Nitzavim: immediate
Nitzavim: immediate
Parshath Nitzavim is about immediacy. The intrinsic urgency of the words usually gets lost in the sense of urgency that comes from the impending Day of Judgement. I read the parsha and feel rushed to make peace with Gd, and I attribute it to the season. It is also in the words... and the calendar, and the turning leaves, and the shortening days. They conspire to recreate the reflective mood and I become frightened
Nitzavim: you are standing- in a position that cannot be maintained indefinitely. Standing, not sitting , not reclining. There is a confrontational quality to this standing. Standing at attention, standing before the law. Standing bolt upright. Nazev means perpendicular, great posture.
Today is Sept 11, 14 years after the Radical Sunni Islam perpetrated an act of war against the United States. The most upright and perpendicular of towers in New York collapsed killing almost 3,000 innocent people. The tower is rebuilt, I do not think this war is over
In Man's Search For Meaning, Viktor Frankl emphasizes the importance of good posture in surviving the Nazi concentration camps. If the guard saw slouching signalling weakness, the prisoner was beaten, weakening him further, and then she was killed In the body of this book, Frankl also deals with moral posture, doing the right thing regardless of the circumstances.
Yesterday was the birthday of my father-in law, Irwin L Treiger. There was no one more upright than he. I am honored to have merited marrying his daughter. Irwin Treiger remained standing through all temptations, always maintaining honesty and fairness. He made the covenant of his ancestors his priority, supporting Jewish education and Israel
Today is the yahrzeit of my father, who survived the Treblinka death camp.When I was a boy, in part because of his reluctance to talk about the details of this place ( a place dubbed by Vasilly Grossman "Hell"), I feared that he had done terrible things in exchange for his survival. After I organized a meeting of the Treblinka survivors in Israel, I learned that my father was perfectly upright. He had kept his deal with Gd in the most trying of circumstances. He had kept the agreement alluded to in the parsha, the deal with those present today and those that are not present; a deal made before he was born and a deal that I try to keep. He had chosen life.
.
Today is Sept 11, 14 years after the Radical Sunni Islam perpetrated an act of war against the United States. The most upright and perpendicular of towers in New York collapsed killing almost 3,000 innocent people. The tower is rebuilt, I do not think this war is over
In Man's Search For Meaning, Viktor Frankl emphasizes the importance of good posture in surviving the Nazi concentration camps. If the guard saw slouching signalling weakness, the prisoner was beaten, weakening him further, and then she was killed In the body of this book, Frankl also deals with moral posture, doing the right thing regardless of the circumstances.
Yesterday was the birthday of my father-in law, Irwin L Treiger. There was no one more upright than he. I am honored to have merited marrying his daughter. Irwin Treiger remained standing through all temptations, always maintaining honesty and fairness. He made the covenant of his ancestors his priority, supporting Jewish education and Israel
Today is the yahrzeit of my father, who survived the Treblinka death camp.When I was a boy, in part because of his reluctance to talk about the details of this place ( a place dubbed by Vasilly Grossman "Hell"), I feared that he had done terrible things in exchange for his survival. After I organized a meeting of the Treblinka survivors in Israel, I learned that my father was perfectly upright. He had kept his deal with Gd in the most trying of circumstances. He had kept the agreement alluded to in the parsha, the deal with those present today and those that are not present; a deal made before he was born and a deal that I try to keep. He had chosen life.
.
posted by Sheldon Goldberg at 9:48 AM
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