The Walk for everyone – Hope for Life, Peace and Contentment
You will return unto יהוה your G-d, and listen to his voice
Chapter 15 – Parashat 51 Nitzavim – Deu 29:9-30:20 &
Parashat 52 Vayeilech – Deu 31:1-31:30
“I will heal you from your wounds-….In the end of days you will be able to understand it” Jer.30:17,24
Parashat Nitzavim starts off with Moses renewing the Covenant of G-d with Israel. With all the men of Israel, their small children and their women as well as the proselyte – ‘from the hewer of your wood to the drawer of water’. Deuteronomy 29:13,14 reads: ‘Not with you alone do I seal this covenant and this imprecation but with whoever is here, standing with us today before Hashem, our God, and with whoever is not here with us today’ This last phrase has especially important implication for the Jews because this states that G-d’s commandments apply also to all Israelites today.
“The covenant of the sh’ma/sh’mar/asah lifestyle of Torah was thus specifically made applicable to and viable in the lives of the foreigners who came to live in the midst of the Redeemed Community. Who were/are those foreigners? Some are descended from the mixed multitude that came forth from Egypt with Moshe and Aharon’s generation. See Exodus 12:38. Some however have joined themselves to Israel’s God in the manner prophesied in Isaiah 56:2, 6-7, where we read:
“Blessed is the man that does this, and the son of man that lays hold on it; that keeps the sabbath from pollution, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.
“Also the SONS of the foreigner, that join themselves to the Holy One, to serve him, and to love the name of the Holy One, to be his servants, every one that keeps the Sabbath from pollution /all who guard the Sabbath against desecration and takes hold of My Covenant [i.e. Torah];
“These I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon MY altar; for My house shall be called an house of prayer for all nations.
“These foreigners are the ‘still others’ prophesied in Isaiah 56:8. They are the ‘other sheep that are not of this sheep pen’ prophesied in John 10:16. They are the ‘scattered children of God’ spoken of in John 11:52. They are among the ‘ten men from every language of the nations’ which Zechariah prophesies will, in the end of days, grasp the [knafim – corners of the Talit] of a Jewish man, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”’” Zechariah 8:23. They are the ones ‘left from all the nations which came against Jerusalem’ which Zechariah says will, in the end times, go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to KEEP the FEAST of TABERNACLES. Zechariah 14:16.”
“Some of these foreigners may just look a lot like you. Torah belongs to all the nations. Hence earlier when we studied the book of Numbers we read that:
“ONE ORDINANCE will be both for you of the k’hal (of Israel), and also for the foreigner that sojourns with you, an ordinance FOREVER in your generations: as you are, so will the foreigner be before the Holy One. One Torah and one manner will be for you[1] and for the foreigner that sojourns with you.” [Numbers 15:15-16] (*1)
The Torah therefore is binding upon all generations and therefore was not abolished by Yeshua ben Josef. Read again Matthew 5:16-20.
“the first time in history that we encounter the phenomenon enshrined in the American Declaration of Independence, namely “the consent of the governed.” God only spoke the Ten Commandments after the people had signalled that they had given their consent to be bound by His word. God does not impose His rule by force. At Sinai, covenant-making became mutual. Both sides had to agree. So the human role in covenant-making grows greater over time. But Nitzavim takes this one stage further.
“It happened because Moses knew it had to happen. The terms of Jewish history were about to shift from Divine initiative to human initiative. This is what Moses was preparing the Israelites for in the last month of his life. It is as if he had said: Until now God has led – in a pillar of cloud and fire – and you have followed. Now God is handing over the reins of history to you. From here on, you must lead. If your hearts are with Him, He will be with you. But you are now no longer children; you are adults. An adult still has parents, as a child does, but his or her relationship with them is different. An adult knows the burden of responsibility. An adult does not wait for someone else to take the first step.
“ That is the epic significance of Nitzavim, the parsha that stands almost at the end of the Torah and that we read almost at the end of the year. It is about getting ready for a new beginning: in which we act for God instead of waiting for God to act for us. Translate this into human terms and you will see how life-changing it can be. “ (*2)
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks writes further: “Then in a lightning-flash of insight, I thought: what if I turn the entire scenario around. What if, instead of waiting for Rabbi X to encourage me, I encouraged him? What if I did for him what I was hoping he would do for me? That was a life-changing moment. It gave me a strength I never had before. I began to formulate it as an ethic. “
“Don’t wait to be praised: praise others. Don’t wait to be respected: respect others. Don’t stand on the sidelines, criticizing others. Do something yourself to make things better. Don’t wait for the world to change: begin the process yourself, and then win others to the cause. There is a statement attributed to Gandhi (actually he never said it , but in a parallel universe he might have done): ‘Be the change you seek in the world.’ Take the initiative.”
