Parashat Nitzavim: Get Up, Stand Up
This week’s portion, Parashat Nitzavim (Deuteronomy 29:9-30:20), is short in length, but it still packs a big punch. “You stand this day, all of you…” it begins, as we are reminded that the covenant is presented to every single person in the Israelite community. The text is so central to Jewish thought that when Rabbi Chaim Stern, z”l, was editing Gates of Repentance, the Reform movement’s machzor published in 1978, he selected this Torah portion as the reading for Yom Kippur morning. This innovation was maintained in the creation of our new Reform machzor, Mishkan HaNefesh.
It was a revolutionary idea – the traditional readings for Yom Kippur morning had long been from Leviticus 16. Leviticus 16 focused on ideas of sacrifice meant to be offered up on the Day of Atonement. Two goats were brought forward, one marked for God, and one more for Azazel. The goat marked for Azazel – the scapegoat – was sent off into the wilderness, having been the recipient of the symbolic sins of the Kohen and his family. (Who or what was Azazel? That in itself is a fascinating question…) Then further laws and rituals related to Yom Kippur are listed.
The choice of Leviticus 16 is obvious. But why change the text to our week’s portion from Deuteronomy? Perhaps it is because we have two of the most profound teachings of our heritage contained in this single parsha.
First, we have the following text:
You stand this day, all of you, before the Eternal your God—your tribal heads, your elders and your officials, all the men of Israel, your children, your wives, even the stranger within your camp, from woodchopper to water drawer— to enter into the covenant of the Eternal your God, which the Eternal your God is concluding with you this day, with its sanctions; to the end that God may establish you this day as God’s people and be your God, as God promised you and as God swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.I make this covenant, with its sanctions, not with you alone but both with those who are standing here with us this day before the Eternal our God and with those who are not with us here this day. (Deut 29:9-14)
Then, later in the portion, we find this text:
Surely, this Instruction which I enjoin upon you this day is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach. It is not in the heavens, that you should say, “Who among us can go up to the heavens and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?” Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who among us can cross to the other side of the sea and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?” No, the thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to observe it.
