JTS Torah Commentary

Torah and Teshuvah

Sep 20, 2003 By Lauren Eichler Berkun | Commentary | Nitzavim | Vayeilekh | Rosh Hashanah | Yom Kippur

The beautiful and famous words of this week’s parashah have always touched my heart. This year, I read the following passage with new lenses, as I immerse myself in the month of Elul and the spiritual preparations for teshuvah. The Torah teaches:

“Surely, this Instruction (Ha-Mitzvah Ha-Zot) which I enjoin upon you this day is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach. It is not in the heavens, that you should say, ‘Who among us can go up to the heavens and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who among us can cross the sea and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?’ No, the thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to observe it” (Deut. 30:11-14).

How To Choose Life

Aug 31, 2002 By Melissa Crespy | Commentary | Nitzavim | Vayeilekh | Rosh Hashanah

We stand at an exciting and important time in the Jewish year. We stand less than two weeks before Rosh Hashanah, when so many of us will spend hours in synagogue praying for a good, healthy and fulfilling new year. We stand in a moment of transition, filled with potential. There is so much we can do, so much we can learn, so much we can become.

Nitzavim

Jan 1, 1980

¹⁰ I greatly rejoice in the Lord,
My whole being exults in my God.

Nitzavim-Vayeilekh

Jan 1, 1980

⁹ 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, ¹⁰ your children, your wives, even the stranger within your camp, from woodchopper to waterdrawer — ¹¹ to enter into the covenant of the Lord your God, which the Lord your God is concluding with you this day, with its sanctions; ¹² to the end that He may establish you this day as His people and be your God, as He promised you and as He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 

Nitzavim

Jan 1, 1980

⁹ 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, ¹⁰ your children, your wives, even the stranger within your camp, from woodchopper to waterdrawer — ¹¹ to enter into the covenant of the Lord your God, which the Lord your God is concluding with you this day, with its sanctions; ¹² to the end that He may establish you this day as His people and be your God, as He promised you and as He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.