AND A LATER GENERATION, YOUR DESCENDANTS, WHO WILL RISE AFTER YOU, ALONG WITH THE FOREIGNER WHO COMES FROM A DISTANT LAND, WILL SAY, UPON SEEING THE PLAGUES OF THAT LAND AND THE DISEASES WITH WHICH THE LORD STRUCK IT: SULFUR AND SALT HAVE BURNED UP ITS ENTIRE LAND! IT CANNOT BE SOWN, NOR CAN IT GROW [ANYTHING], NOT [EVEN] ANY GRASS WILL SPROUT UPON IT. IT IS LIKE THE OVERTURNING OF SODOM, GEMORRAH, ADMAH AND ZEBOIIM, WHICH THE LORD OVERTURNED IN HIS FURY AND IN HIS RAGE. AND ALL THE NATIONS WILL SAY, "WHY DID THE LORD DO SO TO THIS LAND? WHAT [IS THE REASON] FOR THIS GREAT RAGE OF FURY?"

(Devarim 29:21-23)

 

R. Yehudah son of R. Ila'i said: The Land of Israel burned for seven years with sulfur and fire, for it is said: Sulfur and salt have burned up its entire land! In those seven years, God has already collected [the debt of punishment] from Jeroboam ben Nevat and his companions, so that even Jeroboam ben Nevat and his companions will live in the Messianic Age. What saved them from the punishment of Gehinom? Burial in the Land of Israel, for it is said: and His land shall atone for His people.

(Yalkut Shimoni Tehillim 847)

 

...the main point is in accordance with RaShBA's interpretation of the verse, that if the blessed Lord gave [them] the land in order that they uphold His covenant then, if they transgress it the gift is void. Since the covenant is void, so is the gift of the land. That is [what they meant when] they said that when He took them out of Egypt, he established a covenant with them but they could claim they had been forced ("He held the mountain over them like a basin") and so the gift is void. That is why He poured His wrath and anger upon the land alone - unlike the case of Sodom and Gomorrah where the land's inhabitants were destroyed. Rather, He sent them to another land so that they would wander and sojourn in strange lands to this very day; that He had taken them out of Egypt and did not destroy them. Therefore, when they repent in all the nations, etc. (Devarim 30:1) as when they accepted [the Torah] in the days of Ahasuerus, then He will return and collect them from all the peoples (30:3) when it [their acceptance of he Torah] will be with all your heart (30:2) - without any duress.

(R. Meir Simha MiDvinsk, Meshekh Hokhma 29:23-24)

 

You are all standing this day

Gili Zivan

All of you are standing this day before the Lord, your God the leaders of your tribes, your elders and your officers, every man of Israel. Your young children, your women, and your stranger who is within your camp both your woodcutters and your water drawers. That you may enter the covenant of the Lord, your God, and His oath, which the Lord, your God, is making with you this day. In order to establish you this day as His people, and that He will be your God, as He spoke to you, and as He swore to your forefathers to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jaco. But not only with you am I making this covenant and this oath. But with those standing here with us today before the Lord, our God, and [also] with those who are not here with us, this day. (Devarim 29,9-14)

Parashat Nitzavim opens with two insights concerning the essence of human society, or, if you please, they concern two possible ways of looking at a nation's essence.

The first point of view is horizontal. It emphasizes the reciprocal solidarity between the tribal elder and the woodcutter, between the Supreme Court justice and the fruit-seller at work in his market stall. Therefore, in order for a nation to enter God's covenant it must create this feeling of togetherness. The nation's "all of you" must genuinely include everyone.

The second viewpoint is vertical. A human society that seeks continuity and vitality includes in itself not merely those who are present; it also includes the heritage of those who are absent, of those who are no longer with us today in the physical sense, but whose insights, whose loves and hatreds, whose struggles, both successful and failed, all shaped us to make us who we are. In the same way our values, deeds, and words will - if we like it or not - affect the coming generations with whom the covenant has already been made in potentia.

This Shabbat, the eve of Rosh HaShana 5768, I will endeavor to broaden the scope of thought regarding the role of both these viewpoints for the maintenance of a living and vibrant society, a society that is capable of committing itself to the covenant and to being His people.

