Parashat Nitzavim-VaYelech, Deuteronomy 29:9-31:30

This week's parashah has been generously sponsored in loving memory of Meryl Gardner's mother, Harriet H. Cohen. Kolel is grateful to Meryl for her ongoing support and appreciates its weekly sponsors.

In transgressing we have started on the wrong path, but we always have the opportunity to change directions.

This is a time of transition both in the secular world and in the Jewish one. Stores have been touting their "back to school" sales for weeks, and Judaica shops have been displaying their back to shul items in preparation for the High Holy Days. With Labour Day behind us, we are back to our "normal" schedule of work and school. It is a transition so familiar to us that we take it for granted.

In Jewish time, the transition is both gradual and increasingly intense. The month of Elul is a time of introspection and soul-searching in preparation for the New Year. As we bid farewell to Shabbat this week, the force of our soul-searching increases with Selichot services. With the observance of Rosh Hashanah the seasonal transition intensifies even more, culminating in Yom Kippur.

Transition is at the core of our double Torah portion this week. In Nitzavim, Moses addresses the people once more, reiterating the obligations incumbent upon us as partners in God's covenant. This is a covenant that we freely accept and is within our reach (Deut 30:11-14).

The image of entering into a covenant with God is very different from what occurred at Sinai. When we received the commandments at Sinai, it was a spectacle that would inspire the likes of Cecil B. DeMille in the future:

Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke, for Adonai had come down upon it in fire; the smoke rose like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled violently. The blare of the horn grew louder and louder. (Exodus 19:18-19)

Compare this with the description in Nitzavim which focuses on the people who are to be part of the covenant:

You stand this day, all of you, before Adonai your God – your tribal heads, your elders, and your officials, all the men of Israel, your children, your women, even the stranger within your camp, from woodchopper to water drawer – to enter into the covenant of Adonai your God which Adonai your God is concluding with you this day… (Deut. 29:9-11).

No thunder and lightning, this is a non-smoking covenant. The verb describing this momentous event is le-ovrecha, translated as "to enter," whereas the more common verb for entering into a covenant is likhrot "to cut," comparable to our "cutting a deal."

Rashi picks up on the use of the verb avar, "to enter," and explains that entering into a covenant involved making a partition on one side and the other, and passing between these partitions. He brings an example from Jeremiah 34:18-20 where an agreement was made by cutting a calf in half and walking between the two halves of the offering. A more familiar example would be the "covenant of the pieces" where God promises Abram that his descendants will inherit the land:

And he [Abram] said, "Adonai God, how shall I know that I am to possess it?" God answered: "Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old she-goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young bird." He brought God all these and cut them in two, placing each half opposite the other; but he did not cut up the bird. … When the sun set and it was very dark, there appeared a smoking oven, and a flaming torch which passed between those pieces. On that day Adonai made a covenant with Abram… (Gen. 15:8-10, 17-18)

The verb avar appears elsewhere in Nitzavim as well:

Well you knew that we dwelt in the land of Egypt and that we passed through (avarnu) the midst of various other nations through which you passed (avartem); and you have seen the detestable things and the fetishes of wood and stone, silver and gold, that they keep. (Deut. 29:15-16)

Here the meaning of the verb appears to be the simple "crossing" or "passing though." However, the next few verses warn of turning towards the gods of these nations. This provides a deeper understanding of avar, "crossing." Physically passing through an area is bound to affect you – be it walking between items for a covenantal ceremony, or traversing the territory of a nation whose influence you are to avoid.

This week's second parashah, Va-yelekh, also has examples of the verb avar:

Moses went and spoke these things to all Israel. He said to them: I am now one hundred and twenty years old, I can no longer be active. Moreover, Adonai has said to me, "You shall not go across (ta'avor) yonder Jordan." It is indeed Adonai your God who will cross over (over) before you; and who will wipe out those nations from your path and you shall dispossess them. — Joshua is the one who shall cross (over) before you, as Adonai has spoken. (Deut. 31:1-3)

On a simple peshat level, the verb provides "just the facts" of the transition from Moses' to Joshua's leadership under God's auspices. But the change in leadership is not simple. Crossing over the Jordan is more than a physical act, it is the first step in a new life for the nation of Israel; and it will take place under the direction of a different leader.

Moreover, crossing the Jordan has spiritual implications. Symbolically, it is a covenantal action. Crossing the Sea of Reeds carries the same imagery as a "covenant between the pieces." Crossing the Jordan is reminiscent of crossing this earlier body of water. At the Sea of Reeds we transitioned from being slaves to a free people. Crossing the Jordan is the threshold where we are transformed into a nation with full covenantal responsibility to God.

Beyond that, avar has theological implications for the individual's relationship with God. Think of Abram sitting by his tent, imploring three divine visitors, "If it please you do not go past (ta'avor) your servant." (Gen. 18:3) Or of Moses asking to see God's presence and being told "I will make all My goodness pass (a'avir) before you…" (Ex. 33: 19). Or most importantly for us at this time of year – Adonai passed (va-ya'avor) before him [Moses] and proclaimed: "Adonai! Adonai! a God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and faithfulness, extending kindness to the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin… "(Ex 34:6-7)

"Crossing over" can be the first step in a life-changing experience. At this season of introspection, we are painfully aware of our transgressions (averot). Interestingly, even the English word is rooted in a journey: "trans" is from the Latin meaning "across" and "gressus" from "gradi" meaning "to walk, or go." In transgressing we have started on the wrong path, but we always have the opportunity to change directions. Now as we cross over from Elul into the New Year, our past transgressions open a sacred path of soul-searching that can lead us from simple transition to spiritual transformation drawing us closer to God.

Shabbat shalom,
MS