Nitzavim-Vayeilech - 1st Portion

Join me as we learn the Torah reading the foritim. And generally in most years, the Torah reading of is read together with the Torah reading of which teaches us the importance of our to stand firm in our commitment to God. But must always continue to grow in his commitment and in his observance. How well also as well as the Torah reading of as we're soon going to read the Torah reading begins. You're all standing here today. Today refers to the day of Rashashana. As always is read before Rashashana. And as we know the Torah readings of V. Continuing from the last Torah reading of Kisovo is about the covenant that Moshe makes with the Jewish people of their commitment and observance to God to Judaism and to God's word and especially as we stand before Rashashana the day that we make God as our king. This is our commitment in saying we are ready to observe and to be subservient and accepting upon oursel God's kingship. [snorts] At times is read separately. At times it's read together. And most years it's read combined. Chapter 29 verse 9. You are all standing today before God. for God your God. The leaders of your tribes, the elders, the law enforcement, those policemen, every Jewish man. This comes to teach us that on the day of Mosha's passing, he gathered all the Jewish people together and he brought them together to take them into the covenant with God on the day of his passing. It doesn't mean the head and each one in the tribe. The head to the tribes because later on he says every Jewish person. Over here it's talking about the leaders of each tribe, the elders and then your policemen. He mentions the ones that are important first and then he goes on to enumerate as he details every single Jew. So first he tells us the important ones and then he tells us about every Jew. your children, your young children, your women and your converts who have become accepted in your camp from the wood cutters to the water carriers. Weren't the wood cutters wood cutters and the water carriers also part of the Jewish people? So why does he single them out? This comes to teach us. There were Canananites who came to convert in the time of Moshe just like we find later on in the book of Joshua and just like in the time of Joshua there were also people from the seven nations who came to convert that's why later on in the book of Joshua when it talks about these individuals of the Gonim it says that they also came in a trickery what does it mean also in addition to the people in the time of Moses and Being that Moshe, what did Moshe come to do? In being that these fellas came along in a tricky way, saying that they were not saying that they were coming to convert on the son of because they came in this cunning way, Moshe made them into the water carriers and the wood and the wood choppers. Verse 11, in order, why did Moshe gather them? In order to make this ritual by this way, you'll enter into the covenant of God your God and his oath to which God your God is making with you today. What is the word means meaning that you yourself should be able to join this covenant not that he is putting you through like so to speak to teach you that you on your own should get to do it. like to pass through because this was generally the ritual of people that would make a covenant. This is what they would do. They would put a partition on both sides and they walked between the two partitions like it says in Jeremiah about the calf that they cut into two and they walked in between and that's the way that they made a covenant with each other. [snorts] Verse 12, in order to establish you today as his people, and he will be for you as a God. He spoke to you to your forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You know the reason why you're going at that covenant? Because God has worked so hard. meaning that he is bothered that much and he didn't that you should be able to be a nation for him. Meaning the need for the covenant under the oath as being that God spoke to you and spoke to your forefathers that he was not going to change you for another nation. [snorts] Therefore, he makes all these prohibitions. And therefore, he makes his covenant with you that you should not pain him. You should not go against his desires, his will, being that God made an oath that he will never be able to separate from you. So therefore, God wants you to reciprocate and also make an oath and also make a commitment that you will not leave him as well. Up until here is the simple interpretation. The med is as follows. If you recall last week's Torah reading, we finished with the consequences and the uh of what would happen to the Jewish people if they don't follow God's commands. And over here, we're starting now at the covenant. So why juxtapose the two? Because the Jewish people just heard 100 curses minus two which is 98 different curses. Besides already the 49 that they heard in the book of Leviticus. The Jewish people got very concerned and worried. Their fa their colors changed. I mean like they went green. when they said, "Who can even withstand such terrible atrocities and such difficult times?" So Moshe started to appease them and he would say, "Don't worry. You're standing here today. You made it through. You think you have what to worry? You've already made God many problems and