The horizontal viewpoint is found in the life of the community, in our ability to be concerned for the suffering of the "other" in our community. It is expressed in dozens of halakhot devoted to arranging decent relations between people. The horizontal viewpoint is expressed in the "we" feeling, a feeling which, unfortunately, is constantly being drained out of the increasingly segmented Israeli experience. It calls for the responsibility of every societal group not only for its own "sector" but also for the other parts of the Jewish People, including the "strangers" who live among us (foreign workers, minorities, and all those alluded to by the verse, and your stranger who is within your camp).

If we observe the transitional moments in our lives we will find that they always occur in a public context and that individuals can maintain a Jewish way of life only as members of the community.

Prof. David Hartman expressed this well:

As someone included in the covenant... the Jewish individual is clearly placed within the community's framework. The covenant was made with the people in its entirety and not with Jews as individuals. The broad scope in which the individual finds spiritual self-fulfillment cannot exist in isolation from political, collective consciousness. (David Hartman, MiSinai leTzion, pg. 16)

It is not only commandments such as charity, tithes, gifts to the poor and exchange of food parcels on Purim, rituals of joy and mourning, and weekday, Sabbath, and festival prayers that cannot be performed without a community. Rather, the very meaning of "being a Jew" means, among other things, consciousness of one's being part of a people. As Hartman puts it, "The Jew can stand at the foot of Mount Sinai only after he becomes "we" (Hartman, Be'Ayin Tova, pg. 128). And "we" means the community both in the past as well as in the present.

In an interview with the editors of the book She'eilot al Elohim ["Questions Concerning God" Yizhar Hess and Elazar Shtrum, editors], Hartman describes the foundations of his religious faith:

I was brought up in a religious home, in a yeshiva framework and within a community of people whose very lives gave witness to God's existence. Their very lives were testimony... I am of the opinion that you do not begin with ze Eli ve'anveihu [this is my God, and I will make Him a habitation] but rather with Elohei avi ve'aramemeihu [the God of my father, and I will ascribe to Him exaltation]. That is to say that the very existence of the spiritual-communal framework with which you identify gives testimony to the worship of God. And so, I did not find God in a particular place on a particular day in a particular corner, or in some personal mystical experience, but rather within the framework of communal life...

I have no scientific proof of this [the existence God] or a personal experience that affirms God's existence. Spiritual life is built on prayers, Shabbat, and Torah study. This whole framework gives testimony and is significant to me. This life marks for me the existence of God. (op. cit. pg. 13, boldface added)

The "community which built its life upon the awareness that there is something beyond man" (ibid.) expresses this awareness through its way of life, which is embodied in concrete commandments. The way of life of the Jewish community serves as witness to its faith in the existence of God (which cannot be proven scientifically).

Therefore, Hartman claims that "if you want to rehabilitate religious experience based upon commandments... you must first rehabilitate communal feeling... .Jewish education fails today because it is cold and insulated. There is no echoing voice "there" to make one feel: "I belong to something greater than myself and my private family" (Hartman in Ayin Tova, pp. 128-9).

Yeshayahu Leibowitz also testified to the role of the community of believers in fashioning Jewish belief:

I have a portion in Torah and faith only to the degree that I belong to collective Israel. I myself lack the drive and the strength to create a new religion and faith of my own. This religious collective was not created by elements of faith or by values, since consciousness and volition are essentially personal, private, subjective, and individual. There is no such thing as volitional or conceptual collectivities, but a common way of life is possible. (Yeshayahu Leibowitz, Yahadut, Am Yisrael ve'Medinat Yisrael pg. 20)

Each person's faith choice is personal, but the way of life is created by the community, by the collectivity known as the People Israel from its beginning and up to its present modes of expression.

"Collective Israel" a lá Leibowitz is supra-historical and it leads us to the vertical perspective, which crosses boundaries of time and place.

