Parsha Nitzavim — Fire and brimstone

We are standing, all of us. In unity. From the leaders, the elderly, the people, every man of Israel.

We are all in this together. God is establishing a covenant with the entire assembly who was there and with us today. Every day God renewing his covenant, his world.

He reminds us of our past, its history, and trials, and the destruction we have seen, the chasing after idols, materialism and warns us not to serve the gods of these nations. We are warned of the curses and suffering if we do follow the covenant.

This is how the Parsha opens up. Fire and brimstone.

After these harsh words, there is a call to restore our hearts and return to Hashem. Hashem will bring us back to the Land of our forefathers. Hashem will help us, increase our endeavours and rejoice over the good. We are then encouraged to observe the commandments. They are not distant but in our mouths and hearts. We are encouraged to choose life and good, cleave to God, so that we may live in the land of our forefathers.

This is the sum of the Parsha and was written while perusing the Steinsaltz Humash the long-awaited English version of Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz’s pioneering translation and commentary on the Torah. I would highly recommend Chumash this as the Rav adds in the” missing” pieces of the Torah to bring extra vitality, understanding, and relevance to our lives.

For example, he divides the Parsha up as follows:

· The Covenant at the plain of Moab

· The Concept of Repentance

· Choosing to observe the Commandments

I am sharing these inspirational words from Reb Shlomo Carlebach. While we all in this together, the essence of our Reflection during this auspicious time is to contemplate on what makes us special, what are our goals and mission, and let's set goals. Let’s write them down. Let’s engage ourselves, our families in a process of finding out what is important. We may not achieve all the goals, but let's try to get on the right path.

The All of Me

“This Shabbos we read ‘Atem Nitzavim Hayom Kulchem’, you are all standing before G-d, Kulchem, all of you.

Everybody knows that on Rosh HaShana you are standing before G-d, but the question is on what level? We are not being counted on the level of details, we are being counted on the level of Kulchem, of all . Every person is the combination of two things. Let’s take a person who is very beautiful, their eyes and ears are beautiful, but this is all details. But then there is something else, the all a person is. There might be a person who is very talented in Mathematics but sometimes the all is not talented. A lot of big scientists are talented in everything but the all in them is off. Then there is a person who is not only talented in every detail but the all is talented and the all is beautiful. There are a lot of Yiddelach who are Jewish in every detail but the all of them is without religion. And then there are people who maybe their details are not so religious, but the all of them are so beautiful. So, in a nutshell, on Yom Kippur we are standing before G-d on the level of details because on Yom Kippur I confess every detail I did wrong, but on Rosh HaShana I am standing before G-d on the level of my all.

Rosh HaShana, the day when G-d created the world is such a deep day, mamesh the deepest depths there is. All of me has got to be ready to take all of G-d, mamesh all of it.

You know friends, life is also a combination of two things. On the one hand I have to do things like everybody else, meaning that there are certain rules which everybody has to do. But then there is something which only I have to do, nobody else can do it.

There is one thing that makes me so special. Everybody has something so special which is so deep and this cannot be written down in words. Once a year G-d is revealing to us what we have to do and this happens when we blow the shofar. When we hear this voice of G-d everybody hears what this special thing is that he has to do, and it’s not in words.

Anything which has to do with me which everyone else is doing is on the level of details. Keeping Shabbos, putting on tefilin, being good,don‘t talk evil about other people, be positive and do this and do that; it’s all very beautiful. But it’s all details. Then that one thing which is just ‘I’ is the all. There is one thing which touches the all of me, which is the deepest depths of my existence.”

Good Shabbos!

Shana Tova!