Category Archives: Nitzavim

5783, AI art, Bat Ayin, Deuteronomy, Nitzavim, Parsha, Vayelech

Tripartite Forgiveness (Nitzavim-Vayelech)

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Tripartite Forgiveness (Nitzavim-Vayelech)

God pardons like a mother, who kisses the offense into everlasting forgiveness. -Henry Ward Beecher

Mom caught son stealing pie

In one of Moses’ last speeches to Israel, he declares that “You are standing today, all of you, before your God.” The Bat Ayin on Deuteronomy 29:9 explains that when Moses is saying “today” he is referring to Rosh Hashana, the start of the Jewish calendar year.

The Bat Ayin then quotes a midrash from Vayikra Rabah 30:7 that states that God forgives the nation of Israel in three different stages. He forgives a third of our sins on the eve of Rosh Hashana, He forgives a second-third of our sins during the Ten Days of Repentance (from Rosh Hashana until Yom Kippur), and He forgives the third-third of our sins on Hoshana Rabbah (the penultimate day of Sukkot).

The Bat Ayin wonders as to the timing and significance of Rosh Hashana eve, the Ten Days of Repentance (which includes the High Holidays of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur) and Hoshana Rabbah. He explains that each stage of forgiveness is for different types of sin. The first stage is for the sin of illicit relations. The second stage is for sins of theft. The third stage is for gossiping.

He elaborates that God first forgives the sin of illicit relations because He wants the world to start the new year with a clean slate in that department. There is something fundamental about the sin of illicit relations that otherwise prevents repentance in all other matters, both for the individual, but also for the world at large. That’s why it’s forgiven on the eve of Rosh Hashana.

During the Ten Days of Repentance, God forgives for the sin of theft, which is understood to be widespread. It is not only an absolution for bank robbers. It is for all types of theft, big and small. Whether it’s theft of money, theft of items, theft of time. It includes misappropriating someone’s investment of time, effort, resources, trust, confidence. How many times have we failed a friend or loved one? How many times did we “steal” their trust? How many times did we say we’d do something and didn’t do it – always for legitimate reasons, but we nonetheless proved that it wasn’t important enough for us. That too is a theft and is the main forgiveness God grants through the period of the High Holidays.

The final forgiveness is given on Hoshana Rabbah. The Kabbalists explain that it is the day when whatever decrees were written and signed during the High Holiday are finally sealed and delivered for the year, so to speak. And it is reserved for the most pervasive, perhaps the most rampant sin of all. Gossip. And God forgives us of this and of all these sins with just one simple condition (besides seeking forgiveness directly from the injured party where possible). Remorse. We must regret and feel remorse for these failings of character and make a serious, concerted effort to reduce if not outright remove these defects from our interpersonal relationships.

May we appreciate and take advantage of the fresh start and opportunities of a New Year.

Shabbat Shalom and Ktiva Ve’chatima Tova,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To the memory of Rabbi Charles Meisels z”l. May his family be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

5782, Chidushei HaRim, Deuteronomy, Nitzavim, Parsha

Marking Renewal (Nitzavim)

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Marking Renewal (Nitzavim)

So long as a person is capable of self-renewal they are a living being. -Henri Frederic Amiel

The Torah reading of Nitzavim is generally read around Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. The Hebrew word Nitzavim can be translated as “standing” or “assembled.” The beginning of the reading can be translated as follows:

“You are standing this day, all of you, before your God —your tribal heads, your elders, and your officials, every householder in Israel, your children, your wives, even the stranger within your camp, from woodchopper to waterdrawer— to enter into the covenant of your God, which your God is concluding with you this day.”

The Chidushei HaRim on Deuternomy 29:9 quotes the great Rabbinic commentator Rashi, who states that as the nation of Israel was transitioning from one leader (Moses) to a new leader (Joshua) they were made a “Matzevah.” While it’s not exactly clear in this instance what the meaning of Matzevah refers to, it’s interesting to note the etymological similarity between the word Nitzavim and the word Matzevah.

