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 we may
observe it? Rather, near to you is the word, exceedingly, in your mouth and in
your heart, to do it!
(Devarim 30:11-14)
“IT IS NOT IN THE HEAVENS…
IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART, TO OBSERVE IT!”
“It is not in the
heavens” – For if it were in the heavens, you would
have to climb after it, and learn it.
(Rashi,
ibid., 30:12, as per Eruvin 55a)
The meaning of the metaphor ““It is not in the heavens” – it is above man’s natural intelligence, as
though it were in the heavens, necessitating the building of ladders to bring
it to earth. Just as this is obviously impossible, so is it
impossible to strain the intelligence with stratagems for completely
understanding its [the Torah’s] meaning, and Chazal said in Eruvin (55a) that even if it is in the heavens, you must
climb after it – this is but metaphor and figure of speech; if the matter is
beyond your understanding, the obligation is to exert great effort. Then comes
into effect the rule “You strove but found not – do not believe it!” The rationale is as per Rashi in
Sanhedrin, that the Torah –
desirous of assisting the assiduous student – asks its
Creator to reveal to him Torah’s secrets
(Haamek
Davar, ibid., ibid.)
And [the reason for] concluding
the preceding chapter on
Redemption with the words “to observe
it” is to compare the
subject of Redemption to the act
of Creation, which concludes with the words “that by creating, God had
made.” [trans. note – the Hebrew ‘la-asot’ can be translated as ‘to
observe’, ‘to make’ and ‘to do’]. The association of the end of time with the
beginning of time teaches us that the two are similar respecting the natural
processes and the natural order; in the time of the Mashiach, nature will be as
it was at the time of Creation. They [the Sages] explicitly said: “There will
be no difference between the current world and that of Mashiach’s time, other
than that of subjugation to other nations.” (Rabeinu Bahayeh, Devarim Chap. 30; v. 15)
… in other words,
that ‘creation’ which man supposedly ‘creates’ and forms in his struggles and
efforts to be redeemed from evil, is the equivalent of the creation of heaven
and earth. . . .
It is worth noting that both
the Rambam and Rabeinu Bahayeh teach the concept of Messianic redemption – the
Geula – as the great and momentous mission of perfecting man within the
framework of the world as it is. Man’s willingness to invest effort and to
strive constantly to rule over his inclinations, these are the intent of the
Torah as it states figuratively: “In your mouth and in your heart, to
observe it.”
(Leibowitz, Seven Years of Discussions on the Weekly Parasha, pp.
913-914)
To all our
readers To
the entire House of Israel
To the entire world
May there be an end to the year
and its misfortunes,
and a beginning of a year and its
blessings.
Inscribe us in THE BOOK OF LIFE,
for your sake, LIVING GOD
The
passage “The hidden things are for the lord our God, but the revealed-things
are for us and for our children, for the ages, to observe all the words of this
Instruction,” demands careful study, both because of its content – the
contrast between the hidden and the revealed – and because of its visual irregularity – some of the
words are superscribed by dots.
A. Rashi sees this passage including the
concept of mutual responsibility. The passage defines the penalty with which
society must punish whomever sins publicly. This obligation becomes operative
only upon the entry into the Land, with the covenant at Mts. Gerizim and Eval,
but not with the covenant at Sinai.
The reason for this is that only after the entry into the Land and the
establishment of political organization is there a infrastructure for building
the general interdependence of Jewish society.
The dots above “for us and for our
children” are exegetically interpreted as teaching that the community was
not liable for punishment before the crossing of the Jordan River, the
acceptance of the vows at Mts. Gerizim and Eval, and their becoming mutually
interdependent.
On the other hand, the Ramban discerns in
this passage the definition of the concept of sin and the consciousness of sin.
There is no sin without intent and awareness of one’s actions, because “the
hidden things are for the Lord our God” alone. Man bears responsibility
only for his conscious actions. He is not punished for what was done or caused
unknowingly. Thus writes the Ramban:
My understanding, resulting from a plain
reading, is that the “hidden things” are those transgressions concealed
from the knowledge of the perpetrators, as per “Who can be aware of errors, Clear me of unperceived
guilt?” (Tehillim 19:13). This is to say, the hidden things are solely
God’s concern; our transgressing them are not considered sins. But regarding
the revealed things, the intentional sins, it is for us and our descendents
forever to observe all the words of this Torah as an eternal code, for so did
we accept on behalf “of the one
who is here with us… and the one who is not here with us today,” for all
future generations. And when He
included in the oath the obligation to observe all the mitzvot, he exempted
from penalty the one who acts unwittingly, that he not be cursed by
[abrogating] this oath.”
Both
Rashi and Ramban, however, utilize this passage in totally different contexts.
