Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 17 Elul, 5783

Good morning! Today we start a “double parsha” for the next week as we head towards the final Sabbath of 5783.

First up this week is Nitzavim: which means “standing firmly.”

I read something on Chabad.org today that really resonated about where we are standing and today’s readings.  We stand “Between Heaven and Earth.”

I relate this to what I wrote a year ago regarding today’s portion:

I’m reflecting on how each moment may have an element of darkness and light to it; we can see the dark and then bring light to it, and then move to the next moment.

So often we try to ignore the darkness and just “be light.”  Where we stand is important in each moment.  How do we unify the light and the dark? The heaven and the earth?  In each moment?

Where do we stand? In each moment. And can we let the last moment “drop?” Or do we clutch onto those past moments to drag them into the present one?  Where are we standing?

These are my thoughts.  What are yours?

Here is my commentary from a year ago:

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 22 Elul, 5782

Good morning! I must admit I’m a little tired. When Rabbi Meir calls and asks me to join Selichot at 1am, I say yes. I have never done Selichot before; but these are special prayers we say each day leading us to Rosh Hashanah. The idea is that we can use this last week of Elul for deeper introspection, asking Hashem to forgive us for the mistakes we made this past year, and to ask for a clean slate even BEFORE Rosh Hashanah.

The Jewish spiritual new year is one week away. This is our last week before the chapter of 5782 closes and we begin 5783.

It is interesting to note, the Torah cycle overlaps. On one hand you’d think the spiritual new year means we end the Torah and start over. But no. That’s not how it works. The story of freedom and liberation takes us into 5783, and we actually BEGIN the new year with the END of the Torah. It’s very poetic. We don’t turn over the Torah and start again until Sukkot is over – and we celebrate Simchat Torah.

So as we begin to come to an end of 5782, May we connect with Hashem, clean up what we need to clean up, and then enter 5783 completely transformed and ready to receive our freedom and liberation!

Let’s dig into this week’s Parsha!

This week is Nitzavim – which means “standing firmly.” In a sense there is a grounding we need to remember as we enter liberation and freedom.

The Chumash I’m reading has this to say;

“We are diverse in so many ways, with our own strengths and weaknesses; but we are EQUAL AT OUR CORE, “standing firmly (nitzavim) all of you together before God.” Discover the power of that unified essence.

Our frame of mind going into freedom and liberation should not be one of loneliness or isolation. We go in as a community. That is our design!

Let’s dig in!

It’s a short passage today; I’m going to post the entire text from Deuteronomy 29:9-11:

You are standing firmly today, all of you together, before God, your God-the heads of your tribes, your elders, your police officers (standing in front of) every Jewish person: your young children, your women, and the converts within your camp (who were assigned positions ranging) from your woodcutters to your water-drawers – in order to bring you into the covenant of God, your God, and His oath which God, your God, is making with you today.

Rabbi Eliezer Horowitz wrote this:

“This teaches us that on the day he died, Moses assembled the Jewish people before God, to bring them into a covenant.

The Midrashic explanation is as follows: Why is this Torah portion juxtaposed with the admonition (the curses in the previous section)? Because when the Jewish people heard these ninety-eight curses, besides the forty-nine curses in Leviticus (26:14-39), their faces turned pale, and they said, “Who could withstand all these?” So Moses began to appease them, saying “You are standing firmly today” – you have angered God many times, but He has not destroyed you. And you see that you continue to exist before Him, ‘today’- just as this day exists.

Another explanation: Since the Jewish people were now passing from leader to leader, from Moses to Joshua, Moses brought them to a standing assembly, in order to encourage them (Rashi).

The “standing” of the Jewish people follows the order of “today,” i.e., the day of Genesis, “It became evening and it became morning-one day (Genesis 1:5). Just as in the Hebrew calendar the night precedes the day, so it is with the Jewish people. First there is persecution and exile, and then we will come to merit redemption and salvation. (End quote)

I’m chewing on this. The Hebrew day begins at night. Our brains see light as the beginning. But light is the ending of a day. And it’s interesting that the “light” of liberation in the Torah is both and ending AND a beginning. It links one day to the next, one year to the next, one moment to the next.

I’m reflecting on how each moment may have an element of darkness and light to it; we can see the dark and then bring light to it, and then move to the next moment.

But I wonder if sometimes we take moments and ignore this process; we ignore the dark and wait for the light to come; or we reject the darkness and don’t allow the light to shine.

I equate this with the moon. The moon has cycles. We are working towards the new moon. Darkness. The month starts with darkness, comes to the light mid month and then goes back into darkness time and time and time again.