A Matzeva is often a monument, some type of marker to designate the importance of a place or event (Matzeva also means tombstone). The Chidushei HaRim explains that there is a purposeful confluence between Nitzavim, Rosh Hashana and the need for an allegorical marker.

At the end of our year, just as at the end of a reign, it’s important to make an accounting of what was achieved during that time period. What did we do with the time given to us? What did we contribute to the world? What new, positive thought, word or act did we think, speak, or do during the course of the year?

It is important and valuable to go through the exercise of review and introspection and then to somehow mark in our minds and spirits these positive accomplishments. We need to create an internal monument of sorts for all the good we did in the Hebrew calendar year of 5782.

Once we’ve marked the good we’ve done in 5782, we can then more powerfully embark on our new goals, our spiritual renewal for 5783.

May we note and feel all the good we’ve been a part of this year and launch forward into a blessed and successful 5783.

Shabbat Shalom and Ktiva Ve’chatima Tova,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To the five Red Heifers who arrived in Israel. See details here: https://www.jpost.com/judaism/article-717650

5781, Bechor Shor, Deuteronomy, Nitzavim, Parsha

Covenant of Opportunity (Nitzavim)

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Covenant of Opportunity (Nitzavim)

Opportunity dances with those who are ready on the dance floor. -H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

After forty years of wandering in the desert, after all the travails and disappointments, the nation of Israel is ready to cross the Jordan River and enter the promised land. Moses, the redeemer, the man who led them out of the bondage of Egypt, the man who brought the people of Israel God’s law will not cross with the rest of the nation. God has told him he will die on the eastern bank of the Jordan River.

However, before he sheds his mortal coil, Moses convenes the entire population of Israel. He gathers them together, the children of the former slaves of Egypt, and binds them in an eternal covenant with God. It is a covenant which reestablishes the Jewish nation as chosen by God to be a beacon to the peoples of the world. It is a covenant where the people of Israel accept upon themselves God’s commands. They accept to be His servants and to follow His will as detailed in the written Torah which Moses wrote and the oral Torah that he transmitted.

The Bechor Shor on Deuteronomy 29:10 explains that this was the ideal time and place for Moses to establish the covenant. He wanted everyone present. He didn’t want anyone to be able to say “I wasn’t there” or “I didn’t hear.” This would be the last time the entirety of the Jewish people would all be in one concentrated location. Once they would enter the Land of Canaan, they would disperse. Each family would settle in their inheritance. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to then gather every single Israelite together. A person could be sick or incapacitated, unable to travel or for whatever reason, unable to leave their home. While they are all camped together within an area of a few square miles, there were no excuses. Every single person, every woman, every man, every child, every elder, whether they are sick, or blind, or lame, was present. Every single soul from the nation of Israel was present for the establishment of the covenant with God. There was not one person that was left out.

The Bechor Shor elaborates that Moses didn’t want a situation where someone in the future would say, “we didn’t accept this covenant.” It was an opportune time to forge the covenant and Moses seized it. The covenant between the people of Israel and God wasn’t only accepted by the Jewish people as a whole. It was also accepted by every single individual Jew as well.

May we realize the preciousness of the covenant and always attempt to live up to it.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To the staff of University Medical Center of Las Vegas for their outstanding care, and to the continued healing of my father, Shlomo Eliezer ben Yetta.

5780, Deuteronomy, Meshech Chochma, Nitzavim, Parsha, Vayelech

Egocentric Theology (Nitzavim-Vayelech)

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Egocentric Theology (Nitzavim-Vayelech)

The egoism which enters into our theories does not affect their sincerity; rather, the more our egoism is satisfied, the more robust is our belief. -George Eliot

Moses is near the end of his monumental discourse, conveying the word of God to the nation of Israel about to enter the Promised Land. He touches on multiple themes and a plethora of commandments, but also repeats certain points, each time with a different nuance.

