Drash, September 27, 2008 – Nitzavim – Ron Brown Many of you have heard me talk about my journey as a Jew before, and so will know that after that Bar Mitzvah I drifted away from Judaism, not becoming seriously interested again for well over 20 years. And what I know about this parashah is that I was attracted to its message well before the time that I realized it to be my Bar Mitzvah portion. That happened some years later when I picked up an siddur that had been sitting on my bookshelf for a very long time and found to be inscribed "Best wishes from the Bnai Jacob sisterhood, Nitzavim 1958." I want to speak today about this message that I found in Nitzavim, that I found so attractive, and that our Sages must have thought was important as well, with its placement at this precise moment every year, on the Shabbat before Rosh Hashanah. Nitzavim, to begin with, is the description of a convenanting ceremony, the reaffirmation of the covenant that our people entered into at Sinai, a ceremony that is carried out on the east bank of the Jordan River, just before entering the Promised Land. It is a covenant between God and a new generation, the generation that grew up in the wilderness during the 40 year march through the desert. So Moses begins by calling upon all of the people, the tribal heads, the elders, the men, women and children, and even the stranger, the non-Jew, who is traveling with them. It is a covenant with with each of them, and with us as well, the generations to come. Moses then describes to them as he does numerous times in Deuteronomy, the consequences of breaking the covenant, as well as the rewards for following it. And then Moses makes the statement that I found so important those many years ago, and that still attracts me to this day. You see, from our perspective, from the perspective of a religious tradition that is now 1000s of years old, Judaism often appears to be a religion with an almost impossibly detailed prescription for life. Shabbat candlelighting is 18 minutes before Friday night sunset and Shabbat ends with the seeing of the third star on Saturday night. We have 7 leap years for every 19 year cycle. We have a blessing for seeing a rainbow, and another one for passing a place where a miracle occurred. We are instructed by the Rabbi‚s to say the morning Shema at that moment when natural light allows one to see the difference in color between white tzitzit and blue tzitzit. We bow when we begin the Amidah, to the left and then the right, or is that to the right and then the left. I have a good friend who does it the other way, and yet I still speak to him. Etc. etc. etc. We have taken the 613 mitzvot of the Torah and built fences around them, rules that will prevent their violation. We have built fences around the fences and we have created a bewildering array of laws. And someone approaching this for the first time, or someone trying to return to the practice of Judaism as I was, could find it almost impossible. Until they read Nitzavim. For what does Moses say here: Surely this commandment which I enjoin upon you this day is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach. Lo bashamayim, says Moses, 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. V‚lo ma‚ever l‚yam says Moses, it is not beyond the sea that you should say who among us can cross to the other side of the sea and get it for us that we may observe it. No, the thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to observe it. Judaism is so complicated, but every year on this Shabbat right before Rosh Hashanah we read that it is simple. You know, says Moses, what to do, the thing is in your mouth and in your heart. And now we can understand, I think, both what drew me to this parshah so many years ago, and why we read it immediately before Rosh Hashanah. What drew me to it? This parashah says that even if you had strayed away, as I did after my Bar Mitzvah, as we all do, on a regular basis, it is not hard to come back. And even if it looks daunting, it is not. You know what to do. This thing, Moses says, it is in your mouth and in your heart. And I believe that if that is where this thing is, if it is imbedded in your soul in that way, then it can not be about what direction to bow in while saying the Amidah, it must involve something that is much deeper and yet at the same time much simpler. It must be about loving God, and about loving the relationship that our people have had with our God for all these thousands of years. And all the rest must just be detail. Many of our commentators have wondered also what exactly this thing was that was so simple. For how does Moses begin his exhortation, "Surely this commandment is not too baffling. But what commandment, the Rabbi's ask, is he discussing? In order to answer this question, they focus on the verses immediately before the ones that I just read. These verses talk about what will happen if you return, even if you have strayed from the path. And that is why we read this parashah on this particular Shabbat, in this place in the calendar. It is because of course this message is not about one young man‚s path back into Judaism, it is about the need we generate every year, the need to return, it is about Teshuvah, And making Teshuvah, returning, is the central theme of these days that lead up to Rosh Hashanah. In fact, in chapter 30 of today‚s Torah portion, the chapter containing the words that I have been discussing, the root word shuv, the root of Teshuvah, appears seven times in ten verses. We read, in Moses‚ words: "You shall return unto the Lord your God." And, "You shall return and obey the voice of the Lord." And, "You shall return to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul." The turning goes in two directions. Not only are we supposed to turn to God, but God is supposed to turn to us as well. "Then the Lord your God, says Moses, will turn your captivity and have compassion upon you. And, "For the Lord your God will turn again and rejoice over you." So during this season, during these days leading up to Rosh Hashanah, we are commanded to return, and we are given a central message about return˜it is not difficult, it is not across the sea, it is not in the heavens, it is in your mouth and in your soul. Rabbi Sholmo Ephraim, who served as the Gaon of Prague in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, and who was known as the Kli Yakar, the Precious Vessel, after the name of his commentary to the Torah, explained the message in this way: Maybe, says the penitent, even though I desire to return to G-d, who says that God desires to return to me? Sin affects the person, distancing him from Godliness. But sin also has an affect on the Divine Presence in the world, causing it to leave the earth, rising up to the Heavens. A man might work at moving in the direction of the Divine, but will the Divine Presence return to the person? G-d responds to the penitent's worry, teaches the Kli Yakar, and says, "You need not rise up to the Heavens. When you repent and start to move in the direction of G-dliness, I will descend from the Heavens towards you." So, teshuva is easy. We only have to go halfway and God will meet us. And the journey, like every journey, can begin with a single step. How do we learn to love God? How do we make teshuva? Judaism gives us a path, the path of the mitzvot. I have suggested before to this congregation that return takes place by taking one step at a time along this path. And that makes it easy to start. You can decide, and you still have a few days to do it, that you will find one mitzvah, one Jewish practice that you do not already do, and make it your mission to take up that mitzvah during the new year. And I think that the Kli Yakar was right˜if we begin the journey, God will meet us along the way. Shabbat shalom and l'shana tovah.