"Today you are all standing (netzavim) before Gd your Lrd, your leaders, your tribal chiefs, your elders…" (Devarim 29:9).
Moshe gathered the people together. He gave them a task (netziv), to stand together in mutuality. That each should do whatever he can to help his fellow Jew. And this aspect of mutuality is the essence of the renewed covenant. (Ohr HaChaim)
The Shem MiShemuel brings out another aspect of what's said here, that B'nei Yisrael are ready before Hashem at any time, waiting to know His will for them to carry out. In this way they are like the angels that are called malachim, "those that are sent," because the angels are always ready to be agents of Hashem's will. And it says about the serafim, (the fiery angels), - they are "standing," standing in anticipation to hear His word. (Shem MiShemuel)
Netzavim
Reb Shlomo Minyan HarNof
(R. Raphael, email: [email protected])
The Whole Individual
Moshe gathered them together to make the brit, all ten classes of Yisrael, the heads, the tribes, etc. He bound them together with the brit so that through this unity and power they could go up and inherit the land. Because all of the victories of Klal Yisrael came only as a result of their unity. This is what makes Yisrael to be in the image of Gd, "tzelem Elokim." In order to have the image of Gd you need to be complete in all of the 248 sinews of the body and this is only through carrying out the commandments. But some of the mitzvot are done only by the kohen and others are exclusive to the king. One individual by himself is like a single limb of the body - only together do they comprise the Gdly image (Shem MiShemuel).
The Midrash, playing on the word "netzavim," says that Moshe made for Klal Yisrael a matzevah, a single stone or pillar. Because now was the time when the mantle of leadership was passing from Moshe to Yehoshua. And the role of the leader of Klal Yisrael is to unite the people in doing Hashem's will. Moshe gave the power of unification over to Yehoshua: from this point on he would be the one to bring the people together in their readiness to carry out Hashem's will. (Shem MiShemuel)
Climbing The Ladder
"The Torah isn't too wondrous for you to grasp it" (Devarim 30:11). And Rashi says, had the Torah been in Heaven, Moshe would have commanded us to make ladders and ascend there and we would have been able to accomplish this. Because the Torah says that one who is assigned a task becomes like the one who sent him. So that if the command was to ascend to Heaven, then of course we would be able to go there. This is what the Torah means when it says the task is not too wondrous for you. (Shem MiShemuel)
Staying Thirsty For Waters Of Torah
"A person who knows the curses (warned about in the Torah) may rationalize and say, 'I will have peace. I'll do as I see fit joining the dry (lit. sated) practices (of the idolaters) to those of (Torah) desire'" (Devarim 29:18). This is one of the most widely interpreted pasukim in the Torah. In Tractate Sanhedrin 76b it gives the following example to explain the pasuk: "Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav, 'It's like one who marries his daughter to an old man or an elderly woman to his son.' Rashi explains the words of the Gemara, that the idolaters relate to their god without passion. They are like an old person who has lost his desire. This is what the pasuk is referring to when it says "ravah," sated or satisfied: they aren't thirsty to know the Creator. The thirsty ones are B'nei Yisrael whose passion is to fear Hashem and to carry out the Torah commandments in their depth. The language of the pasuk means to join something young to something withered, as the Ramban explains, "Taking the well-watered spirituality of a Torah Jew and grafting it onto the withered and neglected practices of the idolaters."
Gd Searches For Man
"And when Hashem your Gd returns (shav) with your remnants" (Devarim 30:3). It should say "hi'shiv," Gd will return your remnants, but the pasuk comes to tell us that the Divine presence dwells with Yisrael in their misery of exile so that when they are redeemed He, so to speak, redeems Himself, He will return with them. Another explanation is that when the exiles are gathered it is so important and so difficult that Gd Himself has to actually grab hold of each individual's hand and bring him back to his place. This is what it means in the pasuk, "Gd returns from exile" (Rashi on the pasuk). Yet another explanation is that teshuvah reaches all the way to the throne of Hashem, but who on his own is able to reach there? Nevertheless, Hashem readies and brings close our hearts to teshuvah. What is left to us is to find our desire to return. Hashem lifts us up, if we will it, returning us to the highest.
"If you'll be pushed away to the farthest reaches of the Heavens." But we would have expected the pasuk to read, "the farthest reaches of the earth." The hint in the Torah is that even the root of B'nei Yisrael, the heavenly aspect, is also exiled "to the farthest reaches of the Heavens." And that's what it means that "I" will gather you "from there." That also in the galut of spirit there is a good point from which salvation will spring. Like it says, "From the narrow place (metzar) I called to you." And the Baal Shem Tov says, "From that very place of constriction a person needs to call out and not to run away from there" (Sefat Emet 124).
The Hidden Things
"The hidden things are for Hashem your Gd." Everything has an aspect of hiddenness and an aspect that is revealed. As it says in the Zohar, "Hashem and the Torah are both hidden and revealed." Thus, Hashem, Whose ways are so high and remote from ours, nevertheless, because of His love, relates to us in a revealed way through the Torah. So also B'nei Yisrael need to find in all their outward doings in the world an aspect of hiddenness and to dedicate it to Hashem.
It's like a person who goes to his job. Everyone sees him earning money, buying food and clothing. But even on the simplest level, if that person intends to take from his earnings for tzedakah, this hidden intention infuses all of his working hours, bringing him close to Hashem. Another example is when we teach our children something. The child will hopefully get the practical lesson, say how to tie his shoes. But within ourselves we can also look at our child as someone who will learn more and more how to walk in the ways of Hashem. Then, even though we experience this silently before the Creator, the child will absorb the depth that is coming through our loving glance. A person can prepare himself in all that he does by creating a private space in his activities so that he can be with Hashem there. In this way he can draw down holiness into his life, even to his most "mundane" activities. (Adapted from the Sefat Emet 124.)
"Not in Heaven. So you don't have to say who will go there to bring it to us and it's not over the sea." The first letters of the phrase spell milah, circumcision, and the last letters spell Hashem's name. The Baal Shem said there is a person for whom the Torah comes directly from Hashem and not through an angel. Nevertheless, Gd forbid, even a person like this can be pushed away from holiness. The only way to avoid this is to remove the covering of his heart so that he believes in Hashem rather than himself. Through this he can stay close. And this is what the Baal Shem Tov said, "Don't ever get stuck because you believe in yourself." The key is surrendering one's self before the most downtrodden of Yisrael and to have a heart that yearns for all to be raised up.. Then certainly the you won't be pushed away and the point of Anochi, the "I," which is the Yehudi within, will shine out to you a straight path. (Baal Shem Tov 251)
A Passion For Torah
"After all the blessings and curses you will recall where they are coming from while you are still among the nations where Hashem has driven you. And from there you will return until the Lrd your Gd and hear His voice telling you all that I've commanded today" (Devarim 30:1-2). It says in the Gemara that a tzaddik cannot stand in the place of one who returns to Hashem from far away (Tractate Berachot 34b). The tzaddik doesn't necessarily know what it's like to feel far from Hashem and because of this he may lack a passionate relationship to Torah. He's always done Torah and mitzvot - they're nothing new in his life. But a person who has tried to fill himself up through worldly desire relationship already knows the burning of desire (hitlahavut). It is part of him and when he discovers Torah he brings this intensity with him. It drives him to look into the depths of Torah spirituality. If he can channel his passion in spirituality, it will reveal to him aspects of Torah that are closed to others that lack his experience (see the Baal Shem Tov).
Mitzvot
According to Sefer HaChinuch there are no commandments in parashat Netzavim
At A Glance