The horizontal perspective expresses our way of looking at reality, our values and methods of interpretation in the present which are nourished - both consciously and unconsciously - by the melodies implanted in us by our fathers and mothers. That is to say, the individual is not only part of the living community; he is also part of an entire culture of traditions and customs into which he was born and in which his own creations take shape. At the conclusion of his book HaMasa HaYehudi-Yisraeli, Prof. Avi Sagi analyzes the Jew's identification with the Jewish collectivity spanning the generations. In order to clarify his argument he cites the case of Brother Daniel (Daniel Oswald Rufeisen) and Judge Zilberg's ruling, which "penetrated the meaning of Jewish identity" (pg. 242). Brother Daniel was born a Jew and in the Second World War he risked his life to save his brothers. Later, he converted and became a Christian Monk. After the war he immigrated to Israel as a Christian monk and asked to be recognized as a Jew. Judge Zilberg was aware of the fact that halakhically speaking Brother Daniel was a Jew. However, halakhic identity is not sufficient. Judge Zilberg emphasized that in order to be counted as a Jew Brother Daniel had to be part of the Jewish discourse spanning generations.

...one thing is shared in common by all of the People [Israel] dwelling in Zion (except for a tiny minority): we do not disengage ourselves from the historical past and we do not deny our heritage. The lines of connection differ, the conclusions differ, but we do not stop up the wells... such and such are the national burden of the Jew in Israel - whether he is religious, non-religious, or anti-religious, if he likes it or not he is connected by his umbilical cord to Jewish history: from it he draws his language and its expressions...

Sagi explains that, "Judge Zilberg's main claim is that a Jew's Jewish identity depends upon his entry to Judaism's diachronic discourse. Failing to make that entry a person can subjectively identify with the Jewish collectivity, but he will not be identified as a Jew; that is to say - that will not make him into a member of the collectivity" (Sagi pg. 244 boldface added).

It winds up that we are in need of the diachronic discourse (the inter-generational discourse expressed by the vertical line) as well as of the synchronic discourse (the discourse of the present community). In order to enter the Lord's covenant we must cast our eyes empathetically towards out bothers and sisters while also looking towards the present and future with the knowledge that our existence and present mindset are rooted in our Jewish heritage.

I gaze upon Israeli society on the eve of Rosh HaShana 5768 and I do not know which discourse we are more in need of. If synchronic discourse is the discourse of concern for the "other," then we have a long way to go to become a "we." "We" - according to the opening verses of our parasha - include both those above and those below the poverty line, both our brothers, members of the Jewish People as well as the "non-Jews" who live in our midst. It appears that if we do not hasten to change our modes of thought and action Israeli society will not endure.

If we glance for a moment towards the diachronic discourse as a necessary element in Jewish identity, we see here too that many parts of Israeli society have disengaged from discourse with the sources of our culture, and we must act in every way possible to revive that discourse, be it through pluralistic batei midrashot, through the expansion of cultural and media events dealing with past Jewish materials and their meaning for us, and in every creative way that will join more Jews to such a living discourse.

Dr. Gili Zivan directs the Yaakov Hertzog Center for Jewish Studies in Kibbutz Ein Tzurim

 

Righteousness and Justice Are the Base of Your Throne, Steadfast Love and Faithfulness Stand before You

(Psalms 89:15, Slihot service)

 

The story is told of King Mumbaz who spent all of his treasures in years of famine. His brothers told him: Your fathers hid treasures and increased those of their fathers, whereas you wasted all your treasures and those of your fathers.

He replied: My fathers hid treasures below, I hid them above, as is written Truth springs up from the earth; my fathers hid treasures in a place under human control, but I hid treasures in places not under man's control, as is written Righteous and justice are the base of Your throne; my fathers hid treasures which bear no fruit, but I hid treasures which bear fruit, as is written, Hail the just man for he shall fare well, he shall eat the fruit of his works; my fathers hid treasures of money, but I hid treasures of souls, as is written, The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; a wise man captivates people; my fathers hid treasures for others, but I hid them for myself, as is written, And it will be to your merit before the Lord your God; my fathers hid treasures in this world, but I hid them in the world to come, as is written, Your righteousness shall go before you.

