Nitzavim vayelech standing up to Gd

Nitzavim vayelech standing up to Gd

Nitzavim is distinct from kum. Kum means to assume the erect position. Netzev evokes standing up against a  resistance, the normal force in Newtonian mechanics. In the context of the text, it is withstanding the slings and arrows, the sulfur and salt of life under Gd. 

Nitzavim is standing with all the thorns and barbs of the tzadi.

Then comes the fateful phrase: 

28 The secret things belong unto the LRD our Gd; but the things that are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.{S}

What are these secrets about which we should not trouble our pretty little heads? The random  and discrete ( quantum) underpinnings of the universe? the afterlife? the meaning of this life? 

Should we just follow orders? 

We are given a hint: 

11 For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not too hard for thee, neither is it far off.
יב  לֹא בַשָּׁמַיִם, הִוא:  לֵאמֹר, מִי יַעֲלֶה-לָּנוּ הַשָּׁמַיְמָה וְיִקָּחֶהָ לָּנוּ, וְיַשְׁמִעֵנוּ אֹתָהּ, וְנַעֲשֶׂנָּה.	12 It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say: 'Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it?'
יג  וְלֹא-מֵעֵבֶר לַיָּם, הִוא:  לֵאמֹר, מִי יַעֲבָר-לָנוּ אֶל-עֵבֶר הַיָּם וְיִקָּחֶהָ לָּנוּ, וְיַשְׁמִעֵנוּ אֹתָהּ, וְנַעֲשֶׂנָּה.	13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say: 'Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it?'
יד  כִּי-קָרוֹב אֵלֶיךָ הַדָּבָר, מְאֹד:  בְּפִיךָ וּבִלְבָבְךָ, לַעֲשֹׂתוֹ.  {ס}	14 But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it. {S}

Do we just have to act naturally? Did Ringo get it right? 

יט  הַעִדֹתִי בָכֶם הַיּוֹם, אֶת-הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֶת-הָאָרֶץ--הַחַיִּים וְהַמָּוֶת נָתַתִּי לְפָנֶיךָ, הַבְּרָכָה וְהַקְּלָלָה; וּבָחַרְתָּ, בַּחַיִּים--לְמַעַן תִּחְיֶה, אַתָּה וְזַרְעֶךָ.

19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse; therefore choose life, that thou mayest live, thou and thy seed;

Do the obvious, choose life. Choose what you know (verse 28). 

The double parsha continues with Vayelech:, going on, continuity despite hardship and the death of the leader who brought us out of hardship (Egypt) into hardship ( the desert) and served as our medium. 

This is the parsha of the yahrzeit for my father. He kept his faith through Treblinka, survived from one hardship to another. He chose life, he was chosen for life.  I am chosen to be his son. 

Ki Thavo: are we there yet?

Ki Thavo: are we there yet?

The parsha opens with instructions to be carried out Ki Thavo, when you arrive. 

The first fruits are delivered to the Kohen 

 וּבָאתָ, אֶל-הַכֹּהֵן, אֲשֶׁר יִהְיֶה, בַּיָּמִים הָהֵם

And thou shalt come unto the priest that shall be in those days

 וְאָמַרְתָּ אֵלָיו

and say unto him:

כִּי-בָאתִי אֶל-הָאָרֶץ, אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּ

that I am come unto the land 

There is a declaration of arrival.  There is a recognition that the supplicant has arrived in the promised land. The flaws that accompany and actual life in an actual land do not negate the arrival. 

This is followed by the declaration that we make annually in the Hagadah: 

 אֲרַמִּי אֹבֵד אָבִי

An Aryam destroyed my ancestor

The end of the parsha is a long litany of horrors that approach the actual holocaust.

This is the evidence that we have arrived.  The prophecy is fulfilled forward and backward.

Yes, Virginia, the State of Israel is the promised land.

KI THEZE OBSERVATION & looking away

The  parsha deals with issues that arise from seeing (beautiful women) and failure to observe (wayward child)

I found the following verse: the focal  point of the parsha. 

לֹא-תִרְאֶה אֶת-שׁוֹר אָחִיךָ אוֹ אֶת-שֵׂיוֹ, נִדָּחִים, וְהִתְעַלַּמְתָּ, מֵהֶם:  הָשֵׁב תְּשִׁיבֵם, לְאָחִיךָ.

1 Thou shalt not see thy brother's ox or his sheep driven away, and hide thyself from them; thou shalt surely bring them back unto thy brother.

