Nitzavim-Vayelech

Nitzavim-Vayelech – Lucinda Glasser and Emma Sevitt

Emma Sevitt, living in Amsterdam and Lucinda Glasser, from London, have chaired the Taste of Limmud project for the past three years. This Shabbat is their last Shabbat as chairs and they have enjoyed the educational process as well as having the opportunity to work with key Jewish educators, academics and volunteers. May it continue to go from strength to strength.

Another year is coming to a close. And that closure brings with it a time for reflection, an opportunity to pause and look back but then to also look forward. A 19th century English writer named Margaret Fairless Barber once said:

To look backward for a while is to refresh the eye,
to restore it, and to render it the more fit for its
prime function of looking forward.

And so Rosh Hashana, a new year, will be upon us next week. However it is necessary for us to look back for a while – to refresh the eye and remind the heart of what has transpired – of the goodness and the not-so-good; what we can do better next year. We are reminded that it is the week prior to Rosh Hashana, mostly because a good friend continues to update her facebook status with what traditional Jewish Ashkenazi delicacies she has produced in her kitchen. It is timeless - even across cyberspace. This time of year is nothing but delicious.

We are also reminded of the pending New Year because of this week’s double parsha of Nitzavim-Vayelech. One of its highlighted moments is the second to last speech that Moshe gives to the children of Israel. The centerpiece of this speech culminates in the criterion for membership in the community. Here he states the following:

"For this commandment that I have commanded you today is not beyond your powers nor is it distant from you. It is not in the heavens so that you might say: 'Who will go up to heaven and take it for us, and teach it to us so that we will do it.' Neither is it beyond the ocean so that you might say: 'Who will cross to the other side of the ocean for us, and take it, and teach it to us so that we will do it.' For the thing is very close to you, it is in your mouth, and in your heart to fulfill." (Deut. 30:11-14)

As Moshe leaves the stage, he takes with him the necessity for his role as mediator. It is no longer necessary for somebody to go up to heaven to bring the Torah down. The tradition understands that once the Torah was given at Sinai, it was no longer in the realm of Heaven, and its interpretation is dependent solely on human understanding. God is no longer a voice in the debate. "It is in your mouth, and in your heart to fulfill."

Aryeh Cohen, a Professor of Rabbinic Literature at American Jewish University recounts that the Sfat Emet, a Hassidic work from the last century, comments that Moshe broke the tablets of the law only upon seeing the golden calf. When Moshe saw that Israel was capable of trying to materially form a vision of God, he knew that they were not ready for the ideal relationship with the commandments. For, the Sfat Emet says, if Moshe had brought the tablets to the people at that moment, they would have worshipped them as an idol. Cohen states that "when Torah is static it is an idol: inaccessible, beyond the heavens, and for all intents and purposes, mute. When Torah is studied, and therefore dynamic, it is close at hand and alive."

For the past three years we have coordinated and chaired the Taste of Limmud program.

The Tastes of Limmud are true examples of the Torah in our mouths – the delicious, nutritious commentaries that have provided us with the weekly nutrients to help us grow, learn and feel very much alive! It has been a treat and a pleasure to give back to a community that we truly believe in and we look forward to its continued success. Therefore, in conclusion, Alan Bennett closes his play The History Boys with a quote that encapsulates the parasha, this pending New Year and the end of a project – for us at least. To his students, he passionately implores: "Pass the parcel. That's sometimes all you can do. Take it, feel it and pass it on. Not for me, not for you, but for someone, somewhere, one day. Pass it on. That's the game I want you to learn. Pass it on."

Shana Tova!