An oft-repeated theme is the need to obey God with one’s entire heart and soul, as well as the ability to return to God when we fail to do so, as per the following verse:  

“Since you will be heeding the Lord your God and keeping His commandments and laws that are recorded in this book of the Torah—once you return to the Lord your God with all your heart and soul.” -Deuteronomy 30:10

The Meshech Chochma wonders why in this verse, is a person heeding God and the laws written in the Torah only after they return to God. Presumably, just reading the Torah and being familiar with its precepts should be enough to encourage, convince, and instruct a person as to what their divinely ordained responsibilities and obligations are.

The Meshech Chochma explains, that reading the Torah, or even being familiar with it is often not enough. It is human nature to read into things. To read things and understand it according to our notions. It’s possible to read the Torah and come to conclusions that support our personal ideals and philosophy, but have nothing to do with Judaism. In short, our powerful egos are often the ones interpreting the Torah in a way that satisfies our vision and thinking, but is far removed from the truth.

That is why, the Meshech Chochma states, we first must return to God. We first have to accept, embrace, and be open to true divine instruction. We need to cease the worship of our egos and in turn worship God. Once we have placed our egos in their proper place, then we may have a chance to understand the truth that has been staring us in the face. Then we can be open to what the Torah is truly saying. Once we check our egos at the door, once we return to God, to our spiritual source, then we can start to understand what he’s been saying to us for millennia.

May we remove the blinders of our egos.

Shabbat Shalom and Shana Tova,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

For the Bar-Mitzvah of Eden Yechiel Spitz. Mazal Tov!

5779, Berdichever, Deuteronomy, Nitzavim, Parsha, The Times of Israel

Handling Blessings (Nitzavim)

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Handling Blessings (Nitzavim)

You must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing. -Andrew Jackson

Moses continues describing the blessings that God will bestow on the people of Israel. He declares:

And the Lord your God will grant you abounding prosperity in all your undertakings, in the issue of your womb, the offspring of your cattle, and the produce of your soil. For the Lord will again delight in your well-being, as He did in that of your fathers. – Deuteronomy 30:9

The Berdichever ties his explanation of how blessings work to the upcoming holiday of Rosh Hashana. On Rosh Hashana God judges the world, the Jewish nation, and each of us individuals. He decides and decrees our fate for the coming year. Who will live and who will die; who will be healthy and who will be sick; who will be rich and who will be poor; and everything that will occur to us in the coming year.

We, of course, pray for blessings. We pray for life, for health, for income, for joy, for safety, and for success in all our efforts. And God wants to shower us with blessings. He really does. The Berdichever quotes the popular Talmudic dictum: “More than the calf wants to drink, the cow wants to nurse.” God wants to give us blessings even more than we want to receive them.

However, the Berdichever explains, we don’t always receive the blessings we request. We need to be capable and ready to actually accept and handle the blessing. We aren’t always ready for the blessings.

When we pray and make a request of God and God deems us prepared to receive the requested blessing, it gives God tremendous joy. He bestows the blessings happily.

However, if we’re not ready, it saddens God. It saddens Him that He is in some fashion prevented from acquiescing to our requests – for our own good. Just as a plant that receives too much water can be drowned, so too, if we haven’t made ourselves into an appropriate receptacle to receive the blessings we seek, God’s showering our requests upon us could damage us (just look at the tragic history of many lottery winners).

God’s prevention of sending blessings our way is in fact an indictment of Him. When the Heavenly Court is reviewing each individual’s case, and hears everyone’s pleas and requests, God’s inability to grant our requests because of our unsuitability is embarrassing to Him. He wishes He could, but knows that were He to follow through with our hearts desire, it would be damaging and destructive to us. He can’t bestow the particular blessings until we’re ready.

May we be indeed become worthy and ready to receive all the blessings we hope for.

Shabbat Shalom and Ktiva Ve’chatimah Tovah,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To the OU’s fantastic Torah New York event.

