Today is the last Shabbat of 5773, and the Torah portion is
the last of the double portions, Nitzavim and Vayelech (Deut. 29:9-31:30). It begins with the words spoken by Moses, “You
stand here, all of you, today, before Adonai your God.” A few lines later, in verses 13-14, Moses
says, “And not with you alone do I make this covenant, but with the one that
stands here with us this day before the Eternal our God, and also with the one
that is not here with us today”. The
great medieval commentator Rashi explores the meaning of “the one that is not
here with us today”. Obviously, he says,
it cannot mean someone who just happened to be absent, since verse 9 clearly
states that “all of you” were present.
Rashi and most other commentators believe that Moses is speaking to
future generations, to all those who will come after, to us. The covenant that our ancestors made with God
is our heritage.
But inherited things grow old and stale, and our covenant
with God must not grow stale. A thought
from Midrash Sifre on Deuteronomy focuses on the word “today” in the first
verse, “Take to heart these words that I charge you today—Hayom—Today—these
words are not to be in your sight like some old ordinance, to which no one is
paying attention any longer, but they are to be in your sight like a new
ordinance toward which everyone is running.”
Every generation lives in a world different from the
generation before it. We must renew and
refresh the covenant with God to make it our own, not some relic from a distant
past. As we face the New Year, may we
find strength and meaning in this covenant and may our lives be enriched by it.
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