Using the Mouth and Heart to Get Closest to God... and to Our Fellow Man

Parshat Nitzavim

by Rabbi Avi Billet

"It is something that is very close to you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can keep it." - Devarim 30:14

At least three words in our parsha could be defined as a “milah manchah” – a repeated word which Nechama Leibowitz ZL would utilize to draw out a theme in a particular segment of text in the Torah. She personally noted the word “shav” שב (to return, or do Teshuva) 7 times, as well as a motif in a different repeating word “Chaim” חיים – life.

I also found the word LVVKh לבבך (“L’va’vekha” – your heart) – which appears 7 times, mostly to encourage “your return to God with all your heart.”

Perhaps Nechama Leibowitz would suggest that all the references to the heart demonstrate the role the heart is supposed to play in Teshuva, in returning to God, in all the realization that Torah, Mitzvos, God are all very close to you (see 30:14).

In her essay addressing themes of Teshuva and choosing life, Nechama Leibowitz quoted Rav Kook, who said of Teshuvah,

“When people sincerely desire to come back to God, they are held back by numerous hindrances, such as confused thinking, weakness or inability to remedy those matters pertaining to relations between man and his fellow neighbor.” 

He goes on to explain that there is a hurdle every person faces in achieving Teshuvah. Sometimes the only real way to overcome that hurdle is to bring God in. Or as Rav Kook might say – bring in the Light.

 The definition of living life is in the last verse of the Parsha, “[You must thus make the choice] to love God your Lord, to obey Him, and to attach yourself to Him. This is your sole means of survival and long life when you dwell in the land that God swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, [promising] that He would give it to them.”

The idea of Torah’s teachings being “close to you” (30:14) is explained differently by the commentaries. Yosef Bchor Shor notes how anything done with the mouth alone, is merely lip service. If it’s just done with the heart, it is meaningless. A thought process doesn’t translate to action. Giving one’s word, however, becomes binding, motivating a person to finish a task. Perhaps the heart chooses, the mouth commits, and then the body follows through.

Ramban says what’s close to you is your mouth and heart. When our heart brings us to make a decision, we will come to say Viduy, Confession, with our mouths.

Seforno adds a small twist: First you have to use your heart to recognize both your sin and your God to Whom you sinned. Then regret. Then say viduy with the mouth.

Perhaps in these days prior to Rosh Hashana, we ought to see how we can be impacted if we can open our hearts. Put slightly differently, the possibility to return to God is as close to you as you are to your heart.

Those of us who take the Day of Judgment most seriously might still have one significant reservation - our reticence to let go and to surrender to God. The last verse of the parsha tells us “to love Hashem our God, to obey Him, and to attach ourselves to Him. This is your sole means of survival and long life…” Up until now, we’ve seen that what’s close to us is Torah, Mitzvos, study, action, even Viduy (confession). The ability to tap into our hearts, see our realities, face our inconsistencies, and use our abilities to return to God is up to us.

Rav Kook’s idea suggests every Jewish soul, at its heart (pardon the pun), wants this. So we need to be able to take the next step. Rabbi Yaakov Mecklenberg, author of Haktav V’hakabbalah, gives a little more encouragement. Yes it’s close by. Yes it’s available for the taking. But some people say, “I don’t understand it.”

He says, “I have put into your mouths a clear structure: a written law and an oral law, through which the intent and understanding of the Torah is made clear.” Which means that if you use your mouths to repeat and repeat and review and review, you’ll know it! “And what’s in your heart is the ability to understand, to make sense of it all. Such that there’s no reason for you to doubt the authenticity, to question whether this is real.”

Malbim relates this verse to the phrase “Who is the one who desires life? Guard your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking falsehoods…” (Tehillim 34:13-15)

One must speak truthfully. Honestly. And avoid gossip and slander. These bring down not only the subject of the conversation, but the speaker and listeners. That’s “in your mouth.” 

As far as “your heart?” “Turn from evil, for the heart rules over a person.” It can choose to turn from evil to goodness. “To do it” is paralleled in the phrase “And do good.”

