G-d In Exile

(Parshas Nitzavim)

Having been warned of the 147 punishments enumerated in Parshas Bechukosei and Ki Savo that would befall the Jews should they abandon the Torah, they were afraid that they would not survive as a nation.

But G-d reassures them that whatever their sins, they will survive. This is because the punishments are not metered out for the sake of destroying them, but for the sake of saving them.

They are G-d’s guarantee that the Jews will survive because they cause them to repent.

So it was in the time of Haman. In the face of the threat of extinction, the Jews finally realized that their only chance of survival was keeping the Torah.

Up to that point, they had the option to reject the Torah on the grounds that it was forced on them. After all, we are told that at Revelation, G-d suspended Mount Sinai over their heads and threatened to crush them should they refuse to accept it. It was this form of coercion that gave the Jews the choice to opt out by claiming that they never voluntarily accepted it. “Moda’ah rabbah le’oreitah,” the Torah was given under duress and one could say that we don’t have to keep it (Shabbat 88a.) It was only after Haman threatened to eliminate the Jews that they realized that the key to their survival was the observance of the Torah and they chose to opt in voluntarily. Such is the power of punishment. It is there to correct, not to reject.

The word Nitzav or Nitzavim means to stand proud and upright. Even though the Jews had sinned many times, they had repented. The sins of a person who repents are transformed into good deeds, because, after all, a person would be unable to perform the mitzvah of repentance without sinning.

The words “Kulchem lifnei Hashem” (Devarim 29:9) at the beginning of of parsha are strange. How can the entire nation be standing in the front row, so to speak, together with Moshe and the rest of the leaders who regularly occupy the front row? That was not the way it was at Revelation when only Moshe occupied the front row and the rest stood back.

But what happened on “hayom” (in the same pasuk), on this day, was different. Up to this time, each Jew was responsible for himself, not for his fellow Jew. From this day on, each person was responsible for his own conduct and the conduct of the other. When there is collective responsibility, when each one of us is there to guarantee the conduct of the other, everyone becomes a leader and can take their place in the front row.

“Lema’an hakim oschah hayom le’am” (29:12) – it is this concept of collective responsibility, standing up for and correcting the conduct of the other, that transforms a multitude of individuals into a nation.

But can we guarantee the behavior of another? After all, there is such a thing as freedom of choice and we cannot force any one to behave in a certain way. Are we to be responsible if, after all our attempts to correct someone else’s behavior, they exercise their freedom of choice and do what they want? The Torah answers this question by saying “Hanistaros Lashem Elokeinu, vehaniglos lanu” (29:28). Only G-d knows how sincerely we tried. If we did all we could to influence the conduct of others short of forcing them, we have fulfilled our duty and we are no longer responsible.

If the Jews undertook to be responsible for each other and sincerely repented for their previous sins, why were they afraid that they would not survive in the future.

Why was it that even Moshe was concerned that they would repeat their sins. “Ki yadati acharei mosi ki Hash’ches tash’chisun v’sartem min haderech asher tzivisi eschem …ki ta’asu hara b’eynei Hashem lehachiso bema’aseh yedeichem – For I know that after my death you will become corrupt and depart from the way which I commanded you and bad things will happen to you at the end of days for you will do bad in the eyes of G-d to anger him with your ways” (31:29).

The answer is that the pressure to succumb to temptation is part of the human condition. Lema’an sefos haravah es hatseme’ah – that the less desirable urges satisfy the more desirable urges.

Indeed, the only way to appease one’s conscience when giving in to one’s most extreme desires is to violate all the prohibitions of the Torah, even those that do not give one any pleasure. That way one drowns out one’s conscience. The Jews did not believe that sticks and stones were gods, but if serving such gods meant they could unashamedly partake in licentious behavior, they were prepared to believe in it.

The story is told of the tortured Jew who could not enjoy pork because his conscience bothered him. So he asked his psychiatrist what to do. He was told that his problem was the bear in the corner, the bear being the Torah. He had to get rid of all of it. He should start, the psychiatrist advised, by eating snails, just to get used to eating treif, even if it disgusted him, and then his conscience would no longer interfere with the pork.

But whatever one’s urges, repentance is always accepted.

“Veshavta ad Hashem – And you will return unto G-d” (30:2). The word “ad” means that sincere repentance has wings. If flies over the heads of the gatekeeper angels, who may be cynical of one’s sincerity, directly to G-d, who understands and accepts it. The prophet uses the same expression. “Shuva Yisrael ad Hashem Elokecha.”

“Veshav Hashem Elokechah es shevuscha verichamecha, veshav vekibetzcha micol ha’amim asher hefitzcha Hashem Elokecha shama – And G-d will cause you to return and he will have pity on you and he will return and gather you from all the nations into which he dispersed you.”

Because the Torah uses the word “Veshav,” and G-d will himself return, instead of the word “veheishiv Hashem,” and G-d will return you, Chazal teach that G-d goes into exile with the Jews and returns with them.

He always identifies with our pain. We know that the prayers of one who beseeches G-d for the recovery of another as if he needed the recovery himself are answered immediately. Furthermore, if the person who prays for the other is suffering from the same pain himself and needs a recovery too, he will be answered first. We know this from Avraham who prayed that Avimelech should be cured from his barrenness first, even though Avraham was barren too. Immediately after that, it says “Vehashen pakad,” G-d attended to Avraham’s problem first.

So like Avraham, G-d puts himself in our shoes, joins us in the Diaspora and thus hastens the redemption.

But there is an additional meaning to this verse. It should be noted that the word “Veshav” is used twice in the same verse. This is because there are two returns to Eretz Yisrael. There is one return before Mashiach by Jews who volunteer to go and live is Israel. G-d, so to speak, goes with them and joins them in this pre-messianic aliyah. We call it “Aschalta degeulah” the beginning of the final redemption. G-d appreciates those that begin the rebuilding of the land before Mashiach comes, so that when he does arrive, there is something for him to see. Then G-d returns a second time when Mashiach finally comes and brings back the remainder of the Jews who remained in exile until the coming of the Mashiach.

There are two ways of doing teshuva. One is repenting in reaction to the 147 punishments enumerated in the Torah. The other is by reciting the 147 sections of Tehillim (147 according to Tosafos). My we respond with teshuva to the latter rather than to the former.