Parashat Nitzavim-Vayelech

WHEN SUCH A ONE HEARS THE WORDS OF THESE SANCTIONS, HE MAY FANCY HIMSELF IMMUNE, THINKING, "I SHALL BE SAFE THOUGH I FOLLOW MY OWN WILLFUL HEART"- TO THE UTTER RUIN OF MOIST AND DRY ALIKE. THE LORD WILL NEVER FORGIVE HIM; RATHER THE LORD'S ANGER AND PASSION RAGE AGAINST THAT MAN, TILL EVERY SANCTION RECORDED IN THIS BOOK COMES DOWN UPON HIM, AND THE LORD BLOTS OUT HIS NAME FROM UNDER HEAVEN. THE LORD WILL SINGLE THEM OUT FROM ALL THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL FOR MISFORTUNE, IN ACCORDANCE WITH ALL THE SANCTIONS OF THE COVENANT RECORDED IN THIS BOOK OF TORAH. AND LATER GENERATIONS WILL ASK - THE CHILDREN WHO WILL SUCCEED YOU, AND FOREIGNERS WHO COME FROM DISTANT LANDS AND SEE THE PLAGUES AND DISEASES THAT THE LORD HAS INFLICTED UPON THAT LAND, ALL ITS SOIL DEVASTATED BY SULFUR AND SALT, BEYOND SOWING AND PRODUCING, NO GRASS GROWING IN IT, JUST LIKE THE UPHEAVAL OF SODOM AND GEMORRAH, ADMAH AND ZEBOIIM, WHICH THE LORD OVERTHREW IN HIS FIERCE ANGER - ALL THE NATIONS WILL ASK, "WHY DID THE LORD DO THUS TO THIS LAND? WHEREFORE THAT AWFUL WRATH?" THEY WILL BE TOLD, "BECAUSE THEY FORSOOK THE COVENANT THAT THE LORD, GOD OF THEIR FATHERS, MADE WITH THEM WHEN HE FREED THEM FROM THE LAND OF EGYPT; THEY TURNED TO THE SERVICE OF OTHER GODS WHOM THEY HAD NOT EXPERIENCED AND WHOM HE HAD NOT ALLOTTED TO THEM.

(Devarim 29:18-25)

 

Know that the judgment of Sodom was due to the superiority of the Land of Israel since Sodom is part of the inheritance of the Eternal (II Samuel 20:19), and it does not suffer men of abominations. And just as it later vomited out a whole nation on account of their abominations, so it now anticipated and saw that this entire people behaved worse than all nations towards Heaven and mankind. It thus laid waste heaven and earth for them, and the land was destroyed forever, never to be restored, since they became haughty on account of the goodness that was bestowed on them. The Holy One, blessed be He, thus made Sodom a token against the rebellious children (Bamidbar 17:25), that is, against the children of Israel who were destined to inherit it, even as He warned them: , all its soil devastated by sulfur and salt... just like the upheaval of Sodom and Gemorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in His fierce anger (Devarim 29:22). For there have been among nations those who were evil and exceedingly sinful, and yet He did not do to them as He did to Sodom. However, it was all on account of the superiority of this land for there is the temple of the Eternal (Jeremiah 7:4). I plan to explain this in Seder Aharei Mot, if He Who taketh life and giveth life will sustain me in life.

(RaMBaN on Bereishit 1:7, based on Chavel translation)

 

 

The Double Concealment

Ariel Rathaus

 

Even while the Israelites were granted a Divine revelation at Mount Sinai, and God spoke to their rabbi, Moses, face-to-face, the Torah increasingly emphasizes the clear connection between hiddeness and the divine sphere.

In parashat Nitzavim, we read the verse; the concealed things concern the Lord (Devarim 29:28), which is usually understood as referring to hidden transgressions (as against public transgressions - see Rashi and Seforno ad locum). In parashat Vayeilekh, (which, as is often the case, is read together with Nitzavim this year), we find several passages that depict God, under certain circumstances, as being hidden. To a large degree, this notion of Divine concealment is constitutive of the way people relate to the Divine. These verses proclaim that the Divine face that was revealed at Mount Sinai may also disappear behind an impenetrable screen. In effect, this is dependent on the person himself, on how worthy he is of Divine revelation. The more the Israelites sin and clamor after the strange gods of the land (Devarim 31:16), the more impenetrable the screen becomes and the more profound the concealment. To formulate it in the Torah's own words:

Then my anger will flare up against them, and I will abandon them and hide My countenance from them. They shall be ready prey; and many evils and troubles shall befall them. And they shall say on that day, "Surely it is because our God is not in our midst that these evils have befallen us. Yet I will truly hide [haster astir] My countenance on that day, because of the evil they have done in turning to other gods. (Devarim 31:17-18)

These verses, which serve as the origin of the graphic and powerful theological expression, "concealment of [God's] face," contain an exegetical challenge: what is the message of the repetitive phrase haster astir in verse 18, a repetition that is all the more striking since the verb-root seter [conceal] already appears in the word vehistarti [and I will hide] in verse 17. Of course, a purely literalist exegete might brush this off as a mere matter of literary convention, as Ibn Ezra said ("such is linguistic custom, and grammatical scholars will understand"). However, I shall present the views of several sages who were not satisfied with syntactical explanations, and who tried to draw far-reaching conclusions from the verse's repetitiveness. It is clear that these writers did not solve the problem of the repetition as a textual issue, but, as we shall see, they shed much light from various directions on the concept of concealment as an integral part of the religious experience of the individual Jew.