“ That was what Moses was doing in the last month of his life, in that long series of public addresses that make up the book of Devarim, culminating in the great covenant-renewal ceremony in today’s parsha. Devarim marks the end of the childhood of the Jewish people. From there on, Judaism became God’s call to human responsibility. For us, faith is not waiting for God. Faith is the realization that God is waiting for us. “ (*2)
Commandment in these Parshot
Deu 30:15-20 Choose Life: The Torah places before us life and the good, and death and the evil. Love יהוה your God. Walk in His Ways, to observe His commandments, His decrees, and His ordinances. Listen to His voice and cleave to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days.
What we learn from the narrative.
“Moses emphasized that the people were standing before God, because the purpose of the covenant was to bind them to God’s Torah,…Sforno (*3) comments that Moses stressed that they were standing before God, Who cannot be deceived. [11.1087] We read here as in parshat Bechukotai, Leviticus 26:13ff, very severe warnings and punishments if Israel should not follow G-d’s commandments and Word. Do not make the mistake and think it does not apply to you today. Yes, we were not promised a rose garden as the well known idiom confirms. Yet there are sufficient witnesses and testimonies throughout the ages from ordinary people as well as Sages and Prophets that:
יהוה unto the heavens is Your kindness Your faithfulness is till the upper heights; Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains; Your judgments are like the vast deep waters; You save both man and beast O יהוה. How precious is Your kindness, O G-d! Mankind takes refuge in the shelter of Your wings; They will be sated from the abundance of Your house; And from the stream of Your delights You give them to drink. For with you is the source of life; By Your light may we see light. [Ps 36:6-10]
Don’t fool yourself. A further warning is mentioned n Deu. 29:28. ‘The hidden [sins] are for יהוה, our God, but the revealed [sins] are for us and our children forever, to carry out all the words of this Torah.”
Note the children are mentioned right after the men and before the woman. This points to the responsibility to teach the children. The Hebrew tradition and teaching starts at home. Its not about going out to a building /church to be educated. Therefore the father’s role as head of the family, and the mother who is with the children and interacts with them most of the time, are very important.
And especially today where the teaching of G-d’s word and prayer have been taken out of schools, the decision which school to send the children to, is also important.
Note the repetition again of the promise that G-d swore to their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that Israel will be a people to G-d and that He will be their G-d, forever [Deu 29: 12]. Therefore the total negation of this fact by the world, leaves one dumbfounded. The so-called Palestinian Arabs, the European Union and the liberal left, wherever, can ignore this promise by יהוה the Creator our G-d, till they are blue in the face, history will prove them wrong and as the Psalmist wrote: “Why do nations gather;, and regimes talk in vain….He who sits in heaven will laugh, the Lord will mock them.” [Ps 2:1, 4]
In verse 14 we read: “’And with whoever is not here.’ The covenant was binding even on unborn generations who were not present to enter into it, because parents and children are like trees and their branches” [11.1087]
Deuteronomy 28:15-69 gives an accurate picture of Israel’s history and the land. And then in Deu 29:23 the reaction of nations regarding the state of Israel after the final exile 134 CE. We find many confirmations as we read in the reports by travelers in the 19th century like that of Mark Twain:
In Chapters 46, 39, 52 and 56 of his Innocents Abroad, American author Mark Twain wrote of his visit to Palestine in 1867: “Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes. Over it broods the spell of a curse that has withered its fields and fettered its energies. Palestine is desolate and unlovely – Palestine is no more of this workday world. It is sacred to poetry and tradition, it is dreamland.”(Chapter 56)[4][5] “There was hardly a tree or a shrub anywhere. Even the olive and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country”. (Chapter 52)[6] “A desolation is here that not even imagination can grace with the pomp of life and action. We reached Tabor safely. We never saw a human being on the whole route”. (Chapter 49)[7] “There is not a solitary village throughout its whole extent – not for thirty miles in either direction. …One may ride ten miles (16 km) hereabouts and not see ten human beings.” …these unpeopled deserts, these rusty mounds of barrenness…”(Chapter 46) (*4)
In 1856 Henry Baker Tristram said of Palestine (*5) “A few years ago the whole Ghor (Jordan Valley) was in the hands of the fellaheen, and much of it cultivated for corn. Now the whole of it is in the hands of the Bedouin, who eschew all agriculture…The same thing is now going on over the plain of Sharon where….land is going out of cultivation and whole villages rapidly disappeared….Since the year 1838, no less than twenty villages there have thus erased from the map, and the stationary population extirpated.” (*4)
The oft repeated promise by G-d to bring back Israel from the ‘four corners of heaven’ and gather them from al the peoples to which He has scattered them we read in Deu 30:1-6. In fact this is described in Jeremiah 32:37-41 and here in verse 41 we read the only time in the Tenach, quoting G-d, Him saying: “I will plant them steadfastly in this land, with all My heart and with all My soul” ! [Read Jer 33:20-22!] And today we see the fulfillment of G-d’s promise. Today the desert blooms, vineyards and orchards are seen all over Israel and villages and cities grew, confirming the prophets’s prophecies.