you've got gotten God upset in the past. And the bottom line is you're still here today. You're standing here today. I made fun of and you're standing here today. What does it mean today? Just like the day that this day will forever be even though it gets dark and gets light again. So too, God will be light for you and will continue to give you light. and all the different curses and punishments and atrocities that talk about it is what bring you to the way that you should be able to see and enjoy the light that God has given you. And Rashi continues. And even though we mentioned in the previous Torah reading, there were many different curses and consequences that would happen if they don't follow the laws, but they were also right afterwards, Moshe tells them words of appeasement of calm. As he continues in the previous in verse one of this chapter, he tells them, you saw everything that God did for you. That means you saw the miracles that happened in Egypt and you saw that you survived and you saw that God chose you and therefore you have nothing to worry about. Another explanation to all these verses. You stand here today being that the Jewish people now were going from one leader to the next leader, from one sustainer to the next sustainer, which is Yeshua. Therefore, he made a monument, meaning right before he passed to encourage them that they should do the Torah and Yeshua. So to Yeshua did that he gathered the Jewish people before his passing and he also made a monument to be able to encourage them to do and observe the commandments did the same as we see in the book of Samuel. Stand here and I will judge you when they left the being their shepherd being their sustainer being their leader and going into the hands of King Saul was going to be the kings for the Jewish people. verse 13 rather [clears throat] and he continues he says I'm not only making the covenant with you this oath solely with you and that are standing here today [snorts] continue with verse 14 key rather those that are here today standing in front of me before us today before God your God and also those that are not here with us today we're talking about in the future generations to come they are all part of this covenant and oath that we take with God verse 15 because you know that We dwelt in the land of Egypt and we have gone and we have encountered the territories of the nations and those that you've encountered. We'll do the rashies all together 15 16 and 17 because they go in all three verses. And you saw the loathome repentant idols gillam those that God is disgusted by made out of wood and stone of silver and gold that was with them. Verse 17. Perhaps there is amongst you a man or a woman or a family or a tribe that is whose heart is straying today from God your God to go and to serve those nations of the those gods of the nations of those nations of the world. Perhaps there's somebody amongst you po villain one a root that produces poison a hemlock and a bitter wormwood meaning an individual who wants to spread idolatry amongst you. Let's go back and look at all the rashis that from verse 15 through 17 as follows. As you know, being that you saw the nations of the world at the serving idolatry, maybe one of you tried to seduce and get others to get others to serve their idolatry. As he continues then in verse 17, maybe have a man or a woman. Therefore, what's the need of this covenant? I have to make a oath with you that you will not go after those ways of the idolattors. saw their idolatry. Why does he call them? They're disgusting. They're loathsome idolatry because they are disgusting like um insects which are impure which are repugnant. They are disgusting and smelly and like like feces of an animal. That's why the word comes from the word gal wooden and stone those of wood and stone you saw blatantly you saw them on the outside you seen the reason why you saw them why they were displayed because nobody was afraid they were going to steal them silver and gold was with them They would hold them and they would keep them in their warehouses in a place of safety that nobody should steal. We're afraid that somebody might steal it. Verse 17, we learned to out. Maybe there's somebody amongst you who wants to and go astray and follow the ways of idolatry. Maybe there's now a man or woman or eventually there may be somebody who made that his heart goes astray today from accepting upon himself the covenant. Ano he uses a terminology of a root that produces a poison hemlock or a bitter wormwood. Rashi explains a root that produces a use poisonous grass or a poisonous type of thing which is as we mentioned a he a poison hemlock that they're very bitter. It's a type of grass in the way that we refers to. It's only a metaphor, but it's we're talking about a person who tries to propagate and perpetuate this type of le level of evil amongst you just like this grass and this weed that continues to grow all over the place. verse 18 and he will be when he hears the words of this covenant he'll say to he'll bless himself in his heart saying I'll be all right I'll be okay I'm going to do whatever I wish I'm going to follow my heart's desire I'll enjoy the peaceme as a result of his drunkenness to the punishment that he wants to uh uh because as if he is as somebody that's thirsty he's trying to satiate one who