This week's Torah Portion, which will be read this Shabbat in synagogues around the Jewish world is that of Nitzavim. This is one of the four last Portions before the end of the book of Deuteronomy, which is the last book of the Pentateuch (the five books of Moses). When we finish these five books, in about a month from now, we will go back to reading them from the start, from the book of Genesis. Every year we read the entire five books in synagogue, from the Holiday of Simchat Torah of one year till the same holiday of the following year.
Of course, we also read the Prophets. This is done every Shabbat in synagogues after the Torah Reading. There is just so much to say about the Torah portions that I don't write here about the prophet's portions, but it doesn't mean that we don't read them too. The four last Portions of the year are very short, compared to the other ones, but there is so much to say about them.
In our portion, Moses stresses the fact that the covenant that G-d sealed with us on Mt. Sinai is for ALL generations and not with just the people who stood there physically. All of us, including those of us who were not yet born at the time of Mt. Sinai, are obliged by this covenant: "Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath, but with him who stands here with us today before the Lord our G-d and also with him who is not here with us today" (Deut. 29: 13-14). The covenant sealed between G-d and the Jewish people (and those of the nations who join them) is for ALL generations and we are all obliged by it.
And if we don't perform our part of the covenant, G-d will not annihilate us altogether and won't break the covenant with us. Instead, He will fulfill the negative side of this covenant, all the threats we read about in last week's portion (and in so many other places throughout the Torah and the Prophets): the exile, the pogroms, the constant fear, the exile from our land, the desolation of our beloved Land. The difference between a covenant and a regular agreement is that agreements can be cancelled and modified, but a covenant with G-d cannot ever change, and whoever says it can change is lying to himself.
When I read the following verses, I think of the condition in which the Land of Israel was until the beginning of the 19th century:
"And the generation to come, your children that shall rise up after you and the foreigner that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, the sicknesses with which the Lord has made it sick; and the whole land there is brimstone and salt and a burning, that it is not sown, nor bears, nor any grass grows there, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah... which the Lord overthrew in His anger and in His wrath. And all the nations shall say: why has the Lord done thus to this land? what means the heat of this anger? Then men shall say: 'because they forsook the covenant of the Lord, the G-d of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them forth out of the land of Egypt" (Deut. 29:21-24).
I recommend reading Mark Twain's book, The Innocents Abroad, which was translated to many languages. It is often quoted, and sometimes misquoted. Read for yourself, especially the eleven chapters (chapters 46 to 56) dealing with the Holy Land, and make up your mind. This is Mark Twain's account of his visit to the Holy Land in the middle of the 19th century, not too long ago. In so many places around these chapters he repeats his impressions of how ugly, desolate and cursed the land seemed to him.
I'll quote here just some short quotes out of many, where he describes the land as:
"...sitting in sackcloth and ashes. Over it broods the spell of a curse that has withered its fields and fettered its energies... It is a hopeless, dreary, heartbroken land, a desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds, a silent, mournful expanse... a desolation is here that not even imagination can grace with the pomp of life and action... There was hardly a tree or a shrub anywhere. Even the olive and the cactus, those fast friends of the worthless soil, had almost deserted the country".
Chilling, isn't it? Especially when it is read in conjunction with the verses from Deuteronomy above.
But still, G-d in His infinite mercy, has shown us favor and did an unbelievable miracle of bringing us back to our land, as we can all see today (I'm writing to you from Jerusalem, not from any other country), and as is promised, if we repent and return to our G-d: "then the Lord your G-d will bring back your captivity and have compassion upon you and will return and gather you from all the nations where the Lord your G-d has scattered you. If any of you will be dispersed in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there will the Lord your G-d gather you, and from there He will fetch you. And the Lord your G-d will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it..." (Deut. 30: 3-4). So here I am now, a descendant of my forefathers, of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, sitting, as promised, in the Holy Land, in the land of my forefathers, and possessing it, being a sovereign in my land after almost 2000 years of desolation, and with me are Jews from every corner of the world... In Jerusalem you can hear so many languages spoken: English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Amharic, Arabic, what not? Most spoken by people who left their rich diaspora countries and came here, to this little oasis in the desert, surrounded by so many enemy countries. This in itself is a miracle. Whenever I see someone who left the USA or Canada or England or Australia or France to come here, to the Middle East, I know it's a miracle. The hand of G-d is evident in it.
But even now, when the beginning of our redemption has started to manifest, the covenant is obliging, we are obliged to fulfill our part in it:
"If you shall hearken to the voice of the Lord your G-d to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this book of the law, if you turn unto the Lord your G-d with all your heart and with all your soul". (ibid. 10)
And again, as in so many other places around the Torah and Prophets, the connection between our keeping the commandments and sitting in our land is stressed: "...to love the Lord your G-d, to hearken to His voice and to cleave unto Him, for that is your life and the length of your days, that you may dwell in the land which the Lord SWORE to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, to give them" (ibid. 20). Or, to put it simply, we will get to sit in our sworn, promised land only IF we obey G-d's commandments. And this brings me to the beginning of what I wrote today: the covenant is eternal, and is done with all future generations of Jews and those of the nations who join the Jewish covenant with G-d in earnest, to forsake all foreign gods and to observe Shabbat and do all the other commandments.
Those who claim that G-d has forsaken us and broken the covenant with us don't open their eyes to see history in a divine light. Don't they see that all the promises, good and bad, have come true? Why would G-d bother to do it if He has already forsaken us?
I have to bring a quote here from the prophet Amos, describing how the cursed, desolate land, will bring forth its trees and fruit for us when we return to it. And this too has chillingly come true in our days (remember Mark Twain's description of the land, then compare it to what Israel looks like today, 150 years later, and only then read the following verses): "Behold, the days come, says the Lord, when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills, and I will bring My people Israel back from exile, and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them, and they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens and eat their fruit. And I will plant them upon their land and they shall no more be plucked up out of their land which I have given them, says the Lord your G-d" (Amos 9: 13-15).
They shall no more be plucked up out of their land, which I have given them. I hope our loving neighbors on all sides, and the ayatollahs in Iran, hear and understand this. They will understand that there is no point in trying to drive us out of this land, or out of this world.
How could anyone read these verses and not realize what is going on? What else should happen for people to finally open their eyes?
The process of the final redemption has started with us coming back to our land a century ago. It will take a few more years, maybe dozens, maybe hundreds, I don't know how many, but sure enough, the final redemption has already started and its finalization is just around the corner.
To end with a quote from this Shabbat prophet reading, Isaiah: "And they shall call them the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord, and you (Jerusalem) will be called sought after, the city no longer deserted" (Isaiah 62: 12). This is here and now.
Shabbat shalom! (And see you again Sunday morning, with a post about Rosh Hashana).