Again I cannot help but point out the foolish blindness of the politicians and enemies of Israel today. Why do they deny these facts expounded on here above? Why is Anti-Semitism running wild again today? Why this hate towards Israel and the Jews? There is only one clear answer: They deny the reality of and truth of יהוה, the Creator of our world, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They are too proud and self-obsessed to acknowledge a Supreme Being and a spiritual world beyond the material world that they worship and that their puny minds cannot fully fathom, master and control.
Parashat Nitzavim ends off with this encouraging and heartwarming decleration:
“For this commandment [Torah]that I command you today – it is not hidden from you and it is not distant. It is not in heaven, [for you] to say, ‘Who can ascent to the heaven for us and take it for us, so that we can listen to and perform it?’ Nor is it across the sea, [for you ] to say, ‘Who can cross to the other side of the sea for us and take it for us, so that we can listen to it and perform it?’ Rather, the matter is very near you – in your mouth and in your heart – to perform it.” [Deu 30:11-14] And I would like to add: in your hand, in front of you. Today you can read the Bible yourself. It is not chained to a stender in a church any more. It has been printed and translated into hundreds of languages. No more is it forbidden, as poor William Tyndale had to give up his life for in 1535. (*6)
Note in the above quote ‘to perform it’ is mentioned three times. Therefore the false belief that Christians have that it is not necessary to perform the applicable commandments of the Torah, is obviously false and an incorrect teaching by the church. Here I am referring to for example the commandments that I listed in these last 8 chapters in my discussion of the fifth book of the Torah, Devarim / Deuteronomy.
Note also the consistency of the Bible from the time of Adam and Chava [Eve] right through the Bible were the Torah is referred to as the Tree of Life.
“ Earlier we saw that the strongest correlation between the Torah and the tree of life was made in Devarim 30:15, the end of Moses’ speeches. Amazing that the Torah would begin with a story concerning the tree of life and end in the same manner. So likewise, Revelation 22:2 (the end of the Scriptures) recaptures the image of the tree of life, bringing us back to Genesis………Lastly, note the thematic parallel between Moses and Yeshua, in that both of them gave prophecies concerning the second coming of the Messiah just before their deaths!” (*7)
“Praiseworthy is a person who has found wisdom, a person who can derive understanding [from it], for its commerce is better than the commerce of silver, and its Produce is better than fine gold. It is more precious than pearls, and all your desires cannot compare to it….Its ways are ways of pleasantness and all its pathways are peace. It is a tree of life to those who grasp it, and its supporters are praiseworthy.”[Prov 3:13-18]
Israel was told ‘יהוה, your God – He will cross before you’ [Deu 311:3] as they were poised to cross over the Jordan river into the Promised Land. And then in Verse 6 we read ‘Be strong and courageous!’ There could be times that we feel G-d is hiding his face from us – see Deu 31:17, that is when we need to do Teshuva and: ‘Call to Me and I will answer you’ says G-d. [Jer 33:3] There is therefore hope, support and trust! It is worthwhile to remind yourself every day on your daily walk of this promise to Israel. Then we can sing this Hymn, from the Haftara for this parashat:
“I will rejoice intensely with יהוה, my soul will exult with my God, for He has dressed me in the raiment of salvation, in a robe of righteousness has He cloaked me, like a bridegroom who exalts [himself] with splendor, like a bride who bedecks herself with her jewelry. For, as the earth sends forth its growth and as a garden sprouts forth its seedlings, so will my Lord, יהוה Elohim, cause righteousness and praise to sprout in the presence of all the nations.” [Isaiah61:10-11]
In Deu 31:11-13 the Seventh year, the Shmitta year, at Succot , the sixth Moed – i.e festival of יהוה our G-d, the Torah had to be read in Jerusalem [‘the place that He will choose] to the men, women and small children, “and your stranger who is in your cities –so that they will hear and so that they will learn, and they shall fear Hashem your God, and be careful to perform all the words of this Torah” NOTE! that the ‘stranger’ is also included.
“Revelation 11:18 states that it is time for יהוה to reward His saints and judge those who destroy the earth. The next verse states that the ark of the testimony could be seen. Why are these verses placed next to each other—hint, what’s in the ark? This is thematically connected to Matthew 5:17-21 where Yeshua plainly stated that our future standing in the Kingdom would depend on whether or not we obey and teach the Torah…. The topics of Revelation 11:18 are placed next to Revelation 11:19 because the Torah (which was in the ark) is the basis for judgment and reward. Remember, the Torah has not been abolished and it will be the basis of reward and punishment.” (*6)
Jeremiah 33:20-22 & 25 states “Thus said יהוה: If you could annul My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that day and night would not come in their proper times, so too could My covenant be annulled…” Therefore, clearly we cannot pick and choose what to believe; what we take seriously or choose what we want to do.