The Mitzvah of Teshuva is unique because it doesn’t have instructions. Malbim describes it in general terms. “It is a command to have a true yearning in heart and soul that when you’ll be in the land you’ll fulfill the mitzvos. But you don’t need to go to the heavens, to find Moshe, you don’t need to go across the sea, to Eretz Yisrael. You just need to look in your mouths and hearts.”

Choose how you speak. Choose how you view others. Choose how you relate to others. Steer away from bad actions and turn towards doing Chesed. This is all available to you! It’s right here. It’s up to you!

We can all use improvement in how we utilize our mouths and hearts in the service of God. With our mouths we can be better about davening. More careful about how we speak. More cautious of what we choose to speak about with others. We can aim to have God’s name on our lips in an appropriate manner.

With our hearts we can choose to love God with all our hearts. We can open it to fulfill the mitzvah of Ahavas Yisrael, loving a fellow Jew. We can open it to be more tolerant of other people. Especially those who see things differently than we see things. We can open it and remind ourselves that when we see a person getting upset over something which seems trivial to us, there may be other things going on in their lives that we know nothing about.

When we can surrender to God in our heart, we’ll feel that what is “close to you” is God Himself.

“God is close to those who call to Him, to those who call out to Him with truth.” (Tehillim 145 – Ashrei)

When we use our mouths properly and our hearts deeply, we are carried through by God Himself. We should merit to see how a small opening of the heart can be the opening that brings us the greatest clarity to our lives, and of course, by extension, a blessing from God for a Shana Tova for us all.

Warnings Help Us Prepare

Parshat Ki Tavo

by Rabbi Avi Billet

In our parsha, we find Moshe being a little repetitive with his goodbyes. Which seems excessive.

At the end of Chapter 26, he tells the people “God is commanding you to keep the laws. Observe them with all your heart. He has declared He will be your God, as you keep the Mitzvos and laws, and He has told you be His treasured nation, and to keep His mitzvos. He is putting you above other nations to be an Am Kadosh.”

At the beginning of Chapter 29 Moshe gives them a short history lesson, about their leaving Egypt, surviving through the wilderness with their clothes and shoes not wearing out, their seemingly impossibly defeating Sichon and Og, and the fact that he divided those lands to 2.5 tribes. All of this indicates that God has chosen the Israelites as His nation, while He is their God. And Moshe concludes once again saying, keep the words of the Covenant and do them. Which is another way of saying “Follow the laws and commandments.”

Not a whole lot of time passes in this parsha. Is Moshe so forgetful that he is forgetting what he said not so long ago?

I think the answer is that it’s not so much about the passage of time, as much as it’s about what happened in between the two statements. And of course, what happened is the proclamation of the Tokhacha - the great rebuke of chapter 28, in which Moshe spells out what will happen if people don’t listen to and follow the law.

Look at the transition verses between the blessing and the curses in 28:14-15. “Do not stray to the right or left from all the words that I am commanding you today. [Be especially careful not to] follow other gods or serve them. If you do not obey God your Lord and do not carefully keep all His commandments and decrees as I am prescribing them for you today, then all these curses will come to bear on you.”

Moshe lays out the case that when the Israelites follow the ways of the Torah, heed its lessons, respect one another and respect the Almighty, life in the Land will be the closest thing to heavenly bliss in this world. Peace, abundance in rain, food, blessings of health, wealth, children, animals, growth in all good ways, victory over enemies.

However, if people ignore the law and don’t heed the warnings of where human nature can take them, the tokhacha’s warnings can swiftly become a devastating reality.

Any generation who saw this happen to them – whether in Biblical times or later – leaders looked to the tokhacha and said, “See? Moshe warned us!” It happened in the time of Yeshayahu and Yirmiyahu, it happened during the second Churban, it happened at the time of the Spanish expulsion, and it happened post-Holocaust.

And so when Moshe comes back around at the very end of the parsha, giving us his immediate follow up to the Tokhacha, Moshe chooses to go a different route than mere fealty to the Lord. At the end of Chapter 26 he’s bringing his long speech, which included close to 200 mitzvos, to its conclusion. So he’s said it all already. “I just spent 21 chapters telling you a little history and a lot of laws. Keep the mitzvot.” After the tokhacha, however, people may feel like, “What do we need this for? I mean, the blessings were nice. But if the balance on the other side is these curses, what kind of loving God would do this to us just for turning away from Him?”

