The parsha of Nitzavim, begins with the following words: “And you are standing today all of you before God.”[1] While on a literal level, the Torah’s mention that Moses is talking to the people “today” does not seem out of the ordinary, the sages infer from this that the day was somehow a special day. Some suggest that this was the day Moses’ died and he had assembled all the people to transmit his last teachings. The Zohar suggests that this day alludes to Rosh HaShanah, when the Jewish people and, indeed, the entire population of the world stands before God in judgment.[2] In fact, Nitzavim is always read the Shabbat before Rosh HaShanah.[3]
The first interpretation makes sense given that Moses is clearly nearing the end of his life as the next few portions demonstrate. The second fits in with the Chasidic notion that the portion always reflects current events; thus, making it eminently sensible for the “today” in our verse to hint to Rosh HaShanah, implicitly counseling us to prepare mentally and psychologically for the upcoming Day of Judgment.
The word “today” appears in parashat Nitzavim 13 times,[4] alluding to the Thirteen Attributes of Compassion we elicit with our prayers throughout the month of Elul and the Ten Days of Teshuvah, from Rosh HaShanah through Yom Kippur.
Today is Every Day
Alternatively, the word “today” has also been understood figuratively to imply that every day should be treated as if it were this very unique day on which Moses is speaking to the Jewish people. This idea is derived from the interpretation of another seminal event in Jewish history – the Giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. When the Jews arrived in the Sinai Desert on the first day of the third month, the Torah states that they arrived “on this day.” Since the rest of the sentence is in the past tense, Rashi points out that the phrase “on this day” should have been written “on that day.” It was written in the present tense, he comments, to teach us that when we learn Torah it should feel as new and exciting to us as if we had just received it today.[5] In other words, in both seminal cases, the Torah is teaching us that we should not relate to these unique experiences as onetime events in the past; rather, we should treat them as ongoing experiences. Each and every day the Torah should feel new and each and every day we should feel like we are standing before God.
The word “today” also reminds us that in regard to time, the past is gone, the future has not arrived and the present passes like “the blink of an eye.”[6] The Talmud teaches that Mashiach will come “today, if you listen to His voice.”[7] Thus, every day has the potential to enable us to come closer to God as we do on Rosh HaShanah, to experience the revelation of the Torah as we did at Mount Sinai, and to reveal the coming of Mashiach.
Rebirth and Renewal
An additional aspect of “today” is expressed by King David when he states, “God said to me: ‘You are my son, today I have given birth to you.’”[8] David felt as if he was constantly being given the gift of new life. No matter what upheavals he went through in life, David continually cleaved to God, always speaking to Him as if He was right in front of him “today.”
All these interpretations of the word “today” – the day of Moses’ death, Rosh HaShanah, how every day we stand before God, the Torah is given anew every day, and the day of Mashiach’s arrival – contain an aspect of rebirth. Moses’ death by the “kiss of God,”[9] stresses that death is only a transition to a new level of living. On Rosh HaShanah a new year begins with the opportunity of renewal while the revelation at Sinai is ongoing. Ultimately, Mashiach’s arrival at the End of Days will lead to a total rebirth of human consciousness.
However, even before we reach that point, every day, in essence, contains the potential of true rebirth. God is renewing the creation every split second, as we testify in our daily morning prayers: “In His goodness he renews daily the act of creation.” That ongoing process of creation, yesh m’ayin, “something from “nothing” is available to each person to connect to, integrate and be inspired by. Every day is also an opportunity to transform our ego (אֲנִי) into a state of selfless humility, a state of “nothingness” (אָיִן). Notice that both these words have the same letters only inverted. This teaches us the inner spiritual work we all have to do every day.[10]
Standing Before God
The notion of standing before God “today,” wherein “today” refers to Rosh HaShanah, sheds profound light on Rosh HaShanah’s essence. When we stand before God on Rosh HaShanah, all the dimensions of time—past, present, and future—manifest themselves simultaneously. We stand in the present, “today,” asking for forgiveness for our past misdeeds and shortcomings while committing ourselves to behaving better in the future. While our future is dependent on rectifying the past, God’s final judgment on Rosh HaShanah, which affects our future, is dependent on the sincerity and level of commitment we manage to generate in the present. Further weaving together past, present, and future, Jewish tradition teaches that although God, being Omniscient, knows whether or not we will really change for the better, He compassionately judges us according to our sincere desire to change and not by what actually transpires in the future.[11]
