Dvar Torah Parashat Nitzavim - Vayelech
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Dedicated in Honor of my New Grandson, Abe Joey Sayegh By Abe and Pamela Sayegh _______________________________________________________ Parashat Nitzavim / Vayelech
Nitzavim—Standing
The parasha begins with the passuk, “Atem nitzavim hayom kullachem lifnei Hashem Elokechem—You are standing today, all of you, before Hashem, your God (29:9).” Moshe is telling Bnei Yisrael, “You made it! You came through the desert for 40 years and reached your destination! Israel is just beyond the Jordan River.” Rabbi Mansour commented that there is another interpretation of the verse: “You are standing today.” As opposed to encouragement, this phrase also expresses harsh rebuke and admonition.
Humans differ from angels in their ability to change, grow, and improve. Angels cannot change; they remain the same from the moment they come into existence until they expire. For this reason, the prophets generally describe angels as omdim—standing. Angels stand in only one place, unable to advance or progress forward. Human beings, by contrast, are often referred to as holchim—walking. This refers to their capacity to progress, move forward, grow, work on their characters, and become better. If a person remains stagnant and complacent and has no interest in improving himself and advancing to the next level in religious observance and character refinement, he has negated his most basic human quality.
Moshe perhaps sensed that after forty years of traveling in the wilderness, the people began lowering their engines, relaxing their efforts, and going into cruise control. He, therefore, rebuked them. “Atem nitzavim hayom—you are all just standing! You have become like the angels, who are omdim, who remain in one place without progressing forward.”
Yaakov Shwekey shares a beautiful story told to him by the man himself. Simcha Weinman is a photographer from Lakewood, New Jersey who had a dream of taking a picture of Rabbi Elyashiv learning. He wanted to capture the light and joy of this great man’s face while he did what he loved most, learning Torah. At the time Simcha was learning in a yeshiva is Eretz Yisrael, and he was close with Rabbi Elyashiv’s grandson. He told Simcha the best time to capture that picture would be early in the morning when there is no one around to distract the Rabbi’s learning.
So, at 3:30 in the morning Simcha wakes up and travels to Rabbi Elyashiv’s apartment. At 4am Rabbi Elyashiv comes into his study and opens his gemara and begins learning. He starts to sing the words of the gemara, while Simcha, behind the lens, behind the window watches. The sound was so sweet, and the sight was so beautiful. Simcha became emotional and started tearing up.
Rabbi Elyashiv looks up at his window and motions for Simcha to enter the room. He asked this young man what happened that he was crying. Simcha explained, “I was trying to capture a picture of his learning to show Klal Yisrael when a person loves Torah that his face can shine, but I started to cry. It is so hard for me to learn. But when I heard the Rav learning it was so sweet. I wish I could be like that, getting up four in the morning to learn and feel so connected to the Torah.”
The Rabbi looked at Simcha and said in Yiddish, “Your tears and your emotion is worth a lot more than my learning. The fact that you want to be great, your tears, is worth more than my learning.”
Years after this encounter, Simcha Weiner was so touched by this moment that after he left yeshiva he pushed himself to get a chavruta—learning partner and learn every single day. He would not skip a day! Sometimes we feel like we can never be as a great as the Torah giants, but if we push ourselves to elevate our lives than we are giants ourselves. We can’t live our lives stagnant and complacent like the angels, waiting until it’s almost too late to move forward and do mitzvot. Elul is the most exciting time of the year—a time when we get to look in the mirror and say, “I have greatness inside of me. I can maximize my potential.” We have to wake up, grab this chance and opportunity, and use our incredible power to live life with purpose and Torah.