First of all, I should mention a well-known drasha from the Babylonian Talmud on the expression haster astir, a drasha that connects those words with Meggilat Esther, seeing in them a kind of prophetic foreshadowing of the events commemorated on Purim: "The townspeople of Pefunyah said to Rabbi Matnah: ...Where do we find Esther in the Torah? He told them: [From the verse] I will truly hide [haster astir]" (Hullin 139b).

At first glance, Rabbi Matnah seems to be making a simple play on words, replacing haster with Esther; perhaps it was just a half-joking answer to a deliberately annoying audience. Further consideration clearly demonstrates that Rabbi Matnah's answer fits closely into a general appreciation of Purim's deeper significance.

According to a well-known opinion, the Israelites accepted the Torah a second time in the days of Ahashveirosh - this time by free choice, which was not the case at Mount Sinai, where God is said to have threatened them by lifting "the mountain over them like a basin" (Shabbat 88a). One might naturally ask why such a crucial event is attributed precisely to the generation of Mordekhai and Esther. Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter of Gur, known as the Sfat Emet, explains that on Purim the Jews accepted the Torah without experiencing Divine revelation, without signs and wonders. This "natural" acceptance, which occurred in a period of Divine concealment, completed the earlier acceptance, which had occurred at Sinai under supernatural circumstances that "forced" the Israelites into compliance. At Mount Sinai ‘the Israelites literally and physically saw that it is impossible to stray from God, who is the Life of Life," but in the days of Ahashveirosh, "they saw the miracle within nature, and understood that nature is just concealment, but its inwardness is simply the vitality of Torah" (Sfat Emet Shavuot, as cited in Y. Hassidah, Biurei Ha-Hassidut la-Shas, Jerusalem 1975, pg. 105).

He who saw the face of God is incapable of choosing it, but can only cleave to Him absolutely. In contrast, Meggilat Esther - Rabbi Matnah's "Meggilah of Concealment" - points to a unique spiritual condition, that of choice. According to this approach, Divine concealment is not simply a punishment, as implied by the sources cited earlier; it also offers a test of true faith. The Jews of Mordekhai and Esther's day accepted the Torah in a world without manifest miracles. They had to exercise the power of their faith to recognize the hand of Providence working behind the screen of seemingly natural and arbitrary historical events. They only had access to the natural, but they understood that nature is only a form of concealment wrapped around the vitality of the Torah. That was their greatness.

The RaMBaN approaches our verses from a different vantage-point. His interpretation concentrates o the difference between the two expressions of concealment, I will hide My countenance as against I will truly hide [haster astir] My countenance. He believes that the repetition involved requires us to associate each of the phrases with a different kind of concealment.

He posits that the first expression refers to God's concealing the "face of his compassion" from the Israelites (i.e., He stopped watching over them), in order to punish them for turning to idolatry. In contrast, the second expression, haster astir, concerns the period after they have already disavowed idolatry (as seen from the verse: and they shall say on that day, "Surely it is because our God is not in our midst that these evils have befallen us" - Devarim31:17) in which God will continue to punish them because of the enormity of their sin, but in a gentler manner: "It is not like the first concealment, in which He concealed the face of His compassion and they met with many evils and troubles; rather, the face of redemption shall be concealed from them" (RaMBaN on Devarim 31:18).

In other words: After the Israelites repent, God will return to watch over them, but will not redeem them completely. Concealment continues in a different form, and throughout the generations, the Jewish People persists as a nation living under God's providence, yet which is unredeemed. God will only reveal the face of redemption as the result of a process of general spiritual renewal. Salvation will not come, claims the RaMBaN, "until there is added to the mentioned disavowal [of idolatry] complete confession and repentance" (loc cit).

