44 | SEPTEMBER 7 • 2023
I
n the last days of his life,
Moses renews the covenant
between God and Israel.
The entire book of Devarim
has been an account of the
covenant — how it came about,
what its terms and conditions
are, why it is the
core of Israel’s
identity as an am
kadosh, a holy
people and so
on. Now comes
the moment of
renewal itself,
a national
rededication to the terms of
its existence as a holy people
under the sovereignty of God
Himself.
Moses, however, is careful
not to limit his words to
those who are actually
present. About to die, he
wants to ensure that no future
generation can say, “Moses
made a covenant with our
ancestors but not with us. We
didn’t give our consent. We are
not bound.” To preclude this he
says these words: “It is not with
you alone that I am making
this sworn covenant, but with
whoever is standing here with
us today before the Lord our
God, and with whoever is not
here with us today.” Deut.
29:13-14
As the commentators point
out, the phrase “whoever
is not here” cannot refer to
Israelites alive at the time who
happened to be somewhere
else. That condition would not
have been necessary since the
entire nation was assembled
there. Moses can only mean
“generations not yet born.” The
covenant bound all Jews from
that day to this. As the Talmud
says: We are all mushba
ve-omed meHar Sinai,
“foresworn from Sinai” (Yoma
73b, Nedarim 8a). By agreeing
to be God’s people, subject
to God’s laws, our ancestors
obligated us all.
Hence, one of the most
fundamental facts about
Judaism. Converts excepted,
we do not choose to be Jews.
We are born as Jews. We
become legal adults, subject to
the commands and responsible
for our actions, at the age of 12
for girls, 13 for boys. But we
are part of the covenant from
birth. A bat or bar mitzvah
is not a “confirmation.”
It involves no voluntary
acceptance of Jewish identity.
That choice took place more
than 3,000 years ago when
Moses said, “It is not with
you alone that I am making
this sworn covenant, but with
… whoever is not here with
us today,” meaning all future
generations, including us.
OUR COVENANT
WITH GOD
But how can this be so? Surely,
a fundamental principle of
Judaism is that there is no
obligation without consent.
How can we be bound by an
agreement to which we were
not parties? How can we be
subject to a covenant on the
basis of a decision taken long
ago and far away by our distant
ancestors?
The Sages, after all, raised
a similar question about the
Wilderness generation in
the days of Moses who were
actually there and did give
their assent. The Talmud
suggests that they were not
entirely free to say “No.”
“The Holy One, blessed be
He, suspended the mountain
over them like a barrel and
said: If you say ‘Yes,’ all will
be well, but if you say ‘No,’
this will be your burial-place.”
Shabbat 88b
On this, R. Acha bar Yaakov
said: “This constitutes a
fundamental challenge to the
legitimacy of the covenant.”
The Talmud replies that even
though the agreement may
not have been entirely free at
the time, Jews asserted their
consent voluntarily in the days
of Ahasuerus, as suggested by
the Book of Esther.
This is not the place to
discuss this particular passage,
but the essential point is clear.
The Sages believed with great
force that an agreement must
be made freely in order to be
binding. Yet we did not agree
to be Jews. We were, most of
us, born Jews. We were not
there in Moses’ day when the
agreement was made. We did
not yet exist. How then can we
be bound by the covenant?
This is not a small question.
It is the question on which all
others turn. How can Jewish
identity be passed on from
parent to child? If Jewish
identity were merely racial or
ethnic, we could understand
it. We inherit many things
from our parents — most
obviously our genes. But
being Jewish is not a genetic
condition; it is a set of religious
obligations. There is a halachic
principle: zachin le-adam shelo
be-fanav, “You can confer
a benefit on someone else
without their knowledge or
consent” Ketubot 11a). And
though it is doubtless a benefit
to be a Jew, it is also in some
sense a liability, a restriction on
Rabbi Lord
Jonathan
Sacks
SPIRIT
A WORD OF TORAH
Why Be Jewish?