SHABBAT SHALOM (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Nitzavim-Vayelech You stand this day. All of you before the lord your god – your tribal heads, your elders and your officials,all men of israel,your children,your wives, even the stranger within your camp, from the woodchopper to the waterdrawer. (Deuteronomy 29:9-10)   Open reproof is better than concealed love (Proverbs 27:5) King Solomon, may he rest in peace, informed us in his book, of the principles of reproof, and taught us that life is dependent on reprimanding, and death is impending...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Nitzavim THEN, THE LORD, YOUR GOD, WILL BRING BACK YOUR EXILES, AND HE WILL HAVE MERCY UPON YOU. HE WILL ONCE AGAIN GATHER YOU FROM ALL THE NATIONS, WHERE THE LORD, YOUR GOD, HAD DISPERSED YOU. (Devarim 30:3)   The Lord, your God, will bring back your exiles Hebrew. veshav, literally, The Lord, your God, will (Himself) return (with) your exiles. [That is, the verb shav is in the simple conjugation. Now, since we understand the verse...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Nitzavim WHO IS A GOD LIKE YOU, FORGIVING ANY INIQUITY AND REMITTING TRANSGRESSION; WHO HAS NOT MAINTAINED HIS WRATH FOREVER AGAINST THE REMNANT OF HIS OWN PEOPLE, BECAUSE HE LOVES GRACIOUSNESS! HE WILL TAKE US BACK IN LOVE; HE WILL COVER UP OUR INIQUITIES, YOU WILL HURL ALL THEIR SINS INTO THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA. (Micah 7:18-19)   Recitation of the Tashlikh by a River The point of the custom of reciting the passage...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Parshat Nitzavim For the commandment I command you this day: it is not too extraordinary for you, it is not too far away! It is not in the heavens, for you to say: Who will go up for us to the heavens and get it for us and have us hear it, that we may observe it? And it is not across the sea, for you to say: Who will cross for us, across the sea, and get it for us and have us hear it, that...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat Nitzavim (link to original page) Parshat Nitzavim Rosh Hashana The majestic efforts Rabbi Yehuda Ha'Nasi devoted to codifying the Mishnah has resulted in a work of momentous importance to the Jewish people and provides us with limitless opportunities to learn and reflect. Towards the end of Chapter 3 of Tractate Rosh Hashanah in Mishnah 7 the following passage appears: "If one blows into a pit or a cistern or a barrel and can hear the sound of the shofar, that individual has performed their religious duty. However, if one hears the...