Rabbi Nahman of Bratzlav understands Divine concealment to mean more than a break in Divine providence or a postponement of redemption; he sees it as a complete disappearance of the Divine from human view. He pays special interest to the expression haster astir, giving it an original and profound interpretation, thus relating to the search for God as a uniquely dramatic spiritual experience:

For there are two concealments. When God hides in one concealment, it is very hard to find Him. Even so, since one is aware that God is hiding from him, it remains possible for one to exert oneself and struggle until He, may He be blessed, is found. But when blessed God hides in a concealment within a concealment, that is, when the concealment itself is hidden from view, then it becomes entirely impossible to find Him, since then one knows nothing of blessed God. That is the aspect referred to by I will truly hide [haster astir]; i.e., I will hide the concealment, so that they will not even know that blessed God is hidden. Then he will certainly be unable to find Him, may He be blessed, since he will not know that he even has to seek Him, may He be blessed, since he does not know at all that blessed God is hidden from him, since the concealment is itself hidden, as is explained above. (Likutei MoHaRaN, 1:56, 3)

What conclusions may we draw from these sharp words, which so powerfully describe alienation-unto-blindness from which there is no escape? There is no doubt that Rabbi Nahman was referring principally to the crisis of traditional faith, a process that was growing at the time his words were first published (1806) and that has become even stronger with time, until the alienation of which he spoke has become the primary spiritual condition of recent generations. In that aspect, his words are directed towards the modern secularists, who have been emptied of all religious-metaphysical content, and who are not even able to notice that they have lost something of significance. Just as a person can only gain knowledge when he recognizes his ignorance, so too a person can only find God when he realizes that he is without God. According to Rabbi Nahman's approach, the tragedy of modern skepticism is that it has no doubts regarding its own connection with the Divine, since the Divine has simply disappeared from its spiritual horizon.

However, it seems that we may draw an additional conclusion from Rabbi Nahman's concept of "concealment within concealment" that is particularly relevant to our generation. If God sometimes hides the fact of His concealment, then even God-fearing people may mistakenly identify a form of concealment for a kind of revelation. Not only will the atheist fail to seek God; so will those who believe that they have already found Him. In this way, Rabbi Nahman's words may be understood to be directed towards believers as well as non-believers; to those believers who in their impudence are sure that they have clearly understood God's intentions and plans. They are convinced that He has revealed to them which political moves the State of Israel must make, or exactly which human sin is being punished through deaths in traffic accidents.

It must be said to all of these people that it was not for nothing that the prophet called the God of Israel a hiding God (Isaiah 45:15), and that we will only be able to try to draw near to Him when we admit, in complete humility, that His ways are hidden from us as unsolved riddles.

Dr. Ariel Rathaus is a literary researcher and translator

 

 

Then the Lord will restore all of your captives and have mercy on you, and He will bring you together from all the peoples (Devarim 30:3)

 

...or it is said that those of Israel who, in their captivity, long for the Land of Israel, and wish to flee the diaspora as from a pit of captivity, will be returned early. And He will bring you together from all the peoples - those are the Israelites who are happy in a strange land, and whose desire for the Land of Beauty has ceased - these God will also gather as well, and return them later.

(Rabbi Meir Simha MiDvinsk, Meshekh Hokhmah on Devarim 30:3)

 

It is not in Heaven

These three words, lo ba-shamayim hee (it is not in heaven), are the most effective means of protection against the pretentious claim to supernatural enlightenment or even supporting itself on some Divine revelation to influence the Law and Teachings in Israel. Only hokhmah (wisdom) - not prophecy - only erudition, scholarship derived from the text and tradition, not some higher inspiration or prompting can lay claim to any validity regarding the teachings and keeping the commandments of the Torah since its completion by Moses.

(Rabbi S.R. Hirsch on Devarim 30:14, Levy translation)

 

Arrogant Leadership Brings War

Rabbi Yehudah said that Rav said: When our Rabbi Moses departed for paradise, he said to Joshua: Ask me about any doubts you may have. He said to him: Rabbi, did I ever leave you for a moment to go elsewhere [and miss something you taught]? Did you not write of me, and his servant Joshua, a youth, did not stir from within the Tent (Shemot 33: 11)? Joshua was immediately weakened; he forgot 300 laws and bore 700 doubts, and all of Israel stood ready to kill him. God told him: I cannot tell you [that which you have forgotten], go busy them with war, for it says, and it came to pass after the death of Moses, the Lord's servant...[that God instructs Joshua to conquer Canaan] (Joshua 1:1).

(Temurah 16a)

 

Righteousness and justice are the base of Your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness stand before You (Tehillim 89:15)

From the Selihot

 

It is known that justice is the base of the Throne of Glory, for it is said, righteousness and justice are the base of Your throne; he who establishes justice establishes the Throne, while he who distorts justice, and damages justice, damages the Throne. That is why he [Shlomo in Mishlei 24:23] mentions bal tov [to be partial in judgment is not good - bal tov], he does not merit the good which is stored away, of which it is written, how abundant is the good that You have in store, etc. (Tehillim 31:20). Shlomo has taught us that one who discriminates in law is punished in this world and in the next world. Justice is the author of peace, and so we find that when Yitro made a suggestion regarding justice to Moses, he mentioned peace, for it is written, if you do this thing - and God so commands you ...and all these people too will go to their place in peace (Shemot 18:23), and peace sustains the world. That is why justice is left to the sages, since the sages increase peace in the world.

(Rabbeinu Behayeiy, introduction to parashat Mishpatim.)