And to this, Moshe’s response is the last Aliyah in the parsha. “Israel! You must have a sense of history! The only reason you are in the land is because of Hashem’s love for you! And His love for you is because of his love of your ancestors, to whom he promised a process that would turn you into a formidable nation that will outlive and outlast every other nation, no matter what they do to you! You must have a sense of history! See where you fit into the story of your people! See what Hashem did for you in taking you out of Egypt, in taking care of you for 40 years. Despite your disloyalty with the Golden Calf and the spies, the Manna never stopped, you never needed new clothes or shoes. And all of this was done so that you can live a holy existence in the land.

"You don’t want to live a holy existence in the land? Then don’t be in the Land. You can go elsewhere. But if you’re going to be in the Land, remember why God wants you to be there. If you lose sight of that, and you want to stay there all the same, forces beyond your control will likely change your reality.”

That is why the tokhacha is followed by a history lesson. To remind us why we’re doing everything we do. Why we don’t want to lose sight of the bigger picture.

Moshe was not forgetful at all. Moshe actually had extreme clarity. He knew with whom he was dealing and with what he was dealing. He understood human nature. And he dealt with what he needed to appropriately.

In the words of our sages, there are two answers to the question of “Who is wise?” One answer is “one who learns from everyone.” The other answer is “one who can anticipate outcomes.”

Moshe was trying to anticipate what was coming. Moshe was hoping for people to learn important lessons.

Knowing the nature of the people, he needed them to know not only all the Mitzvot but that the Tokhacha’s devastation is always lurking around the corner.

Last wishes or parting wishes are often like this – lessons are shared from those who have been around the block, or they are learned on a personal level through the school of hard knocks. Most of all, we need to try as hard as we can to anticipate outcomes.

So here is an exercise in thinking about outcomes.

• Have we put our house in order, in case of untimely tragedy or natural end-of-life? 
• Do we anticipate fights our children will have and take steps to avoid them in advance? 
• Do we aim to resolve conflict with others, with a mediator/moderator if necessary? 
• Do we adequately prepare ourselves for our encounters with God, turning off our phones during the week, and otherwise preparing or meditating to be ready to enter the presence of the Divine? 
• Do we set groundrules before engaging in political conversations? 
• Do we choose to waste our time and engage in arguments with irrational people? 
• Do we ever think that maybe it’s time to move on from a years or decades long conflict with a friend, or even more tragic, a family member? 

May we all be blessed to do our own forms of teshuva, and find peace in the coming year, with both expected and unexpected outcomes that life will bring our way.

Returning Lost Items - And Not Allowing People to Be Lost

Parshat Ki Tetze

by Rabbi Avi Billet

If one finds something that belongs to someone else, the Torah obligates the finder to return it. Beginning with an example of a wandering animal, the mitzvah becomes more specific and general in referring both to returning even a garment, while also “any lost item which {your brother) loses and you find it. You may not ignore it.” (Devarim 22:1-3)

To return a lost item is an important mitzvah we can all appreciate. After all, we can all relate to the feeling which accompanies either the inability to find something or the realization that something is lost. We also very much appreciate finding that lost item, and the shock of someone else finding it and returning it!

The Sefer HaChinukh describes these passages as being two separate mitzvoth, one positive and one negative – the first being to return that lost item, the second being to not ignore it. Using one combined explanation for the two mitzvoth, he says the purpose of returning lost items is for the betterment of society.

Noting how all of the Talmudic discussions on this subject are in Bava Metzia chapter 2, he also reminds us that there are circumstances under which it is impossible to return a lost item, and a person should do one’s best when possible.

This week, the United States observed 9/11, and that day was one in which this country suffered a tremendous loss. Beyond the national tragedy and the personal tragedy that affected so many thousands of people and extended families, the biggest halakhic questions which came in the aftermath of the terrorist attack was determining the status of wives whose husbands were missing after that day – how much time needed to pass for an agunah to be officially declared a widow?

That can certainly fit into the category of “You may not ignore.” “You must return” a clear status to this woman, so she may mourn and thus, after gathering the broken pieces of life, make every effort to continue living a purpose-filled life.