Growing Up
“You are standing today, all of you, before Hashem, your G-d…to enter into the covenant of Hashem, your G-d, and its oath, which Hashem, your G-d, is making with you today, to establish you today as His people, that He may be your G-d, as He promised you and swore to your ancestors, Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov (29:9-12). Rabbi Frand shares a beautiful message about this passuk. Rashi cites a well-known Medrash explaining the juxtaposition of this passuk with the 98 curses in last week’s Parsha. The Medrash says that after hearing all of the curses, the Jewish people turned green and became despondent, asking, “who can withstand all of these curses”? They lost hope. “What is going to be with us?” they asked. Therefore, in this week’s parsha, Moshe tries to appease them. “You are still here after forty years in the wilderness. You angered Hashem many times…including the incidents of the Egel, the Spies, and the complainers, yet He never destroyed you. You are still here…” However, Moshe’s appeasement appears to be self-defeating. The whole purpose of the curses was to put the ‘fear of G-d’ in the people. The curses were very effective. The people were scared stiff. Moshe successfully shook them up. But now he seems to be undoing the whole thing. “Don’t worry, you got away with so much in the past…” Does this not destroy the whole impact of the rebuke? Many commentaries direct us to a very simple truth. There is a vast difference between ‘The fear of G-d’ and hopelessness. Being afraid, frightened and nervous about the future can be constructive. But feeling that a situation is hopeless is not. That is what had happened. The Jews gave up hope. They threw in the towel. The worst thing that anyone can do is to give up hope. This is a lesson that we should all bear in mind as we approach the Yom HaDin—Day of Judgment. Yom Kippur is nothing to take lightly. It is serious business. If we really honestly understood Yom Kippur, we would be scared and frightened. But that is not the same as looking at the situation as hopeless. Hopelessness is not a Jewish characteristic. Never give up hope. After the destruction of the Bet Hamikdash, “all the gates (which prayers travel through) were closed, except for the Gates of Tears” (Bava Metzia 59a). After the destruction of the Bet Hamikdash, it became much more difficult for our prayers to penetrate the Heavenly Court. But there is one gate that remains open — the Gates of the Tears. It is said that the Kotzker Rebbe asked: if the Gates of Tears never close, then what is the purpose of the Gates? A gate implies that some get in and some do not. The Kotzker answered that tears of desperation do not get through. When a person cries because he feels that he needs the help of Hashem, when the tears represent the innermost and purest of a person’s thoughts (‘the sweat of the soul’) those tears have terrific power. But not if they are tears of helplessness and hopelessness – those tears do not get in and that is why the gates are necessary. In halacha, when an object is stolen, there is a concept of ’yeiush’ – giving up hope. When an object is stolen and the former owner gives up hope of ever getting it back and then it is sold to an unsuspecting purchaser, the purchaser may keep it. The reason for this is that once the victim gives up hope (of getting the object back), his last connection with the object is severed. As long as a person has not given up hope, there remains a thin thread that still connects him to his lost object. It is not totally lost from him. The same concept exists in the spiritual realm. For every plague, there is a cure. Hashem creates the remedy before he creates the plague (Megillah 13b). We somehow need to connect with that remedy. How do we connect with the remedy when a plague seems to have no end? There is only one tenuous connection between that remedy and us. The connection is hope. The same hope that connects a person to his lost object connects a person who is experiencing the dire straits of an illness to the potential cure that Hashem can provide. But once a person gives up hope and feels that the situation is futile, he has severed the connection between the cure and the plague. That is why no matter how desperate and overwhelming a situation may seem, we must never give up hope. The Izbitzer Rebbe once commented that the reason why all Jews are called after the Tribe of Yehuda is because when Yosef confronted his brothers and planted the incriminating evidence, the brothers gave up hope. Only Yehuda did not give up hope. “And Judah drew near to him…” (Bereishit 44:18). Yehudah never gave up hope. That is the attitude that must typify all Jews. As frightening as the Yom HaDin should be for every Jew, there is a difference between fright and hopelessness. We need to enter the Yom HaDin sober, afraid, and nervous as if we are entering a court. But we cannot enter the Yom HaDin without the attribute of Yehudah – the attribute of hope
Moshe’s Jealousy
In our second parasha of the week, Parashat Vayelech, Hashem informed Moshe of the sad news that “The day of your death is approaching (31:14).” Moshe Rabbenu did not want to die. On that last day, he wrote 13 Torah scrolls, one for each tribe, plus a master copy that would remain in the Ark. Moshe reasoned, “Since I’m occupying myself with Torah which is the source of life, the day will pass, and the decree that I am to die will be nullified.”
Rabbi Frand quotes a midrash that says Hashem instructed Moshe to call Yehoshua. Moshe offered Hashem a deal. “Let Yehoshua take over my role and lead the Jewish people but allow me to live.” Hashem responded, “If so, you will have to relate to Yehoshua as he related to you. He will be the leader, and you will be his disciple.” Moshe agreed to this offer. He went to Yehoshua’s house, straying from the previous arrangement of Yehoshua coming to him. From there, they went into the Tent of Meeting – Yehoshua as the rav and Moshe as the disciple. The Shechina descended and spoke to Yehoshua. When the Shechina left, Moshe asked Yehoshua, “What Word came to you?”
Asking such a question for the first time in his life must have been a most humbling experience for Moshe. Yehoshua answered, “When the Word came to you, did I know what was spoken to you?” This was a very gentle way of telling Moshe, “It is none of your business. I am the rabbi, and you are the student now.” The midrash concludes that Moshe began to scream at that moment, “Let me die 100 times rather than suffer this pang of jealousy that I am now feeling.” He was envious of Yehoshua. How is that possible? We are taught that a person is jealous of everyone except his son and his student (Sanhedrin 105b).
