Choosing the Relationship With God

Parshat Nitzavim

by Rabbi Avi Billet

There are at least two reasons why Parshat Nitzavim is read before Rosh Hashana. Firstly, it talks about Teshuvah (repentance) (Biur Halacha 428: “9 Av”), and secondly, it serves as a buffer between the Tokhacha (Rebuke) of Ki Tavo and Rosh Hashana (see also Biur Halacha there).

Simply consider how chapter 30 begins: after you will have experienced the blessings and curses (as discussed in last week’s Torah portion), you’ll think about what brought you to exile. You’ll then choose to return to God and the ways in which He commanded you. And after you return to Him, with your heart and soul, he will bring you back, gathering you from the nations of the world. (30:1-3)

Then Moshe tells the people that “Even if your diaspora is at the ends of the heavens, God will gather you up from there and He will take you back.” (30:4) This promise is followed by an additional promise of prosperity even greater than those who were there before you, as you will have the opportunity to get closer and closer to God. This will assure your survival.

The idea that the diaspora will go to the ends of the heavens is clearly not meant to be taken literally. Ibn Ezra says the edge of the heavens refer to the edges as seen from the land of Israel – in other words, the horizon. But it isn’t always true that the word “Shamayim” equals “sky” as a direct translation. So what is Moshe telling the people about what will happen in the future? Where will they be coming from when they are returning to God?

The Alshikh’s perspective on this set of verses may help us understand more clearly.

The return to God, he explains, will take place in the Babylonian exile. Of course it can only come after the realization of how and why the exile came about in the first place. The return will reflect the Shir Hamaalot we often sing before Birkat Hamazon “when God returns those who return to Zion” as happened in the time of Cyrus, the Persian king who allowed the Jews to return to build the second Temple.

However, since the repentance was not complete at that time, the Redemption was incomplete. And it will remain incomplete until the exile that took place at the time of the destruction of the Second Temple is gathered in.

All this is straightforward. And then Alshikh explains that the reason the exile isn’t completely over is because all of the repentance will have come about only out of fear. Real repentance must come out of love of God. This is why the segment ends with verse 6, “God will remove the barriers from your hearts and from the hearts of your descendants, so that you will love God your Lord with all your heart and soul.”

Perhaps now we can begin to understand what the diaspora being at the ends of the heavens means. When we think about the word “heaven” with reference to our relationship with God, the Hebrew phrase that comes to mind is “Yirat Shamayim” – fear of heaven. The Alshikh is telling us that the key to achieving a complete and final redemption does not come from a relationship with God grounded in fear, but rather in a relationship with God that is guided by love.

And what does the last verse of the parsha say is the goal for our people in “choosing life?” You have “to love God your Lord, to obey Him, and to attach yourself to Him.”

We are living in a time when the old method of “fear of God” is met with resistance, cynicism, and rejection. While there are Jewish communities that are strong and that seem successful in transmitting their vaiues to the next generation, the idea of fear of God doesn’t always sell. As well it shouldn’t.

Our goal is to foster and create a feeling that we are to love our God. Which shouldn’t be so hard, right? We do say it every day in the Shema!

And yet, it is an overwhelming challenge. Of course, love of God should lead to a “reverence” (better word than “fear”) of Heaven. But it is this limbo state of being between connecting with God through fear (having our diaspora spread as far as heaven goes), and having our love truly reach the heavens, in which we find ourselves.

It’s easy to “choose” to love God. It is much more of a challenge to actually demonstrate that love. Of course, as Rav Dessler has pointed out, love is about giving. Once upon a time we would give to God through offerings and sacrifices. Now we have to find other ways to give to God. If we could only be blessed to love God through the different ways in which we sacrifice and give to Him, perhaps we will be blessed to not just have some of the Jewish population of the world gathered again in Israel (as it is now), but we will see a Final Redemption, well deserved, in which all the Jewish people will feel at home in the Promised Land.