Shalom my JTF readers,
It has been one hectic week for this yid. I have seldom felt such a challenge against my sanity than the recent events at my company. To make a long story short it involves some strange politics, a bug which is a 'show-stopper' for a client of ours thus future business is dependent upon repairing it, long nights trying to review code which crashes our product, and stress which causes indigestion. Add to this the sadness which I feel every 23rd of Elul (the Jewish day of 9/11/2001). These are my tzarat just one week from Erev Rosh Hashanah. Never have I felt so pressured as I do this week. As always I am dealing with it with simple faith (emmunah) and confidence that even if this job falls apart (I have been with the company for about 10 years this October) I have many opportunities (because I hear from 'headhunters' every week looking for people with my skills). Not by the strength of my hand (or sharpness of my mind), but rather because of the will of Hashem do I have job opportunities.
Enough with the story of woe. I surely pray that nobody reading these words has these problems, though we all know that the problems could get worse. Some people are really out of work and struggling to put food on the table. This is why I try to give to Charities which feed and cloth the poor of Israel, and help in my local community.
This week we are reading the double portion of Nitzavim-Vayelech which, it is hard to believe, is just about the very end of the Torah. We are talking about the last days that Moses walked this earth, and the message he was imparting upon the Jewish people in the desert prepared to enter the promised land. The pure unadulterated faith of those who stood outside looking into a land which seemed so overwhelming, so imposing, that the previous generation was unable to overcome their fear (feeling like grasshoppers in their eyes) gave them strength to vanquish the cannanites who were dwelling in the land.
This portion stresses, once again, the importance of Jewish unity in the conquest of the land, and in the continuation of the Torah. At times I feel that there is Jewish unity in this world but other times I feel like it is just a pipe dream that Jews could get along. We are a divided people at this time yet I have seen and experienced unity in this world, and I know that it is possible to unite people. I have not given up hope that Jewish unity will one day be possible.
This portion includes the prophecy of the future redemption and discusses our choice of the blessing or the curse.
For a more concise description let us examine the 'Parsha in a Nutshell' from Chabad.org:
http://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/58297/jewish/Nitzavim-Vayelech-in-a-Nutshell.htm
The Parshah of Nitzavim includes some of the most fundamental principles of the Jewish faith:
The unity of Israel: “You stand today, all of you, before the L‑rd your G‑d: your heads, your tribes, your elders, your officers, and every Israelite man; your young ones, your wives, the stranger in your gate; from your wood-hewer to your water-drawer.”
The future redemption: Moses warns of the exile and desolation of the Land that will result if Israel abandons G‑d’s laws, but then he prophesies that in the end, “You will return to the L‑rd your G‑d . . . If your outcasts shall be at the ends of the heavens, from there will the L‑rd your G‑d gather you . . . and bring you into the Land which your fathers have possessed.”
The practicality of Torah: “For the mitzvah which I command you this day, it is not beyond you, nor is it remote from you. It is not in heaven . . . It is not across the sea . . . Rather, it is very close to you, in your mouth, in your heart, that you may do it.”
Freedom of choice: “I have set before you life and goodness, and death and evil: in that I command you this day to love G‑d, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments . . . Life and death I have set before you, blessing and curse. And you shall choose life.”
The Parshah of Vayelech (“And He Went”) recounts the events of Moses’ last day of earthly life. “I am one hundred and twenty years old today,” he says to the people, “and I can no longer go forth and come in.” He transfers the leadership to Joshua, and writes (or concludes writing) the Torah in a scroll which he entrusts to the Levites for safekeeping in the Ark of the Covenant.
The mitzvah of hak’hel (“gather”) is given: every seven years, during the festival of Sukkot of the first year of the shemittah cycle, the entire people of Israel—men, women and children—should gather at the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, where the king should read to them from the Torah.
Vayelech concludes with the prediction that the people of Israel will turn away from their covenant with G‑d, causing Him to hide His face from them, but also with the promise that the words of the Torah “shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their descendants.”
Now for the latest video on the portion of the week from Rabbi Chaim Richman:
Topic: Video Study for Parsha Nitzavim-Vayelech (Read 2926 times)