5778, Deuteronomy, Nitzavim, Parsha, Rabbeinu Bechaye, The Times of Israel

Are Bad Thoughts worse than Bad Actions? (Nitzavim)

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Are Bad Thoughts worse than Bad Actions? (Nitzavim)

You cannot escape the results of your thoughts. Whatever your present environment may be, you will fall, remain or rise with your thoughts, your vision, your ideal. You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant aspiration. -James Allen

There is a Talmudic dictum that has bothered me since I heard it. It states that “thoughts are worse than actions.” That somehow, merely thinking about a sin, contemplating it, wallowing in thoughts of desire, are worse than the act of sin itself. That while sinning is of course wrong, carrying the thought of sin in one’s head is worse.

I always felt this a dangerous dictum. It may give some a license to sin. It may justify to someone who was just considering a sin, to go ahead and do the actual deed if he believes it’s not as bad as the thoughts scurrying around in his head.

However, in Rabbeinu Bechaye on Deuteronomy 29:18 (Nitzavim) I found an answer that I’m comfortable with. He explains that sinful thoughts are worse than the actual sin, after the sin. It seems that harping on the sin, after the fact, is worse and carries a greater punishment for the soul than the damage the sin itself did.

This answer resolves the other Talmudic dictum, which I find much more comforting, that there is no punishment whatsoever for sinful thoughts (except for idolatrous thoughts). So, to recap Rabbeinu Bechaye’s view:

  1. Sinful thoughts without sinning carry no punishment (except for thinking of idol worship).
  2. Doing an actual sin carries its prescribed punishment.
  3. Having sinful thoughts after the sin is worse than the actual sin and damages and punishes the soul even further.

Of course, there’s a trump card that absolves all of our bad thoughts and actions: repentance. Our repentance can retroactively cleanse the spiritual ledger. It can wipe the slate clean and allows us to start our spiritual accounting anew, refreshed, rejuvenated.

As we approach Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, it’s a good time to clean up our minds and our actions.

Shabbat Shalom and Ktiva Ve’chatima Tova,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To Yitzi & Dalia Stern for a wonderful Shabbat.

5777, Deuteronomy, Hirsch, Nitzavim, Parsha, The Times of Israel, Vayelech

Ingredients of Jewish Leadership

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Ingredients of Jewish Leadership

A good leader needs to have a compass in his head and a bar of steel in his heart. -Robert Townsend

Leadership and the struggles around it are an ongoing theme in the Torah. Whether it’s the leadership of a family or of the nation, the Torah reveals to us, the good, the bad and the ugly of those who seek power and those who ultimately wield power.

One of my favorite phrases in the entire Torah is from the parting words of Moses to his disciple Joshua (and subsequently repeated by God to Joshua). Moses is about to die and Joshua has been appointed to lead the stiff-necked people of Israel into the Promised Land and to conquer the entrenched Canaanite nations. Moses tells him “Chazak Veematz” which can be translated as “be strong and courageous,” or as Rabbi Hirsch translates it “be steadfast and strong.”

Rabbi Hirsch on Deuteronomy 31:7 explains that the ideal Jewish leadership is predicated on a steadfast commitment to the Torah and a resolute determination to enact the principles of the Torah in our lives. In his own words:

“‘Be steadfast and strong;’ this is interpreted in Berakhoth 32b (Babylonian Talmud) as follows: “Be steadfast in keeping the Torah and strong in good deeds”; remain steadfast in looking to the Torah for an understanding of your tasks, and be strong in overcoming any obstacles to the fulfillment of these tasks. Be steadfast in adhering to your principles and be strong in carrying them out: these are the most important qualities required of a leader.”

The Torah is the rulebook of the Jewish people. In order to provide leadership to the Jewish people one must be not only familiar with the rulebook, but embrace it, internalize it and live it, despite the constant struggle and challenges of performing what it asks of us “with all our hearts and all souls.”

May we each be leaders in our own homes and communities.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To the candidates of Zehut for their leadership and dedication.

 

5776, Deuteronomy, Nitzavim, Parsha, Sfat Emet, The Times of Israel

Distance versus Effort

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Distance versus Effort

We forget that every good that is worth possessing must be paid for in strokes of daily effort. We postpone and postpone, until those smiling possibilities are dead. -William James

distant-mountainsThere are goals that appear as mirages in the distance. We say to ourselves that we can never reach them. It’s not even worth the effort. Were we to make a mathematical calculation as to how far we think our efforts can take us, of how much ground we can cover in a limited amount of time, we are likely to give up before we even began.