is thirsty and as a result God will add the punishment to this individual as well let's see what it means meaning in this case he's going to bless himself even over here we're not talking about blessing we're talking about curses meaning to say a person will think to himself a blessing himself leave you close. See, I'm not going to get these curses. I don't have to worry about the oaths and the covenant. I'll be okay. Everything will be all right. Like talking to himself, he's going to convince himself the way I wish to go. That means the way I see it, I see. But it's not now, however, um talking about quoting from the blessings of bum where he talks about something that's going to happen later on that a person can see the way which way he wants to go. So he also uses the terminology says whatever my heart desires and sees I'm going to do whatever I wish meaning he's going to do what he wants to sin the sin meaning purposely purposefully over here this is going to cause that his sin his punishment will be even greater I'm going to collect punishments for this individual even what he did until now inadvertently and I would have usually just passed over and forgiven him for it. [snorts] What does it mean that I'll satiate so to speak? I'm going to take the the satiation over the thirst meaning the ones that he did unintentionally together with the ones that he did intentionally even though generally I would overlook them but I'm going to combine them together and I'll be punished for both. This is the way the is well explained it. I'm going to add those that he did purposely unto those that he did inadvertently and they're going to add them together and that will be his punishment. The word means inadvertently he does it like a person who's drunk. He does it without recognizing thirsty that he's really thirsty. He wants to drink it. So here the word rava means inadvertent like the terminology a person who does it when he's drunk and he doesn't realize what he's doing when you're thirsty you go and you drink you purposely know I'm thirsty and therefore I'm going to look what they drink. So to a person who does a sin uh purposely so too those punishments will come together. So we look back at the verse verse 18 telling us that this is talking about an individual who convinces himself that everything will be okay. Why is he going to be okay? Because since he can do whatever he want, he's not going to be affected by it. God says that the punishment is going to be that he's going to combine the two those that he does purposely and inadvertently and be punished for both of them. Interesting to note that one of the things that the when he talks about in when a person convinces himself that he's able to overdo something wrong, he talks about the idea of enters in a spirit of folly and therefore a person does uh something wrong. One of the quote verses that the that the Reb quotes, there's this verse many times where a person convinces himself that what he's doing wrong is not going to affect him. [snorts] verse 20 uh verse 19 God will not be willing to forgive it then God's fury and zeal in that person and it will fume against them the entire curse which is written in the scroll and God will obliterate his name from the under the heaven because when a person gets angry ry his body becomes all warmed up and worked up that you feel as if there's smoke coming out of his nose that you feel the steam coming out of his nose we find in Samuel that as if smoke was coming out of his nose meaning he became furious even though this kind of idea doesn't happen by God because God is not a physical individual the Torah tells it us the way human beings happen it and therefore metaphorically can Understand what does it mean that God being upset? What does it mean? Anger temperament in French means his temperament meaning when a person has that zeal that he wants to take revenge and he doesn't calm down. He says I'm not going to let this go by. Verse 20. God will sing him single him out amongst all the tribes of the Jewish people for bad according to all the curses that were mentioned that were written in this Torah scroll before he said he uses a female terminology in the previous verse he says which is previous in the meaning in the previous Torah reading and over here he says like in a male also when he talks about all the different illnesses and things that will affect them using a terminology which is female we're going on the word the word is a female terminology therefore he says however the word goes on the word um when we talk about goes on the word safer safer is a female is a male terminology and therefore uses a male terminology as a boat if you look at canilation of the words you can understand and see even though they're very similar but you will notice that with the canellation they're split up into two different terminologies and therefore once they're split up into two different terminologies they have a different interpretation as well so parishes if you look in back in the Torah reading in last week's Torah reading where it talks about in the curses and the consequences that are mentioned there and it uses the terminology the female you see that the word is under the safer and the word is a connecting canellation. There's some canellations that end the sentence. It's like a semicolon