September 11, 2020
Nitzavim—Vayelekh, 5780
The Holy Community
Our parasha begins with the entirety of the Jewish people gathered together in one place: “Atem nitzavim hayom kulechem, You stand this day, all of you, before the LORD your God—your tribal heads, your elders and your officials, all the men of Israel, your children, your wives, even the stranger within your camp, from woodchopper to water drawer— to enter into the covenant of the LORD your God, which the LORD your God is concluding with you this day, with its sanctions” (Devarim 29: 9).
At the beginning of the verse the Torah mentions that “everyone” has gathered together. Why does the Torah need to emphasize this by listing and specifying different categories of people and different professions?
One answer to this question relates to a verse at the end of the parasha that appears immediately after the commandment to write a Torah scroll. The Torah states:
“Ki lo tishkach mi-pi zaro, this poem shall confront them as a witness, since it will never be lost from the mouth of their offspring” (31:21). Rashi says that this verse is a promise that the Jewish people will never lose our connection to Torah study.
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai quoted this verse in alarm and said, “Gd forbid that Torah might be forgotten from the Jewish people” (Shabbat, 138b).
This verse directly relates to the verse at the beginning of the parasha. By listing the different professions of people who stood before Moshe and accepted the covenant with Hasehm, the Torah is reminding us that the obligation is upon all of us to safeguard and study the Torah and make sure it is not forgotten. It is not an obligation only for rabbis and scholars. It is for woodchoppers and water carriers as well. Moreover, each of us—no matter our background or where we currently are in life—has the ability to rise to spiritual greatness through the study of Torah.
The woodchoppers and water carriers listed in the verse represent the non-scholarly professions. They too have an obligation to safeguard and transmit the Torah to the next generation. They too can be the great Torah leaders we desparately need.
Many great rabbis and scholars rose from very humble origins to be leaders as a result of their all encompassing commitment to Torah study.
This is the story of Rabbi Naftali Hadid.
There was once a Jewish man living in Tunesia around a century ago named Yaakov Hadid. He was a very poor man who barely eked out a living by collecting garbage and disposing it in the city dump. He had a ten-year-old son named Naftali. Because Yaakov was so poor he couldn’t afford to send Naftali to school so Naftali would go to work with his father everyday and collect the garbage.
One time after collecting the trash, Yaakov and Naftali, were walking home, when Yaakov tripped and fell onto the community rabbi, a great scholar named, Rabbi Yitzchak Alchaik. Since Yaakov’s clothes were filled with garbage, his dirty clothes made the rabbi’s clothes dirty as well. The people rushed forward to clean off the rabbi’s clothing and wipe the trash away.
When Naftali came home that day he said to his mother, “Why did everyone rush to clean the rabbi’s clothing? After all, our clothing was way dirtier than the rabbi’s and no one cleaned our clothing! Naftali’s mother said, “Our rabbi is a holy man. He spent every day of life studying Torah until he became a great Torah scholar. On the other hand, we are simple people who don’t study Torah. The people whe cleaned the rabbi’s clothing were honoring the Torah by cleaning the garbage away from the Torah.”
When Naftali heard how Torah study is a value that inspired so much love in his community, he said to his mother, “I also want to study Torah.” His mother told him that it was not posssible. She said, “It is too expensive for you to go to school. We simply can’t afford it.” She then added, “If we lived in Iraq things might be different as over there the community offers scholarships for poor children to study Torah.”
The next morning Naftali woke up and decided he was going to go to Baghdad to study Torah. He went down to the junction where the caravans were departing for Iraq and hitched a ride on the caravan by promising to care for the horses. Sure enough he made his way to Iraq. When he got to Iraq he went to the synagogue and told them his story. There was one wealthy man present who upon hearing Naftali’s story decided to support his Torah study. And so Naftali studied Torah day and night for the next ten years. He became established as a great Torah scholar and was appointed as a dayyan (judge). His reputation grew and people came from all over the world to follow his rulings.
Meanwhile, back in his birthland of Tunisia a dispute arose between the rabbi –Rabbi Alchaik--and the parnasim of the city. They disagreed about the home that the rabbi was living in. The rabbi felt that he should have the right to live there rent free, while the community wanted him to pay a monthly fee. The decided to take the matter to an independent Beit Din. And so they traveled to Iraq and went before R. Naftali Hadid’s court.
Rabbi Hadid heard the matter and ruled in favor of the parnasim. After he announced his ruling, he said, “I have something to add. It is ony because of Rabbi Alchaik that I had the impetus to come to Iraq and dedicate my life to Torah. It is because of his dedication that I too was inspired. I owe so much to you.” Rabbi Hadid then took out money from his bag and paid the rabbi’s rent for the next ten years (Vekarata Le-Shabbat Oneg, volume 3, 463).
That is the first reason why the Torah lists all the professions who were standing in front of Moshe to accept the covenant. It is to remind us that each and every one of us–no matter our background or profession--is capable of achieving great spiritual heights through Torah study.
