaranteeing. For example, a
poor man obviously would not be accepted as a guarantor
for a rich man's loan. So if the Talmud says that all
Jews serve as guarantors to each other, this means that
in every Jew there is a quality in which he or she is
superior to all others. (The Lubavitcher Rebbe)
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