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 30:14At 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.
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