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Parsha
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Nitzavim
Moses continues his final address to the Jewish People:
All of you are gathered today – men, women and children, great and small, leaders and commoners – to establish a Divine covenant: “To establish you today as His people, and He shall be for you as a G-d.”
You have dwelled in Egypt and traveled among pagan peoples; perhaps you will be tempted to follow their idolatrous ways. “Perhaps there is among you a man or a woman or a family or a tribe, whose heart turns today away from G-d….” A rebellious seed will ultimately bear poisonous fruit; the sinner will not escape the consequences of his evil. In the end, though, the Jewish People will repent and return to G-d, Who will in turn show them His compassion, gathering them from their dispersion and returning them from the farthest exile to their homeland.
“This Mitzvah that I command you today is not removed or distant,” Moses declares; it is neither in Heaven nor across the sea. “It is very near to you –in your mouth and in your heart, to fulfill.”
As the Parsha concludes, Moses articulates the choice the people will face every day of their lives: see, I have laid before you today good and evil, life and death. Choose life!
All of you are gathered today – men, women and children, great and small, leaders and commoners – to establish a Divine covenant: “To establish you today as His people, and He shall be for you as a G-d.”
You have dwelled in Egypt and traveled among pagan peoples; perhaps you will be tempted to follow their idolatrous ways. “Perhaps there is among you a man or a woman or a family or a tribe, whose heart turns today away from G-d….” A rebellious seed will ultimately bear poisonous fruit; the sinner will not escape the consequences of his evil. In the end, though, the Jewish People will repent and return to G-d, Who will in turn show them His compassion, gathering them from their dispersion and returning them from the farthest exile to their homeland.
“This Mitzvah that I command you today is not removed or distant,” Moses declares; it is neither in Heaven nor across the sea. “It is very near to you –in your mouth and in your heart, to fulfill.”
As the Parsha concludes, Moses articulates the choice the people will face every day of their lives: see, I have laid before you today good and evil, life and death. Choose life!