The Sfat Emet in 5631 (1871) makes a statement that doesn’t conform to the standard laws of physics. He speaks about the study of Torah, that most fundamental and vital of our daily obligations. He explains that if one sees a study goal that is far, perhaps unreachably so, but commences nonetheless, he affects a change on the space-time continuum. Suddenly, the goal is much closer than you ever imagined. The metaphysical intention changes the physical reality. Your goal will be within reach.

However, if we don’t even take the trouble to start, that noble goal will remain infinitely distant, forever beyond our reach, merely for lack of real effort.

May we plan, commence and pursue noble goals, as ambitious as they may be, and may we see them fulfilled rapidly and fully, with great benefit.

Shabbat Shalom and Shana Tova,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To the memory of Shimon Peres.

5775, Baal Haturim, Deuteronomy, Nitzavim, Parsha, The Times of Israel

Instant Global Cure

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Instant Global Cure

To reform a world, to reform a nation, no wise man will undertake; and all but foolish men know, that the only solid, though a far slower reformation, is what each begins and perfects on himself. -Thomas Carlyle

We are drowning in a sea of strife and pain. Wherever we look, whatever we read, we cannot avoid the disrespect, the insensitivity, the cruelty, and the mayhem of one human being to another.

One common reaction is to sigh a breath of resignation. I am too far away. I am too small. I am too insignificant to affect this fight. Another reaction is to complain. To curse the powers that be and all those who stand aside, as evils are committed uncontested.

There is a third, slower path, one that doesn’t necessarily fix the suffering staring us in the face, not completely nor immediately. But it is a step. That path is called repentance.

The Baal Haturim on Deuteronomy 30:8 talks about repentance. We must first find what is wrong in us and fix it. If there is disrespect, insensitivity or cruelty in us, we must address it before we can presume to lecture others. However, the Baal Haturim states something surprising. He explains that if we can achieve complete repentance we shall see and experience immediate redemption.

May we strive for full repentance on a personal, familiar, communal and global basis.

Shabbat Shalom and Shana Tova,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To Rabbi Asher Weiss, a wise man.

5774, Deuteronomy, Netziv, Nitzavim, Parsha, The Times of Israel

Personal and Group Judgment

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First posted on The Times of Israel at: http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/nitzavim-personal-and-group-judgment/

Netziv Deuteronomy: Nitzavim

Personal and Group Judgment

There is a destiny that makes us brothers, No one goes his way alone; All that we send into the lives of others, Comes back into our own. -Edwin Markham

Jewish prayer consists of both personal pleas and communal orations. The liturgy itself also reflects this duality of seeking the welfare of the individual as well as of the group. The question however, for the High Holidays, is whether this dichotomy continues. Are we judged for our personal faults or are there also some accounting of group sins, and if so, how does that work?

The Netziv on Deuteronomy 29:9 digs into the issue and comes to the following conclusions. We are primarily judged as individuals, and not in comparison to others. We are judged based on our own personal potential, on what we could have achieved and didn’t, on what we could have avoided but instead gave in to temptation. Each person has their own unique scale of accomplishments and that is what God looks at.

However, just as a person has their own particular attributes and potential, groups likewise have attributes and potential and God judges the aggregate of the people that make up particular groups, whether it is a family unit, a company, a school, a synagogue, a community, a city, a country or a people. If groups live up to their potential they are duly rewarded – and if they don’t, then their raison d’être comes into question. Each group has its own unique mission that only they can achieve.

May we take the opportunity of the New Year, not only to evaluate ourselves, but also all the different groups we are a part of, and plan on a year where we live our unique potentials and missions both for ourselves and together with all those who we are connected to.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To all the groups that I am a part of. I beg forgiveness of you for my errors, shortcomings and faults.