Nitzavim-Vayelech

Nitzavim-Vayelech - Peninnah Schram

Peninnah Schram is Associate Professor of Speech and Drama at Stern College of Yeshiva University and author of ten books of Jewish folktales, including ‘Jewish Stories One Generation Tells Another'. Peninnah is a recipient of the prestigious Covenant Award for Outstanding Jewish Educator (1995) awarded by The Covenant Foundation and the National Storytellers Network 2003 Lifetime Achievement Award "For sustained and exemplary contributions to storytelling in America."    

The parsha Nitzavim begins as Moses says to the Israelites: "You stand this day, all of you, before the Lord your God." With these words which appeal to memory and wisdom, he catapults everyone's heart into opening to the personal responsibilities for each person, adult and child alike, past and future generations, too, about how to live according to the Covenant with God. Moses offers them a choice between the blessing and the curse with these magnanimous words: "...and you take them to heart ... and you and your children heed His command with all your heart and soul..." (Deuteronomy 30:1-2). In this Third Discourse, Moses transmits a legacy for all times through an orally delivered Ethical Will by focusing on the heart, the seat of memory and wisdom, which is mentioned ten times in this parsha.

The heart is so central that it embraces Judaism entirely by combining the last letter of the Torah, lamed, (Yisrael) and the first letter of Torah, bet (Bereshit) to form the Hebrew word lev, heart. In Judaism, stories told from the heart work best in teaching long-lasting messages. As Rabbi Nahman of Bratzlav, the great 18^th century Hasidic master, taught: "Stories bypass the intellect and enter directly into the heart."

References to heart are also found in Judaism's core declaration of one God: "You shall take to heart these words that I command you this day" (Deuteronomy 6:6). Another translation is: "These words, which I myself command you this day, are to be upon your heart." The rabbis interpret this as meaning that when a lesson is upon the heart or taken to heart, it is there ready to enter the heart whenever the heart opens. We never know when a breath, a word, a prayer, a poem, a story may be the vehicle to open the heart.

Then, in Vayeilech, God tells Moses to "write down this poem and teach it to the people of Israel; put it in their mouths ... since it will never be lost [forgotten] from the mouth of their offspring" (Deuteronomy 31:19-21). In other words, if the Israelites will know the poem by heart, they will have this great advice-filled wisdom to guide them always. The expression, "to learn by heart," usually means to recite from memory by rote, that is, with unthinking repetition and without necessarily having full comprehension. However, according to the Torah, the heart is considered the seat of memory and recollection, "along with one's secrets" (Schroer and Staubli, 2001, p. 44). There is nothing routine about memory and it certainly is fluid, much like the waves in the sea. So that when we find the term by heart in Torah, I believe it means that the message comes from a deep place within us with bridges to associations, feelings, and connections, and secrets - along with sense memories - that we make and keep in our memory.

While memory is located in the human heart, biblical interpretation also places the intellect or thought in the heart. "In the Bible the heart is primarily the locus of reason and intelligence, of secret planning, deliberation, and decision" (Schroer and Staubli, 2001, p. 43). For example, when King Solomon prays for and receives an understanding heart (actually "lev shamaya", a listening heart), "God gave him a heart of great wisdom, discernment, and breadth of understanding [heart] as vast as the sand on the seashore ... He was wiser than anyone else..." (I Kings 4:19-33; cf. 3:12). An understanding heart must also be a compassionate feeling heart. In Judaism, the heart is recognized as a repository of the cognitive combined with the affective.

One of the major motifs in Jewish folktales is "God wants the heart" (Motif: V 51.1) or "Rakhmana lieba ba'ee" (God Wishes the Heart). Based upon the Talmudic maxim in Sanhedrin 106b, it stems from I Samuel 17:7. Many folktales, both Ashkenazi and Sephardic, highlight this motif because the intention of the heart is more potent than expert-but-empty articulation of prayers.

Therefore, when stories or poems, told from the heart and by heart are taken to heart, they connect generations of hearts. Judaism stresses that the heart is the syntheses of intellect and emotions, along with memory. We pray that this integration, achieved by listening and taking what we hear to heart or placing it upon our heart, will help us live according to the legacy given by God to Moses. May we all choose life with all our heart.

Reference:

Schroer, S. & T. Staubli (2001). Body symbolism in the Bible. (L.M. Maloney, Trans.). Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press.