Shana Tovah!
Wishing you and your family
a very happy and healthy New Year
From your friends at
THE AMERICAN ISRAEL PUBLIC AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
Standing Up For
God's Covenant
Parshat Nitzavim: Deuteronomy 29:9-
30:20; Isaiah 61:10-63:9.
A
s this very short Torah por-
tion of "Nitzavim" begins,
we — as individuals and in
community, both in those days and
for all time — are to pass into the cov-
enant to be God's people.
A big step for the Jewish people and
one that still commits us
today to the covenant.
This is it. The moment
of truth, as large as Egypt
or Sinai.
"You are standing
[Nitzavimb" the Torah says,
and now you will enter this
covenant.
But here there are no
walls of water to fear or the
breathtaking vista of the
smoking mountain for awe.
Here we are calmly asked to
step into our permanent relationship
with God. Sign here, here and here,
and initial here, the Torah sort of says.
But then, reversing course, the
Torah goes out of its way to explain
just how easy this entry will be. The
message to follow is neither hidden
nor far away. One does not need to
soar into the heavens to find it nor is it
beyond the furthest reaches of the sea.
Rather, the message is already in
your heart and your mouth. You know
the truth of God already — now just
behave in accordance with what you
know. Entry into the covenant seems
hard, but it is easy.
Yet, that is not the secret. This is a
good piece of wisdom. We all know
that right is easier than wrong, that the
truth is easier than the lie.
Sin, though potentially rewarding,
takes such a tremendous psychologi-
cal effort. Sin wears you down. The
straight path, though perhaps poorer
and less powerful and less filled with
pleasure, is simple and easy.
Amazingly, we often choose the sin,
the gossip, the free lunch, the abusive
behavior, the fleeting pleasure, even
though we know that the good path is
less taxing and more deeply rewarding.
Nitzavim just asks us to do what we
already know: being Godly works.
The secret is in the distance traveled
when we "enter" the cov-
enant. Torah makes it look
short. "You are standing
to enter:' And the "actual"
distance may be less than
zero, as the place of this
covenant is "in your heart
and mouth:'
Yet, the other use of the
root word for "enter" in this
portion refers to the great
distance to where one might
have thought the truth of
God resides, in the farthest
reaches of the world, the heavens or
the other side of the sea.
The secret is that the simple entry
into the covenant, though quick and
brief in stated commitment, does take
one far.
Commitment to the covenant and
its oath and its truth and its righteous-
ness and its goodness fundamentally
changes us. With simple commitment
we move the great distance to be closer
to God.
That is what is meant in Psalm
84:10, "I had rather keep the gate of
the house of my God, than to dwell in
the tents of wickedness!' Those who
live Godly lives are different than the
rest of us and better for it. A thousand
times better for it, as the psalm also
states, "For a day in God's courts is
better than a thousand elsewhere:'
We all know such people and admire
them. It just seems too difficult to
become them. But it's really not. ❑
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Best Wishes for a
Healthy, Happy and
Prosperous New Year.
David Burke
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Csayit,
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Robert Levy is a rabbi at Temple Beth
Emeth in Ann Arbor.
1781630
September 13 • 2012
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