Nitzavim Vayelech

This is an emotionally moving  season.  The cooling weather and shortening days kindle the inner warmth. In the Jewish Calendar we are approaching the days of awe, I am beginning to make the accounting of myself for the year past and thinking about how to improve the year ahead. 

Over the course of my life, the significance of this season has increased. This is the week when I commemorate my father's death. I will lead much of Shabbath service and chant the haftarah of this parsha. 

My eldest grandson was born in this week. When he is bar mitzvah, he will chant the same haftarah. Some element of my father's spirit will continue through him. 

This week we have a double parsha. The first, Nitzavim, sets a scene 

אַתֶּ֨ם נִצָּבִ֤ים הַיּוֹם֙ כֻּלְּכֶ֔ם לִפְנֵ֖י יְ

You stand this day, all of you, before the ETERNAL your Gd

רָאשֵׁיכֶ֣ם שִׁבְטֵיכֶ֗ם זִקְנֵיכֶם֙ וְשֹׁ֣טְרֵיכֶ֔ם כֹּ֖ל אִ֥ישׁ יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃

your tribal heads, your elders, and your officials—the entire body of Israel,

טַפְּכֶ֣ם נְשֵׁיכֶ֔ם וְגֵ֣רְךָ֔ אֲשֶׁ֖ר בְּקֶ֣רֶב מַחֲנֶ֑יךָ מֵחֹטֵ֣ב עֵצֶ֔יךָ עַ֖ד שֹׁאֵ֥ב מֵימֶֽיךָ׃ 

your children, your wives, and the stranger within your camp, from woodchopper to waterdrawer.

The theme of intergenerational transmission is immediately stated. It is an element of the inclusive nature of the covenant.  The covenant extends to 

וְאֵ֨ת אֲשֶׁ֥ר אֵינֶ֛נּוּ פֹּ֖ה עִמָּ֥נוּ הַיּֽוֹם׃

and with those who are not with us here this day.

It extends to those yet to be born. (Perhaps it also extends to those not yet ready to hear it.) It extends to my parents, to me, to my children, grandchildren and beyond. 

This is the all inclusive assembly.  Every stratum of society, from the elite to the lowliest are nitzavim, standing. The work of  woodchoppers and water drawer is  given greater definition in the Book of Joshua (Chapter 9).  The Gibeonites, a Canaanite tribe that joined the Israelites under false pretenses, are relegated to these jobs. This verse reminds me of my parents' struggles to find work as immigrants to the U.S.  It reminds me of how this covenant conferred dignity on my father when he plucked chickens  for tips.

The noun that corresponds to nitzavim is netziv, a word that means pillar. Nitzavim implies the constancy of a supporting column.  When the structure is destroyed, often remnants of the columns remain. The ruins are venerated, but they support no thing; they support the imagination; perhaps they support the sky. For me, at least some of the structure remains. 

The second parsha , the third from the last parsha of the Torah, is Vayelech. The chiastic (closed loop) structure of the Torah is revealed. The third parsha from the beginning of the Torah is Lech Lecha. The root for both words, lech, go, is the same. Lech Lecha tells of Abraham's adventure as he sets out into an unknown land  and his obedience to Gd which wins the promise from Gd that the land will someday be the home of his descendants. Vayelech deals with Moshe's legacy  of laws and literature. Moses brings the descendants of Abraham to the edge of the promised land, but Moses is specifically denied entry. Moses generated a legacy that is independent of geography; Moses generated a legacy that could survive exile and disappointment. 

 This week, I recite the haftarah in honor of the  anniversary of my father's Death. It is the haftarah reserved  for my gandson's Bar Mitzvah.  The haftarah contains verses that remind me of my father's story:

מִי־זֶ֣ה ׀ בָּ֣א מֵאֱד֗וֹם חֲמ֤וּץ בְּגָדִים֙ מִבׇּצְרָ֔ה

Who is this coming from Edom,

In crimsoned garments from Bozrah—

The verse conveys surprise that  someone is  coming from Edom, the land of Esau and his garments are חֲמ֤וּץ , chamutz. .  This is the only place in tanach that  חֲמ֤וּץ  appears (hapax legomenon), and it is translated as red.  Presumably the word is related to חָמֵץ,  leavened, a condition we might describe by the derogatory "ripe. The implication is that the clothes evidence a harrowing experience.  This person that we are wondering about  has told us nothing.  It was not necessary. We know something about him just from his appearance.  

מַדּ֥וּעַ אָדֹ֖ם לִלְבוּשֶׁ֑ךָ וּבְגָדֶ֖יךָ כְּדֹרֵ֥ךְ בְּגַֽת׃

Why is Your clothing so red,

Your garments like those of someone who treads grapes?

We know that the garments are not red from trampling grapes.  They are red from blood.  But do I  want to confront the story of this blood? The  source of the blood is ambiguous.  Is it  even blood (do I believe the story) ?  Is it  the enemy's blood? Is it the blood of brothers? A mixture?  What horrors and moral compromises were necessary to survive Treblinka and the holocaust. 

Over the years, I learned that my father was a pillar of  righteousness.

My father worked in the laundry at Treblinka. He was working for the Nazis (Edom). He was washing the (chamutz, filthy) clothes.  Presumably most of the clothes were from people who had been sent to the gas chambers. These stolen  clothes had to be washed before they were sent back to Germany. It was a relatively benign job.

One day his capo (his Jewish supervisor) saw that his relatives were on the transport. Unless the capo found jobs for them they would be sent to death. The capo told my father that my father's service in the laundry was no longer needed and he would be replaced by the capo's relatives. That meant that my father would go to the gas chamber. My father took a board and hit the capo over the head making him bleed. This was clearly a capital offense.

The German officer who was supervising the area said that my father would be burned alive on the board that he used to hit the capo. The other laundry workers came to my father's defense. They explained the story to the German officer. The German officer took out his gun and gave it to my father to shoot the capo. My father refused! The officer shot the capo and my father continued to work on the laundry until the uprising.

What is this blood? Whose blood?