The Alshikh notes that the verse instructing not to ignore a lost item refers specifically to something “your brother had, but was lost from him. It does not apply to something he didn’t have,” but may have missed out on getting, such as a “y’fat to’ar,” the captive woman described at the beginning of the Torah portion. Furthermore, he notes how God wanted to give the Israelites merits in the mitzvah of “loving your neighbor as you love yourself.”

As he puts it, it’s hard to drop everything you are doing, your plans for the day, your schedule, etc., just to help someone with their problems. “And so the Torah tells us, ‘don’t watch that happen and ignore it, which is human nature, because if you make the effort to return, and especially if you are successful, you will feel so amazing you’ll do it again.’ When you will have trained yourself to conduct yourself the same way next time, it will be easy for you to do.”

So I think we can look outside of the box, beyond the lost item, to see what other things have been lost, and see how we can return them.

Every year, I read an article, usually from a parent in Brooklyn or Lakewood, decrying how most kids have a place in school, but some children were not placed by the time school started recently. I have heard the argument made that certain communities must band together and have all the schools not send out acceptance letters until all the children at least have one acceptance letter going to them.

How can a school year begin with some children sitting at home? If they were in school last year, the mitzvah of Talmud Torah, and the concern for the “Tinokot shel beit rabban’s” Torah study should override everything else! They should not become lost!

I will conclude with two stories about Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman, the Rosh Yeshiva of many yeshivos from Bnei Brak, about his feelings of what should prevent children from going to school.

A fellow came to Rav Shteinman explaining why the children of a certain family who was (in this fellow’s opinion) “not yeshivish enough” for the school he represented should not be allowed in. He wanted Rav Shteinman to agree with him. Rav Shteinman asked a couple of questions and determined that the only reason people didn’t want this family in was “Gayvah!” (Thinking they are better than this family.) (skip to the 3:25 in the video to see his response)

Rav Aharon Leib went to the ends of the earth to avoid kicking students, even troublesome ones, out of school, until he at the very least found a new school for the student to study. He often would say that the only reason to have a child leave a school is if he is affecting others’ “Yiras Shamayim” (fear of heaven). Barring that, every child should have a place in a school or yeshiva. 

We cannot afford to lose the children! Just as our leadership went to the ends of the earth to not lose the 9/11 agunahs, our communities must move whatever mountains possible to see that neshamas are not lost because they are “not good enough” for our schools, or are finding themselves in learning institutions that do not inculcate religious instruction and Jewish values due to no other option being available – whether on account of finances, aptitude, attitude, academic ability, or whatever the reason.

Like the Sefer HaChinukh says, this attitude of not giving up on the lost children can only be for the betterment of our Jewish society. And like the Alshikh said, it is a tremendous demonstration of “Loving your neighbor as yourself” when you move the mountains you’d like moved for yourself in order to get someone else to find that which they seemed to have lost. We can not afford the lost souls of these children.

Zaken Mamre and Civil Discourse

Parshat Shoftim

by Rabbi Avi Billet

The source of Rabbinic commandments is in Devarim chapter 17, when Moshe sets the stage as such that the rabbis of the Sanhedrin, based at the place “God will have chosen,” will declare laws, “you must do as they tell you, carefully following their every decision.” 

This is a Sanhedrin, comprised of top-notch scholars, geniuses, who speak many languages, each of whose knowledge is widely accepted as authoritative along all spectrum of Jewish identification and experience. 

The Sanhedrin existed in a time and place in which God’s presence was more noticeable, what with the miracles of the Temple, as well as the function of the Urim V’Tumim of the Kohen Gadol’s vestments. Technically the Sanhedrin lasted several centuries after the destruction of the Temple, but its authority could certainly be traced back to its origins in the Temple Era. Since its disbanding, there hasn’t been a universally accepted authority in halacha, beyond certain codes of Jewish law which speak for themselves in the ways in which they are timeless, but they do not always address contemporary modernity – such as the many questions that electricity poses in the observance of Shabbos through the use of refrigerators, crock pots, timers, apps that run the home, etc.  

