by Rabbi Avi Billet
Nitzavim begins with what is in effect a “swearing in” of the Israelites for all time. “It’s not with you alone that I am making this covenant… For it is with those who are with us today, and those who are not with us today.” (29:13-14) Most interpret “those who are not with us today” as referring to future generations. A question posed in Abravanel’s generation asked simply, what gave them the right to take an oath for all future generations not yet born?
He presents an example to which we can probably relate. Imagine a person who takes a loan, whose heirs are responsible for the loan after the person passes away. They inherit his assets, but they also have to pay his debts.
Being taken out of Egypt assumed a debt to God in body, and through giving the Torah at Sinai, God had a claim on the souls of Bnei Yisrael as well. Finally, the gift of the land was associated with many conditions, as well as an understanding that the land was not granted to Israel on account of their strength, but more as a pledge and loan contingent on observance of the laws of the Torah in the land.
Later generations are included, therefore, because their existence in the land is contingent on the continuation of their part of the oath taken at this point in time. If they want out of the oath, then the land is no longer available to them.
Malbim makes three points that are worthy of consideration:
1. The undertaking of this oath was made for the souls of the future generations. Even though an oath was taken by those in body, since all the souls of the Jewish people were present at Sinai, the oath was taken by all. The ancestors have the potential of their descendants in them, much as the seed of a tree which has all of its potential in it.
2. Ancestors can not take an obligation upon their descendants, but they can take a positive step towards benefiting their descendants. Taking the oath of mitzvos can be viewed as a merit which would benefit future generations.
3. God does not need the agreement of His creations in order to obligate them. God wants them to have the merit that comes from voluntarily taking the obligations of the covenant.
Presumably, in this third point, the oath is a minder that a person ought to consider the greater picture of what constitutes our history, and what drives the fate and destiny of our people.
It is a daunting challenge to consider where we are in the scheme of history – I refer not as much to world history but to Jewish history – and how all the ups and downs, trials and travails, successes and failures, commonwealths and genocides, Temples and destructions all brought us to where we are today. And where are we?
We live in a time of rampant assimilation. While tolerance is the State policy in many nations, anti-Semitism is on the rise around the world. We enjoy a fair amount of success, but there are many religious Jews who cannot afford a religious life, and who often live in debt just to figure out school tuition, how to put food on the table, the latter being especially true in parts of Israel where reaching just above the poverty line is a pipe dream for too many people. We are a giving people, but is it possible to give to everybody?
hile violence is far less pervasive in our religious Jewish communities, our values are often shaped by the culture around us. Our divorce rates, dropouts from religious life rates, and submission to secular values rates are not very different from other religious communities, and in some ways reflect the general secular society who don’t include God in any aspect of their lives.
Many of us read far more newspapers and magazines than Torah articles, watch far more television than listen to or watch Torah lectures, and are more consistently not attending daily services, though many do make a special effort for Shabbos and for Yom Tov.
The covenant was given to us as a binding oath, should we want it, and if we accepted it, then it is our task to fulfill it as best as possible.
Do we take upon ourselves the debts of our ancestors? Within a reasonable timeframe, we ought to. As far as the oath or debt of Torah goes, it is the defining factor which distinguishes us from our fellow man, for time immemorial. If that distinction is worth anything, then we need not ask “Why were we included?” Instead we ought to be grateful that God chose us and wanted us to be part of an eternal covenant that we believe is still carrying us to this day.
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