Do you now realize how false the teaching of a pastor or priest is that says: “The Law was nailed to the cross, Yeshua fulfilled it” How can: to be kind to your neighbor, the widow and the orphan; not to take bribes; to be honest and just in your business dealings; not to be cruel to animals, etc. etc. – laws / commandments that were listed in chapters 8 to 14, not apply and not be those that a Christian should do ??
“Remember this and strengthen yourselves; take it to heart, O evildoers: Recall the early events of ancient times, [see] that I am God and there is no other; [I am] God and there is none like Me. From the beginning I foretell the outcome; and from earlier times, what has not yet been; [but] I say and My plan will stand, and I will carry out My every desire” [Isiah 46:8-10]
What we learn from the Hebrew text
In Deu 30:1-6 assurance is given to those that do Teshuva and listen to the Voice of G-d will be brought back to the land. To do Teshuva is more than ask forgiveness. The Hebrew actually means, “Ask forgiveness from G-d, and turn back to the way that you are supposed to walk”
In Deu 30:3-6 ‘listen to His voice’ is mentioned THREE times. When 3, 30, 300 0r 3000 is mentioned in the Bible one can usually find ‘hidden’ information – on the Sod & Remez level of the Hebrew text [See Chapter 7 of this blog] regarding the promised Messiah.
Therefore note Deu 18:18: “A prophet from your midst, from your brethren like me, shall יהוה, your God, establish for you – to him shall you hearken.” And:- “And calling the crowd to Him, He said to them, ‘Hear Me, everyone, and understand’ [Mark 7:14]
“The Hebrew word nitzavim is usually translated ‘standing’, but is, more literally ‘standers – men who stand’. Nitzavim, you see, is the masculine plural form of the Hebrew verb natzav [nun, tzade, veit], Strong’s Hebrew word #5324, pronounced naw-tsawv‘.
“There are two Hebrew verbs which are translated into English as ‘to stand’. The more frequently encountered word is amad. It is this word from which the word Amidah, from which the most common name given to the Sh’moneh Esrei prayer, is drawn.
“Amad merely refers to a human being assuming an upright position. Natzav, on the other hand, means something more like to stand up and be counted, or to take a stand.
“Natzav – the root of the word nitzavim — means standing boldly, with power and with strength. And it means, quite often, standing in for someone else – like an ambassador stands in for a king. ……..
“Strong’s Hebrew word #3320, pronounced yaw–tsawb‘. The first Biblical usage of this verb is found in Exodus 2:4, where we are told that Miryam, as a little girl, stood [Hebrew, yatsab] a distance away from the ark in which her baby brother Moshe was placed in the Nile, to watch over him. This verb is the root of the word Nitzavim, ‘standing ones’, which described everyone participating in the covenant renewal ceremony of Deuteronomy 28-30. As discussed in that context, the Hebrew verb focuses not on the act or posture of standing [i.e., being on one’s feet], but upon the purpose of standing – to be of service, to pray, to participate in a covenant act, etc. “ (*1)
FOOTNOTES
*1 Bill Bullock. Nitzavim – The Parashat of Decisions. https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=wm#inbox/FMfcgxvzKQsXmFqCgSGbXMGGPHXHHBrT
*2 Jonathan Sacks. Covenant and Conversation. The World is Waiting for you. Nitzavim 2018-5778
*3 Sforno: Ovadia ben Jacob Sforno (Obadja Sforno, Hebrew: עובדיה ספורנו) was an Italian rabbi, Biblical commentator, philosopher and physician. He was born at Cesena about 1475 and died at Bologna in 1550
*4 Wikipaedia.
*5 The name Palestine was given to the Land of Israel by the Romans to be an insult. During the Ottoman period and also under the Mandate of the British, this name was used. The orchestra in Israel during the 1920’s was thus called the Palestine Orchestra. Jews born during the mandate and up to 1948 had written in their passports, born in Palestine. After 14 May 1948 the Holy Land was given the correct name ‘Israel’. There was never a state called Palestine as such as the Arabs living in Israel today claim. No king of Palestine, coinage, stamp, flag, parliament or constitution of an Arab state there ever existed!
*6 MAN, John. The Gutenberg Revolution. How printing changed the course of History. Johanesburg: Bantam. 2009.
*7 Tony Robinson. Mishpacha beit Midrash. https://irp-cdn.multiscreensite.com/0da55621/files/uploaded/NitzavimVayeilekh_2xqC1t8SJeNHis8Wtby3.pdf