The Torah commands us all to write a Torah scroll (31:19). The Gerrer Rebbe explains that this does not only refer to a written Torah scroll, but also to an Oral Torah; i.e. the Torah is commanding all of us to spend our lives immersed in the study of Torah (Cited in Maayanah Shel Torah, 144).
There is a second reason why the Torah lists all the professions that stood that day in front of Moshe.
In an introduction to parashat Nitzavim by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Rebbe explains that in the previous portion of Ki Tavo we established a covenant with Hashem. What is a covenant? It is a bond of love between two entities that that transcends rationality. Even when the rational reasons for love have ended, the covenant ensures that the bond continues.
We, the Jewish people have a covenant with Hashem. Hashem promises us that we will always be Hashem’s children. We believe that the love that Hashem feels for us will never falter; even when we sin there will be an opportunity for us to return to Hashem.
The Rebbe explains that this covenant with Gd is most fully deserved when we imitate Gd’s ways and love each other unconditionally. The same way Gd has an unconditional bond with us forever, so too we must love our fellow family—the Jewish people—unconditionally and forever.
Thus, this is the second reason why our portion begins with Moshe reminding the Jewish people that we are all standing together: “You are all standing today before Gd…. your young children, your womenfolk, and your converts…your woodcutters, and your waterdrawers—in order that you may enter into a covenant with Gd, your Gd….”
The basic message of this verse is that “’everyone is completed by his fellow,’ everyone is a leader in some way, and therefore the perfection of the Jewish people is dependent on the inclusion of every Jew in the collective body.”
This was the essential message necessary for the Jewish people to understand before they entered the land of Israel. Our ability to succeed as a nation is completely dependent upon our feeling the family like connection with our co-religionists. (Chumash based on the works of The Lubavitcher Rebbe, 1231).
We as a Jewish people must always fell a familial like responsibility for our brothers and sisters in faith.
The following story is told by the great Natan Sharansky (in the recently released Never Alone: Prison, Politics, and My People, by Natan Sharansky and Gil Troy, page 95).
Natan Sharansky tells the story of his being arrested by the KGB for the “crime” of wanting to emigrate from the Soviet Union to Israel. He tells how he was arrested and thrown into a tight car without having the time to even make eye contact with friends. He was then brought to the infamous Lefortovo Prison where he was told by the ruthless authorities, “From now on, nothing at all belongs to you. Even your body doesn’t belong to you.”
Sharansky was made to feel less than human. He was told that the guards wanted to make him believe that no one at all cared about him.
Through his ordeal Sharansky was physically separated from his wife Avital who was able to make it to the land of Israel and isolated in solitary confinement in a prison cell.
But throughout his struggle Sharansky knew that he was never alone. Even though he wasn’t allowed to make eye contact with his friends he felt tremendous support from his wife Avital and from the entire Jewish community worldwide.
Sharansky tells of his last telephone call to Israel before his arrest. By this time Avital was already in Israel and Shransky was expecting to speak with her. He had received a message that he was to speak with Avital at a specific time in a “safe location.”
Here are Sharansky’s words:
“The phone rang on time. But, after all that anticipation, instead of hearing Avital I heard a young male voice on the line. A 29 year old rabbi in Jerusalem, who introduced himself as Eli Sadan, reported that Avital and her brother Misha had already left for Geneva to launch the struggle against my imminent arrest…. ‘We have opened our headquarters: Shomer Achi Anochi, I Am My Brother’s Keeper,’” [Sadan] said briefly describing the round the clock efforts to support Avital and prick the world’s conscience.”
“We are all fighting for you,” Sadan said.
Sadan’s teacher, Rabbi Tzvi Tau, then got on the line. “What happens to you affects all of us. You are now in the center, influencing the entire Jewish world.” “At the time, I barely heard the words, that’s how upset I was that the rabbis weren’t Avital. But in the prison vacuum I replayed every interaction,” Sharansky recounts.
As a result of this call and other messages Sharansky said that while he was isolated in prison he felt the knowledge that “he had troops behind me.”
From the opening verse of our portion—atem nitzavim--we learn these two fundamental lessons that stand at the core of our faith.
First, all of us, from community leaders to unlettered workers, have a great responsibility for Torah study and to safeguard the Torah for future generations.
Second, just like we are responsible to protect the Torah, so too all Jews are responsible for each other. We are like a family of siblings that must take care of our brothers and sisters.
Rabbi Moshe Alshikh (1508-1593) teaches that all this is epitomized by a different phrase in this same verse. Atem Nitzavim Hayom Lifnei Hashem Elokeichem, You are all standing here today before Hashem your Gd.” We must remember that we are all equal before Hashem. In the eyes of Hashem there are no classes of people—only beloved children. Since we are all equal before Hashem we must all live these two lessons of communal responsibility – to our Torah and to each other.
Shmuel Herzfeld