We find Rashi expounding this passage and attributing to it significance
relevant to his generation. Thus,
in his interpretation of a difficult verse in Tehillim 87 (v. 6), he writes:
In the future, when The Holy One, Blessed Be
He, will inscribe the idol worshipers for shame, he will count the Israelites
assimilated among them, and those coerced among them, and He will take them out
from among them and will say “This one was born of those of Zion” and He will
set them aside for himself. This is what was said by Isaiah (chap. 66) “And
from them likewise I will take some to be priests and Levites” – from the
nations who bring offerings; I will take those who are assimilated among them
and among them will be unrecognized priests and Levites, but to me they are
revealed, says God. And where does
He say this? “The hidden things are for the Lord our God.”1
Ramban elsewhere (in his commentary to
Devarim 18:21) uses this passage in order to impress upon us our duty to accept
responsibility for historic decisions. Mortals, being only mortals, should not be concerned
with the hidden things. They are obliged to decide on the basis of their
judgement and according to their perception, just as the judge must decree on
the basis of testimony which he hears, even if he is not always able to uncover
the hidden thoughts of witnesses who may offer false testimony. Lack of
definite knowledge of the hidden things in no way diminishes mortals’
responsibility for their decisions:
“It is a mitzvah to listen to him [the
prophet], as is written, “And you shall listen to him.” And it is possible that he perform a
sign or an omen, but he is a not a prophet, and this omen has some ulterior
purpose. Even so, it is a mitzvah to listen to him; because he is a great man,
and a wise man, and is deserving of prophecy; we presume his status to be as
before, just as we are charged to judge on the basis of two qualified witnesses
even though they may be giving false testimony; because [until now] we have
considered them to be trustworthy witnesses, therefore we presume that they continue
to be such. With regard to these and to similar instances it is written “The
hidden things are for the Lord our God” and it is written (Samuel I 16:7):
“Man sees only what is visible, but the Lord sees into the heart.”
B.
A totally different avenue of investigation
was opened when the ancients began to differentiate between the complex of
Halakhic dictates – which are revealed to us – and the hidden things, as yet
unrevealed to us, but which may be revealed in the future. The community of the
Dead Sea Scrolls attributed to their ‘Cohen Tzedek’ – their Just Priest – the
ability to reveal the Torah’s hidden secrets, thus providing new perspectives
on the Torah. Actually, here lies the basis of the controversy between the
Pharisees and the Saducees over the proprietorship over the right to interpret
and expound the midrashim of the Torah. Each side considered the other as
acting in violation of the Halacha.
The members of the Dead Sea Scroll community called upon all:
… who enter the covenant to separate himself
from all men of iniquity who walk in the evil path […] for they did not seek or
expound its laws in order to know its secrets . . .
They condemn those [referring to Chazal]:
Who devise smooth (slippery? empty?) derashot…
and they justify the wicked one and condemn the righteous and they violate the
covenant and they break the law.
The
Pharisees, on the other hand, condemned the person who “misinterprets the Torah
(Mishna Avot 3:15) and those who ‘sit and expound explications of falsehood.”2
On
the basis of the assumption that words of the Torah embody many hidden worlds,
‘Baalei Sod’ – Masters of the Secret Lore – occasionally dared, during
our long history, to unveil some of these secret worlds, thereby enriching us.
So did the philosophers and so did Kabbalists and different creators in our
Jewish world. The Book of the
Zohar itself rationalizes the revelation of the hidden secrets by Rabbi Shimon
bar Yochai:
And it is written “The hidden things are
for the lord our God, but the revealed-things are for us and for our children”
– it is permitted to ask and to study and to examine them and to
know them. But the hidden things – “for the Lord our God”; they are His, and He
can see who is able to understand and to take hold of his sealed intelligence,
and certainly, to ask. Come and see, mortals have no permission to express
hidden things and to explain them, with the exception of the holy lamp, Rabbi
Shimon, for The Holy One, Blessed Be He, consented, and because his generation
is inscribed above and below, and therefore the words were expressed by him
openly. And there will be no generation like that generation in which he lived
before the arrival of the Anointed King.3
Yet,
we are told of additional people who merited receiving heavenly dispensation to
reveal their teachings, such as Ramchal, the Baal Shem Tov, and Rav Nachman of
Breslav.
The
claim to esoteric knowledge grants its possessor tremendous power, which is
potentially very dangerous.
This is also true of anyone who claims that he is capable of divining
God’s intentions in historical and actual processes.
C. In an excellent and fascinating article
titled “Hidden and Revealed – The Esoteric And Its Limitations In Medieval
Jewish Tradition,” Prof. Moshe Halbertal reviews – through the prism of the
history and sociology of culture – the powers hidden in the
concealment of secret knowledge and its revelation. In his summation he writes:
Torat HaSod – the esoteric lore – is the most breached
boundary of tradition, just because it is the most protected and hidden.