The level of complete awareness reached on Rosh HaShanah is alluded to in the phrase “all of you” in Nitzavim’s opening verse. The simple understanding is that all of the people assembled to hear Moses speak. However, a Chasidic interpretation is teaching us that when we stand before God on Rosh HaShanah, it must be with “all of you,” with the totality of our being, as we recite in the Shema: “with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.”[12] This phrase equals 737, the same as the word shalhevet (שַׁלְהֶבֶת), a flame, meaning our souls need to be “on fire” when serving God.[13]
Ensuring that we stand before God with our entire beings, especially on Rosh HaShanah, when God is deciding our fate for the upcoming year is the call of the hour.[14] If we are unable to muster that presence of mind and heart, the shofar’s blast is designed to awaken us and “shock” us into relating to God from the depths of our innermost beings. The searing sound of the shofar has the ability to fuse all the disjointed parts of our personality, all the inner fragmentation, into one unified plea.[15]
Establishing an Eternal Covenant
After describing how Moses assembled all the people, the Torah recounts why he did so – to establish the covenant between God and Israel once again:
To establish you today as a people to Him and that He be a God to you, as He spoke to you and as He swore to your forefathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Not with you alone do I seal this covenant and this oath, but with whoever is here, standing with us today before God, our God, and with whoever is not here with us today.[16]
Moses’ inclusion of all subsequent generations – “whoever is not here with us today” – substantially expands the covenant’s scope, creating a bond and unity of purpose that links all Jews, in all places, at all times. Despite being dispersed to the four corners of the earth for nearly two millennia, the Jewish people were able to maintain themselves as a distinct and unique people due to the covenant between God and “all of you.”
The inclusion of “whoever is not here with us today” also has profound Kabbalistic ramifications. According to the secrets of reincarnation – recorded in many Kabbalistic texts and revealed by the Arizal, in particular – those souls that were redeemed from Egypt and stood at Mount Sinai were subsequently reincarnated repeatedly throughout history. The phrase “whoever is not here with us today” refers to the subsequent generations of Jews who would incarnate from the souls of those that did stand there. So, in a sense, these later Jews “who were not there” were also there.
Four Circumcisions
In the Torah portion of Nitzavim there is a passage referred to as Parshat HaTeshuvah, which describes how Israel will ultimately return to God through teshuvah and then be gathered from around the world to the Land of Israel. The final verse of this moving description reads: “And Hashem, your God, will circumcise your heart and the hearts of your offspring, [so that you may] love God your God with all your heart and with all your soul, for the sake of your life.”[17] Parenthetically, it should be noted that four different “foreskins” of the body in need of circumcision are mentioned in the Tanach.
We are reminded of these circumcisions as we read the portion of Nitzavim and its call for teshuvah on the Shabbat before Rosh HaShanah.
An Allusion to the Ba’al Shem Tov
We Return now to the above verse: “And Havayah, your God, will circumcise your heart and the hearts of your offspring, [so that you may] love Havayah your God with all your heart and with all your soul, for the sake of your life.”[18] This verse has 18 words and 67 letters. Sixty-seven is the numerical equivalent of the name of the month preceding Rosh HaShanah, Elul (אֱלוּל), a month of introspection and teshuvah, the month that we read this passage. It also alludes to the Ba’al Shem Tov who was born on the 18th day of Elul.[19] The content of this verse was the essence of the Ba’al Shem Tov’s mission in the world: to reveal a new path in serving God that would open the gates of true teshuvah and circumcision of the heart, leading ultimately to the final redemption.
[1]. Deuteronomy 29:9.
[2]. As quoted in Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim.
[3]. Sha’ashuim Yom Yom, p.132.
[4]. The Inner Dimension, p.367.
[5]. Rashi on Exodus 19:1.
[6]. The Inner Dimension, loc. cit.
[7]. Sanhedrin 98a. Psalms 95:7.
[8]. Psalms 2:7.
[9]. Rashi on Deuteronomy 34:6.
[10]. Sha’ashuim Yom Yom, p.139.
[11]. This is learned from the episode when God saves Yishmael, “where he was at,” not according to where he would be and what he would do in the future. Rashi on Genesis 34:17.
[12]. Deuteronomy 6:5.
[13]. Sha’ashuim Yom Yom, p.135.
[14]. The Inner Dimension, p.372.
[15]. For an in-depth explanation of the shofar see Sod HaShem Liyerei’av, pp. 485-490.
[16]. Deuteronomy 29:12.
[17]. Deuteronomy 30:6.
[18]. Ibid. 30:6.
[19]. Sod Hashem Liyerei’av 34:9.
