Nitzavim - Vayelech
Nitzavim-Vayelech is the shortest double sidra in the canon (shorter than most other single sidras). At the end of Moses' peroration (ie the whole book of Deuteronomy), it presents the children of Israel with the choice before them of following or not following God’s commandment and, in the image at the end of Nitzavim (30:19), "to choose life". Vayelech sets the scene for Moses' swansong as he is told he is about to die and he gathers the elders and officers of the tribe for one final song..
Adam Frankenberg
Adam is doing a PhD researching Non-Orthodox halakhah. He has presented at Limmud over the last few years although he has attended conference for many years before he started presenting.
The double parahiot of Nitzavim-Vayelech occurs right at the end of the Book of Devarim (Deuteronomy) and all that remains thereafter are the mysteries of Haazinu (the song) and Moses’ final blessing to the people and his death. Even as a double portion Nitzavim-Vayelech is relatively short but it is not without incident, and is packed with theological ideas and questions.
All of the events of Nitzavim-Vayelech take place on Moses’ one hundred and twentieth birthday, the very last day of his life. According to Rashi, this is the meaning of ‘today’ in verse 29:9. Moses’ fate is also stated outright by the text in the first verse of Vayelech: “Moses went and he spoke all these words to all of Israel. Saying ‘I am one hundred and twenty years old today. And I am no longer able to come in and go out, for The Lord has said to me ‘You shall not cross over the Jordan’.” (Deut. 31:1-2).
For me, the two most important themes of the parasha are the issue of leadership and the continuation of Dat-Torah (Torah knowledge). Therefore, the statement of a one hundred and twenty year old that he was unable to ‘come in and go out’ would seem entirely reasonable, where it not for the fact Moses is still very active. We read immediately after his death ‘that his eyes had not dimmed nor had he lost his vigour’ (Deut. 34:7). He assembles the entire people and tells them that they are about to crossover, not (as we might expect) the Jordan, but rather into the Covenant (29:11).
Leadership and authority in matters of Torah has been given to us. Parashiot Nitzvaim-Vayelech continues the theme of the mantle of leadership being passed on to Joshua. Moses and Joshua are summoned to the tent of Meeting where God tells them that the people will raise up and serve alien gods. Moses’ final actions are to record the words of the Song as God had instructed him, and his (more practical action) of writing an entire Torah and giving it to the Levites as a safe guard against the future actions of the children of Israel.
But why was Moses now unable to lead? The Mei Hashiloach (a Hasidic teacher) says that the meaning of being unable to go out or come in, was that Moses had reached a state of completeness and was unable to decline or raise from his spiritual level, and as such could no-longer provide leadership. Change can be frightening for leaders but if we hold-on to Torah and bear in mind Moses’ blessing of Joshua ‘to be strong and courageous’ then we should be OK.
Another Voice - Leanne Stillerman
Leanne is a proud South African Limmudnik, and the co-chair of Young Limmud 2009. She is also passionate about Jewish text, and believes strongly in tikkun olam as a central Jewish value.
Parshat Nitzavim opens with the momentous gathering of the nation, to renew their covenant with God before entering the land of Israel. The people are nitzavim – a word for standing which conveys a sense of readiness to commune – to receive a message.
The Torah emphasizes the gathering of the entirety of the nation, kulchem – all of them, from the heads of the tribes, elders, and wives, to the children, the stranger, the wood-chopper and the water-drawer. The Midrash teaches that this moment introduces the idea of arvut – that all the people are responsible for one another. There is a sense of the creation of an identity beyond the individual self.
Erich Fromm, prominent psychoanalyst and philosopher, considers the experience of disconnection and alienation of modern man in his classic work, The Art of Loving. He considers love to be “the experience of union with all men, of human solidarity, of human at-onement”. He discusses the sense of “relatedness from centre to centre” – recognition of our essential likeness when our peripheral trappings are stripped away. This is echoed in our parsha – unity independent of social station, among the elder, the child, and the water drawer. Interestingly, the parsha retains a sense of individual identity in identifying members of the nation according to their roles, but at the same time, challenges the people to extend beyond these identities to a sense of unity.
As we stand, nitzavim, at the cusp of Rosh Hashana, perhaps we can come closer to this experience of communion both with one another and with the Divine. Shana Tova.
