Nizzavim: For what are we willing to stand up, and how?

By Rabbi Arik W. Ascherman on May 26, 2006 - כ"ח אייר תשס"ו

Parashat Nitzavim (This year Nitzavim-Vayelekh) is one of my favorite portions. In many progressive and some other congregations it replaces the traditional Torah reading for Yom Kippur morning. The very idea that “This mitzvah which I command you this day is not to baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach. It is not in the heavens, 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?’ Neither is it beyond the sea…No, the thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.”

(Deut. 30: 11-14).

This is not only a statement about individual and collective responsibility, but also of capability. “It is not in the heavens” to build a more progressive and just society. The continuation is offered as an alternative to the middle paragraph of the “V’Ahavta” prayer in the Israeli Movement for Progressive Judaism’s prayerbook. God gives us the choice between life and death, and between good and evil. We are commanded to chose life.

The portion opens with the exhortation that

“You stand this day, all of you.
(Deut. 29:9).

This is the basis of those midrashim which indicate that each and every one of us stood at Sinai. Do each and every one of us stand up/put our finger in the dike when needed? As God teaches us on the second day of Rosh HaShana, we are not being asked to sacrifice our children. Nor, are we asked to sacrifice ourselves as did Rabbi Yehuda Ben-Baba in the Yom Kippur martyrology who stood between his students and Roman soldiers ”like an immovable rock” as “Three hundred Roman iron lances made of his body a sieve.” (Makhzor) Maximum, we suffer some derision from MK’s when we try to talk to them about social justice. Perhaps we get a few knocks or breath a bit of tear gas while demonstrating against the route of the Barrier.

One of the questions we must ask ourselves during these High Holy Days is, “For what are we willing to stand up, and how?” If all of us are willing to “Stand this day,” then “It is not in the heavens.”

Rabbis for Human Rights recommends that you read these articles in Devarim / Deuteronomy

Nizzavim: For what are we willing to stand up, and how? - May 26th, 2006
Vayyelekh: Believe in the immediate change of the situation - October 7th, 2005
Ki-Tavo: Responsiblity to fulfill our Human Rights obligations - September 23rd, 2005
Ki-Teze: We must stand in the breach and make sure that nobody is left behind - September 14th, 2005
Shofetim: Pursue justice through mitzvot of commission - September 8th, 2005
Re'e: Our obligations to eliminate poverty - September 2nd, 2005
Vaethannan: Acceptance of the land, and forgetting God - August 19th, 2005
Devarim: You shall not be partial in judgement - August 12th, 2005

Rabbis for Human Rights recommends that you read these articles in Nizzavim

Nizzavim: What will we stand for in the coming days and in the new year? - September 26th, 2008
Nizzavim: For what are we willing to stand up, and how? - May 26th, 2006

Categories: Devarim / Deuteronomy, Nizzavim
Tags: Bo, human rights, ISM, palestinians, settlers