Are we living like this? Or are we only giving reality to light when we see it? There is a balance. A poetry. A symbiotic relationship to light and darkness we need to embrace. As we looked at previously – we may not always shine light; but we need to learn to see in the dark.

Wanted to close these thoughts (and wow, they feel powerful) with this “spiritual vitamin” from the Chumash I’m reading:

“The ultimate purpose of Torah is not to increase our knowledge per se, but to instruct us to conduct our lives to the fullest advantage of both ourselves and the community at large. As a matter of course, it provides all the knowledge necessary for the attainment of this ultimate purpose.”

My hope is that as we move this week to the new moon, our eyes are attuned with the darkness and we will still see.

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 23 Elul, 5782

Good morning and happy Monday! As we turn towards the end of Elul (it will come to a close at sundown on Sunday) the moon is waning for the last time in this spiritual year. We will turn to a new year and a new spiritual cycle.

You may not know – but 5782 is what is designated as a “sabbatical” year in the Jewish calendar. Lots of things are “returned.” If you have experienced “return” this year, you are not alone.

I have returned “home” in many ways. And so this has been a year where I have fully embraced and lived out this idea of a return home. I am excited to get to work in 5783 to re-establish the home I’ve returned to. As I shared previously, 5782 is the year I went “home” to the house of my youth.

Ok. Let’s dig into the Torah. It’s a short passage once again. Yesterday Moses told us to stand firm. Today, he digs deeper. Here is the entire text of todays portion, from Deuteronomy 29:12-14

(This is) in order to establish you today as His people, that He will be your God, as He told you, and as He swore to your forefathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (that He would never swap you for another nation).

I am not only making this covenant and this oath with you, but with (both) those standing here with us today before God, our God, and with those (in future generations) who are not here with us today. (end quote)

Chew on this. Hashem was making this covenant with the Israelites at the Jordan River before they entered into the promised land AT THE VERY SAME TIME he is making that covenant with us before we enter spiritual freedom and liberation. How powerful is that?

This covenant is firm. It’s a promise. We will have blessing if we connect with Hashem. We will have curses if we disconnect from Him. Moses can’t tell us enough to get our affairs in order before we enter. Otherwise next year’s cycle will be a struggle for us.

We can have abundance. We can have desire. All we need to do is connect with Hashem.

What are your thoughts?

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 24 Elul, 5782

Today, Moses continues giving us final instructions before entering the promised land. And his focus right now is brining us back to slavery. Reminding us of where we were – when we lived in Egypt.

While we were slaves, we saw the idolatry. The worshiping of things OTHER than Hashem.

And Moses connects that for us. And he says something crucial that was true in the moment he said it before, and is also true in this current moment as we read it:

“So perhaps there is among you a man, a woman, a family, or a tribe, whose heart is straying today from God our God, (and does not want to enter into the covenant with Him, but would rather) go and worship the gods of those nations.” Deuteronomy 29:17a

This is the beginning stage of heading BACK to slavery. Imagine going through the journey the Jews went through. Being on the precipice of freedom and liberation. And we stray. We start to have thoughts, beliefs, desires. Desires to go back to where we thought we were safe; Egypt.

We knew Egypt. We know slavery. We feel comfortable having decisions made for us. When we have freedom and liberation – we are risking making the wrong decision. That could lead us to doubt. To question. And this is where Moses tells us it will lead:

Perhaps there is among you (a person growing in wickedness like) a root that is sprouting (bitter herbs, like) hemlock and wormwood such that when he hears the words of this oath, (he will think that they do not apply to him) and he will convince himself in his heart. saying, “I will be okay, even if I follow my heart’s desires” (To such a person) I will add (to the punishment for his sins which were done inadvertently, as if) in a drunken stupor, (a further punishment for his sins done intentionally, out of a conscious) thirsting. ” God will not be willing to forgive him! Rather, Gods fury and His zeal will then fume against that man, and the entire curse written in this book will come down upon him, and God will obliterate his name from beneath the skies. God will single him out him from all the tribes of Israel for severe treatment, according to all the curses of the covenant, written in this Book of the Torah. Deuteronomy 29:17b-20

This is a perfect image – the issue with Hashem isn’t that he is looking to judge us; it’s that He understands our hearts, and what freedom could do. We will turn away from Him. Not all of us. Some of us. And if we enter liberation, our hearts must be grounded in Hashem. And what is Hashem? He is love. If we are acting and turned to love, we will see countless blessing upon blessing. If we resist love and Hashem? We will get in our own way of love. That is the choice of freedom!

What are your thoughts?