 I think that R' Bob (Zimmerman) Dylan's most famous song serves as a commentary for this  parsha:

How many years can a mountain exist
Before it’s washed to the sea?
Yes, ’n’ how many years can some people exist
Before they’re allowed to be free?
Yes, ’n’ how many times can a man turn his head
Pretending he just doesn’t see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind

How many years can a mountain exist
Before it’s washed to the sea?

This refers to the extrapolation of the limited observation to  an idea that is beyond the scope of observation.  One does not see the mountain washed to the sea, but one is convinces that over a great span of time, it will happen. 

The last verse of the Haftorah makes reference to the same image:  For the mountains shall depart and the hills totter, but My kindness shall not depart from you, neither shall the covenant of My peace totter,"

In the Haftorah, this verse is the conclusion  of an idea: 

For a small moment have I forsaken you, and with great mercy will I gather you.

8. With a little wrath did I hide My countenance for a moment from you, and with everlasting kindness will I have compassion on you,"

( required Holocaust reference) 

Ach, the battle with Chronos

Yes, ’n’ how many years can some people exist
Before they’re allowed to be free?

Certainly the struggle for justice is a balance between vision - true and accurate facts; and looking away - justice is blind to social status and race and gender..  This is also referenced in the parsha: 

טז  לֹא-תַסְגִּיר עֶבֶד, אֶל-אֲדֹנָיו, אֲשֶׁר-יִנָּצֵל אֵלֶיךָ, מֵעִם אֲדֹנָיו.	16 Thou shalt not deliver unto his master a slave that is escaped from his master unto thee;
יז  עִמְּךָ יֵשֵׁב בְּקִרְבְּךָ, בַּמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר-יִבְחַר בְּאַחַד שְׁעָרֶיךָ--בַּטּוֹב לוֹ; לֹא, תּוֹנֶנּוּ.  {ס}	17 he shall dwell with thee, in the midst of thee, in the place which he shall choose within one of thy gates, where it liketh him best; thou shalt not wrong him.

Yes, ’n’ how many times can a man turn his head Pretending he just doesn’t see? This is the core question. Sometimes, maybe often, we don't see because we don't want to see. We want to avoid the corrective action implicit in seeing the problem: the youthful mistake, the wayward child, our own selfishness, the effort we make compared with the effort we should make. The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind The answer is blowin’ in the wind Maybe forever.  ..

Shoftim: Tribalism

This parsha, Shoftim, repeatedly contrasts us and them.  The exhortations are: Don't be like them. 

Appoint your own judges, don't use their court system,  The king must be from among your kin,  Future prophets will be born from among your your brothers and sisters. 

The xenophobia can be seen as a way of preserving the people as a nation and their (core) values.  The prediction of future prophets is a recognition that the world will change ;and constitutes a mechanism to accommodate for the changes, while preserving the tradition.  One change was the abandonment (the removal of recognition) of prophecy.  But the idea that some people have a special, closer connection to the Divine lives on in various formulations (e.g. Chasidism) - with consequences. 

The parsha contains passages that reflect some of our core values.   Key among theses is the use of the Text of the Written Law as a mnemonic for the actual law.  A (monetary equivalent of an) eye for eye.  Do to the lying witnesses as they desired to do to the defendant ( not what they have already done)

The parsha tells me to be suspicious of the foreign values, their concept of justice and mercy and truth.  In our time, I cannot help but turn on the front facing camera and look at the values  expressed in the Torah,  as well. 

Hillel says, "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, who am I? If not now, when?" Ethics of the Fathers, 1:14

Re'eh: the Capitol

The place that Hashem your Gd will choose.... This is a recurring theme in the parsha. 

It is the place to which the tithes are brought;  the animal sacrifices, the feasts, the poor, the Levites all come. 

It is the place of the great spectacles.  It is Oz, Washington, London, Rome, Shiloh, Jerusalem.

I know something of the strength of this dream for a capitol city.  Jerusalem is in the Amidah three times a day. It was there when almost no Jews had ever  been to Jerusalem for centuries, when Jerusalem was, indeed, the Yerushalaim shel Maalah, the dream Jerusalem  Now, my daughter lives there. 

The physical reality of a capitol is merely supportive of its dream quality, and that dream quality of the capitol is an easy approach to spirituality, to the flood of inexplicable emotion that feels somehow uplifting and can justify all kinds of actions...good and ill. 

Pay no attention to the little man