Esoterica is the medium which facilitates integration of different cultural
contexts into the tradition. Under the cloak of sod, radically differing
positions – positions which gave totally different levels of
significance to the meaning of Halacha and the structure of Jewish belief
– penetrated the heart of Jewish tradition. However, as long as each
side continued to keep its Torah secrets secret, it was possible to accept the
radical multiplicity of competing and conflicting positions. The exposed and
shared level made possible coexistence based upon mutual respect of esoterica.
In the same community and in the very same synagogue, there could coexist
people who totally negated each others’ views, provided that the conflicting
sides kept the sod at reasonable distance from the revealed layer of
their world view.
1. Compare with Midrash Tehillim (Buber) 87
2. See A. Shemesh and Cana Wharman (Nachliel),
“HaNistarot V’haniglim”, Tarbiz, 66, pp. 471-482.
3. Zohar, Vol.
III, Bemidbar, Parashat Shelach Lecha, p. 158a
Yoske Ahituv is a member of Ein Tzurim
When Is Man Judged?
The world is judged at four periods… On Rosh
Hashanah all mankind passes before Him as a flock of sheep, as is written, “He
who fashions the hearts of them all, who discerns all their doings.” (Mishna, Rosh Hashanah, 1:2)
It has been taught [in a Berayta]: All things
are judged on Rosh Hashanah and their sentence is sealed on Yom HaKippurim,
these are the words of Rabbi Meir.
Rabbi Yehuda says: All things are judged on
Rosh Hashanah, and the sentence of each thing is sealed in its own particular
time: On Pesach, the wheat is sentenced, on Shavuot the fruits of the trees, on
Sukkot the waters; man is judged on Rosh Hashanah, and his sentence is sealed
on Yom HaKippurim.
Rabbi Yossi says: Man is judged daily, as is
written: “You inspect him every morning.” (Job 7:18)
Rabbi Nathan says: Man is judged constantly,
as is written: “Examine him every minute.” (Job 7:18)
(Bavli,
Rosh Hashanah, 17a)
Rabbi Nation’s view, without question,
reflects the deepest religious awareness. Every hour, every minute of his life,
man stands trial. Actually, man –
through his actions, his failings, his decisions of every moment – determines
the subject for which he is being constantly tried. This requires
clarification. If man is judged daily, in what way is Rosh Hashanah different
from all other days? And if he is judged hourly, what is the purpose of
designating dates and specific times as days of judgement?
…
Man always stands before God, and even his tiniest action brings himself to
trial. If man is conscious of his constant standing before God, then there is
no moment in his life in which he is not on trial – what, then, is the
meaning of Rosh Hashanah?
These considerations
lead us to conclude that Rosh Hashanah is not a “Day of Judgement.” It is rather a “Day of Sounding (the
Shofar)” and a “Remembrance of Sounding” which is to remind man of the fact
that he is continually on trial.
This is not to say
that sentence is pronounced here and now; but this is the trial by which it is
determined whether man is a saint or a sinner.
(Y.
Leibowitz, Discussions on Israel’s Festivals and Appointed Times, p.
165)
Even though the
sounding of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah is a Torah decree, it does hint at a
message: Awake – slumberers
– from your sleep,
and drowsy ones – stir from your doze, and search your ways,
and turn in repentance and remember your Creator, those who forget the truth in
the follies of time and err throughout their life in nonsense and emptiness
which offer no benefit and no salvation; look to your souls and improve your
ways and your actions, and let each of you abandon his bad way and his useless
thoughts. Therefore, every man
must consider himself throughout the year as though he were half innocent and
half guilty, and similarly, the entire world is half innocent and half guilty;
by sinning a single sin, he tips his scale and that of the entire world towards
“guilty” and causes its destruction. If he performs a single mitzvah, he has
tipped his scale and that of the world in their favor, bringing about their
salvation, as is written, “The tzaddik is the foundation of the world” – this means that the righteous man wins a favorable judgement for all
mankind, and saves it. Because of
this, it is customary for all the House of Israel to increase charity and good
deeds, and to engage in mitzvoth from Rosh Hashanah through Yom HaKippurim more
than during the rest of the year, and the general custom is to arise in the
night during these ten days, to gather in the synagogues and engage in prayer
and pleading and in words of admonition until the break of day.
(Rambam, Laws of Repentence, 3:4)
What’s Happening in Our Movement?
As this issue goes
to press, we have as yet not received details of the traditional prayer service
which we conduct yearly – together with other movements – on the Fast of Gedalya, in the vicinity of Rabin Square. Readers are invited to be on the alert
for announcements in the media, or to contact the offices of “Oz VeShalom” –
“Netivot Shalom.”
Editorial Board: Pinchas Leiser (Editor), Miriam Fine (Coordinator), Itzhak Frankenthal and Dr. Menachem Klein
Translation: Kadish Goldberg
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