(Tosefta Pe'a, 4:18)

 

It is known that Justice is the base of the throne of glory, as is written: Righteousness and justice are the base of Your throne, and whoever establishes justice, establishes the throne. And whoever casts aside petitions for judgment or blemishes it, blemishes the throne, and therefore Scripture reminds us that one who is not good will not merit the good mentioned in Psalm 31, How abundant is the good that You have in store for those who fear You. With this, Solomon teaches us that whoever shows favoritism in judgment is punished both in this world and in the next. Justice is the reason for peace, and therefore we find that Yitro, in his advice he gave Moses regarding judgment, mentions peace, as is written: If you do thus in this matter when God commands you further, you will be able to stand, and also this people will come to its place in peace. The world exists because of peace. Therefore, judgment was assigned to the Sages, for the Sages increase peace in the world.

(Rabbeinu Behayey, Shemot 20:22)

 

The Shemitah Year is Meant to Bring Peace and Equality

This is also the rationale for this [commandment of] hakhel [assembly] for in addition to [the commandment to] take these four species on the first day of the festival, God commanded us to make another similar gesture every seven years, for the Shemitah year also gives rise to solidarity and peace. This occurs because one does not sew seed and grow [crops] and the poor can eat [whatever grows by itself], for one is prohibited from acting as the landowner and taking hold of the seventh year's grain. All of this doubtlessly causes peace, since all conflicts derive from the trait of "mine is mine," i.e., "it is all mine." All of this is less evident in the seventh year, because while action [i.e. agricultural production] involves inequality, all are equal in inaction, and that is really what peace is about. And so in the Sukkot Festival every one leaves his permanent dwelling for a temporary dwelling and sits under the sukka of His peace. On the first day of hol ha'moed the king is commanded to create a feeling of peace. That is the point of hakhel, for all of this is preparation for repentance and he [the king] reads stirring words of rebuke to them from Devarim.

(Keli Yakar Devarim 31:12)

 

Readers Respond

In David Yiselzohn's article, "Stages of Faith" (Shabbat Shalom parashat Ekev), there is an apparent slide from the concept of yira ["fear"] and yirat Hashem ["fear of God"] to the concept of emuna ["belief" or "faith"]. The author quotes a verse from the parasha referring to fear of the Lord and immediately interprets it as referring to emuna - without giving his readers any explanation of the basis for this move.

True, both concepts are important for Judaism, but the differences between them are clear. Emuna relates to the epistemic realm, to the acceptance of particular utterances or opinions. Yira refers to a certain relation towards God, to what might be called a certain attitude of the soul.

The RaMBaM makes this distinction salient in his writings. Ha'amanat ha'elohut ["belief in God"] appears as the first positive commandment listed in his Sefer HaMitzvot, while ha'amanat yirato [something like: "taking fear of God seriously"] appears separately as the fourth commandment. Similarly, the first chapter of Hilkhot Yesodei HaTorah is devoted to delineating emuna in the Creator, in His existence and unity, while the beginning of the second chapter treats the proper love and fear of God.

Actually, I think that this emphasis on emuna in its cognitive sense is an invention of the RaMBaM and others of his period. Both Scripture and the Sages do not trouble themselves much with emuna as a concept. The famous verse referring to Abraham, And he believed [he'emin] in the Lord, and this was accounted to him as righteousness (Bereishit 15:6) is talking about Abraham's faithfulness [ne'emanut] rather than to his faith [emuna]. The Mishnah and Gemara hardly set down any rulings regarding matter of emuna, save those found in the famous mishnah from Perek Helek: "These have no portion in the World to Come: one who says there will be no resurrection of the dead, or that the Torah is not from Heaven, etc."

In conclusion, a quick comment: It is my impression that of late many people - even those from the innermost circles of Modern Orthodoxy - avoid mentioning the concept of yira, preferring instead to speak almost exclusively about ahava ["love"]. This phenomenon may have healthy roots; it may constitute a reaction to the overemphasis of fear and punishment in certain sectors of religious education. However, exclusive emphasis on love without fear is unbalanced and even dangerous, but this is not the place to expand on that issue.

Rabbi Yehonatan Chipman, Jerusalem

 

 

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