Chiddushei Harim says, “If I am a rabbi and my son becomes a Rosh Yeshivah, I will not be jealous; I will be proud of him. If he becomes far more successful than I ever was, I will take it in stride and with pride. However, if he takes MY job, if I am forced into retirement, and he takes over my congregation or my yeshivah, that is hard to take, even from a disciple or a son.”
Rabbi Frand said that Moshe Rabbenu was 120 years old and about to die. And yet, he, himself, felt that he was being gripped with envy. He admitted that the emotion he felt was worse than one hundred deaths. We see from here that if anyone ever claims, “I am too old to be jealous,” or “I am above that already,” don’t believe him. We are never finished with the challenge of being jealous until we are in the grave. At least Moshe recognized and acknowledged it. He was sensitive and wise enough to feel it and declare, “I don’t want any part of it!” We must be firm like Moshe Rabbenu, not just pretend to overcome jealousy, but admit to it and try to run away from it. A Golden Opportunity Before World War I, there was a man who was working in a stone quarry in Jerusalem. He would chisel marble and rock to harvest the stones. One day, a massive boulder fell on his leg, and he was very badly hurt. At that time, the hospitals in Israel were very behind in medical advancements, and the doctor informed the man his suggestion was to amputate the leg. The man refused, and the doctor said, “Well, if you go to the hospital in Vienna, there’s a chance that they will be able to save the leg.” The man went to his rabbi, who helped raise money for a ticket to Vienna. The man made it to Vienna and arrived at the hospital where the doctor told him it would be a very expensive operation to repair the leg, which he couldn’t afford. The man broke down, left the hospital, and limped to a park bench where he sat and cried bitter tears to Hashem. Suddenly, a beautiful coach rolled up in front of him, and a wealthy-looking man came out to ask him what was wrong. The man opened his heart and told his story to this stranger. The wealthy man wrote a note on a paper and said, “Give this to the doctor at the hospital. They will take care of your problem.” The man went back to his hotel with the folded note, feeling defeated. He thought, “What will this goy be able to do? He can’t help me.” The man recounted the events of the day to the host at the hotel. The host asked to see the note and gasped, “Do you know who this was? You met the Kaiser, the Emperor of Austria! He signed this note telling the doctors at the hospital to repair your leg! You will be healed! The doctors fixed the man’s leg, and he returned to Jerusalem. He went back to his rabbi to tell him about his experience. After he told the story about how the Emperor of Austria came to him and listen to his tearful pleas, the man broke down in tears again. The rabbi said, “Why are you crying? This was a miracle from Hashem!” The man cried, “If I had only known I was speaking to the very powerful Kaiser, I would have asked for the world. I would have asked him for more time. I can’t believe I had his ear, and I let him go so quickly.” On Rosh Hashanah, we are standing in front of Borei Olam. We stand before the King of Kings, and we have a golden opportunity to do teshuvah and to ask for whatever our heart desires. On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we are incredibly close to Hashem, and it is a sin to take this time for granted. The Rambam says that a person must look at himself as if his scale in heaven is at 50:50. He must take advantage of this amazing opportunity to be close to Hashem, and to do teshuvah, and pray that his mitzvot will outweigh the averot. We read on Rosh Hashanah the stories of Sarah and Chana. Both these women were physically incapable of having children. However, because of Hashem’s infinite kindness, both women’s’ prayers were answered on Rosh Hashanah to teach us that anything is possible on this day. As Rabbi Nachman said, “Prayers have the ability to alter nature.” Though we don’t always do what’s right, may we pick ourselves up, accept that we are still standing, and take the opportunity to return to Hashem. May we not stand stagnant in one place and continuously grow and move forward. May we strive to run away from jealousy like Moshe Rabbenu, who gave up going to Eretz Yisrael to not be plagued with such a feeling. May we take extra care to raise our children with Torah, so they will be kindhearted people who look out for their fellow Jews. May we be able to witness our children’s happiness and beracha and receive plenty of nachat from them for years to come. Amen!
Shabbat Shalom! Rabbi Amram Sananes, written by Jack Rahmey
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This book is a compilation of Divre Torah from the weekly parasha classes from Rabbi Sananes’ teachings over the last 10 years along with my own experiences in those classes which has stimulated my Torah growth. I’ve included many pertinent stories and life lessons to grow from at your Shabbat table. There’s also questions and discussion points at the end of each Parasha to stimulate a Torah conversation at your Shabbat table for the whole family to participate in. Also, included is a holidays section at the end of the book to use for all of our special holidays and Yomiim Toviim. Now available in all Jewish bookstores and Amazon! Scan the barcode on the right to purchase from Amazon. |
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