or a comma and then there are those that show that there is a hyphen that as if it connects with one another. A tip which is a canellation which tells you so to speak it ends that sentence and then start something else. So if so therefore you have the under the word pause is connected. So therefore you know that and are connected. So the female terminology works with the female terminology. In our case if you look in our but over here the is under the word and therefore safer and are together if safer and together. So therefore in this case what are we referring to as the Torah? The safer. So therefore it uses which is a male terminology. And therefore in this case he finishes it with the male terminology because it's going on the word safer. However, in previous Torah reading, it says because it was going on the word. Verse 21. And a later generation made up of your descendants will come, your children that will come after you along with the foreigner that will come from a foreign land and they will see the plagues of that land and the diseases. It says diseases which God has struck it. What kind of diseases? They will see everything will be sold for insult and the entire land the entire land will be so burnt up that it cannot be sewn and it cannot grow and there will not be any grass growing from it. It's going to be similar to that destruction that God has brought upon stone and Gomorrah and that God has overturned with his fury and rage and all the nations will say, "Why did God do this to the land to this land? What is the great furious rage? What is the great fury? The great what is the reason for this great fury and rage? Verse 24. And they will respond. They will say Allah said is because they left. They forsook the covenant that God has made with them that he made a covenant with them when he took them out of the land of Egypt. TW verse 25 and they went and they served other gods and they bowed to them gods that they did not have not known and that he have not been assigned to them. Rashi then meaning what does it mean they didn't know these are idols meaning they did not know they did not recognize it did not give it any credit to their strength that they have anything of godliness to it was not given to them to the Jewish people as it was not given that it was not for them meaning that these idols these idols did no good for that God that they've chosen, those idols that they've accepted upon themselves, has not given them any any portions, has not given them any good things. And therefore, what do they have any type of relationship with it? Verse and God became upset and God's fury raged against that land to bring upon them the entire curse that is written in this book. Verse 27 in and God uprooted them from their land with fury and wrath beets of godlin and fuming indignation and he cast them to another land just as they are this day. The word means he cast them away like we find in the words in Jeremiah. I'm going to cast them away off their land. Verse 28. The hidden things such as others thoughts, why people do things as for God our God. But the revealed things, the words and the actions that we see people do that is for us and for our children to handle forever is to fulfill all the words of the Torah. Rashi explains If one may say they will complain and say what are we to do is God punishing the majority of the public because of one person's thoughts because if you look previously he says maybe if there's a man or a woman who does something wrong and then afterwards it tells us about the terrible illnesses that are going to come. Is God punishing everybody because of one person's thoughts? How do we know what the other guy's thinking? Therefore, God responds, "I'm not punishing you for what was hidden in the other guy's thoughts. That's God's business. He'll take care of those sins. And he'll punish that guy on his own." The sins that are open and blatant that are us and our children see that is obligatory on us to get rid and to eradicate the bad from amongst us. And if we're not going to do the proper justice with it and we're not going to punish those sinners, then everybody will be punished as well. Rashi adds and if you look at the words in the words have dots in it. Now there are many times throughout the Torah there are many different places where there are dots on certain words and over here and they usually come to an extra meaning and those dots are actually in the Torah scroll as well and every time there are dots it's like an underline that means there's a deeper meaning in here that the Torah wants us to know and Rashi says in this case there are dots on the word and the reason is as follows because to tell us and even on the ones that we know about. God won't punish the community that the punishment only came after the Jewish people crossed over the Jordan got the curses and blessings at the side of the Jordan from the Mount of Mount Ael. Therefore, he says, us and to our children. Now you're not going to see the punishment. But when you get into the land of Israel and you then take responsibility for one another and you see somebody doing wrong something wrong and you don't educate them and stop them, then that's when that punishment comes for the sin of the individual. This concludes the Torah reading of the first Torah reading of when combined.