“[Besides this, in general,] you must keep the Torah as they interpret it for you, and follow the laws that they legislate for you. Do not stray to the right or left from the word that they declare to you. If there is any man who rebels and refuses to listen to the priest or other judge who is in charge of serving God your Lord there [as leader of the supreme court], then that man must be put to death, thus ridding yourselves of evil in Israel. When all the people hear about it, they will fear and will not rebel again.” (Devarim 17:11-13, “Living Torah” translation) 

This quote raises many questions, two of which I will address now. The first is “Do the ‘they’ of the verse still exist, and if yes, is their word always binding?” The second is, “Who is this rebellious man, and how does his death serve a purpose that isn’t simply an execution?” 

To the first question, it is a difficult reality that we face, but the fact is that different groups of Jews, even within the Orthodox world alone, would never accept the authority of every rabbinic group that might legislate. While there are certainly very many scholars and incredible poskim today, it is hard to argue that too many would fit the criteria of being on the Sanhedrin of yesteryear. 

“According to R. Jose b. Ḥalafta, the members of the Great Bet Din were required to possess the following qualifications: scholarship, modesty, and popularity among their fellow men (Tosef., Ḥag. ii. 9; Sanh. 88b). According to an interpretation in Sifre, Num. 92 (ed. Friedmann, p. 25b), they had also to be strong and courageous. Only such were eligible, moreover, as had filled three offices of gradually increasing dignity, namely, those of local judge, and member successively of two magistracies at Jerusalem (Jose b. Ḥalafta, l.c.). R. Johanan, a Palestinian amora of the third century, enumerates the qualifications of the members of the Sanhedrin as follows: they must be tall, of imposing appearance, and of advanced age; and they must be learned and must understand foreign languages as well as some of the arts of the necromancer (Sanh. 19a).” (http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13178-sanhedrin) 

As such, while people can voluntarily pick their own authorities, and while some communal institutions might rule with an air of authority that goes unchallenged (think ‘kashrut organizations’), no individual rabbi or group of rabbis speaks for all of Judaism. 

This fact also makes us wonder what kind of arguments will transpire in the Messianic era over how the Beit Hamikdash will function, whose rule will be law, and which priests will be given full access, while others will be relegated to less prestigious or significant jobs. (Search for “Moshaich’s hat” on the internet to see a sad social commentary on this reality). 

To the second question, the individual of which the verse speaks is called in Rabbinic parlance a “zaken mamre” – a rebellious elder who is a scholar, who purposely throws a monkey wrench into the teachings of other scholars, ruling against their rules, subverting their authority, and instructing people to go against their positions. 

Haktav V’hakabbalah has a lengthy treatise of what criteria would need to be met in order to actually put this man to death. Suffice it to say, it is not as simple as the Torah seems to depict it. In fact, any kind of death penalty described in the Torah was never easy to actualize, and in contemporary times should be understood more as warning of us of the severity of a crime than of practical steps in how to deal with it. 

It is very easy to paint a person one disagrees with as “dangerous.” Whether such an appellation applies to one’s political opponent, or anyone with whom one disagrees about a whole host of issues, is certainly in the eye of the beholder. Calling someone “dangerous” without evidence, especially when the person has no power, limited to no authority, and is simply rendering a differing opinion, is only character-assassination not backed up by a valid argument. Even if the person is in a position of power or authority, in most cases checks and balances limit the person’s net impact, rendering the “dangerous” claim to be relatively insignificant. 

What does executing the ‘zaken mamre’ then accomplish? In ancient times, and with a Sanhedrin ruling on the case, maybe there is what to be said of a certain order to be followed when there is a central authority. I question the need for execution, however, as I’d like to think the greater society could simply ignore this individual when he is going against everyone else (unless what he's saying can't be ignored - in which case, one wonders why it can't be addressed by opponents of his ideas?). 

In the contemporary sense, however, perhaps one could argue that it demonstrates what a heartless and cruel society can do when it can’t articulate an opposing view in a convincing fashion. If the only way to stifle an opposing view is to shut it down through legislation or through character assassination or execution, perhaps it means that the view everyone would like to see go unchallenged doesn’t stand on its own merits! 

In this light, perhaps calling the elderly scholar “rebellious” can be viewed as a cop-out, an easy fix to a problem the community should really have the ability to address in an open and honest fashion. Some conversations are difficult! But maybe talking is better than simply sentencing a man to death because we can’t deal with what he has to say.