GOOD MORNING! There is a very well known (and quite possibly apocryphal) story about a tense exchange between David Ben-Gurion, Prime Minister of Israel, and John Foster Dulles, the US Secretary of State. In 1954, Ben-Gurion traveled to the United States to meet with President Eisenhower to request assistance and support in the perilous early days of the Jewish State. As the story goes, Secretary Dulles confronted Ben-Gurion and challenged him as follows:

"Tell me, Mr. Prime Minister, you say you represent the Jewish State, but in reality who does your country really represent? Does it really represent the Jews of Poland, Yemen, Romania, Morocco, Iraq, Russia, or even Brazil? How can you honestly speak about a single nation or even a single culture after 2000 years of exile? How can you possibly conceive of a single unified heritage after all of these years?”

Ben-Gurion answered him, “Mr. Secretary, approximately three hundred years ago the Mayflower set sail from England and on it were the first settlers of the New World. This hardy group would eventually go on to establish a most powerful nation known as the United States of America. Now, do me a favor, go out into the streets and find ten American children and ask them the following:

‘What was the name of the Captain of the Mayflower? How long did the voyage take? What did the people who were on the ship eat? What were the conditions of sailing during the voyage?’ I’m sure you would agree with me that there is a good chance that you won’t find any American children who can answer most of these questions.

“In contrast, the Jewish people left Egypt not three hundred years ago, but rather over 3200 years ago. I would kindly request from you Mr. Secretary, that on any one of your trips around the world try and meet ten Jewish children in all the different countries that you mentioned and ask them: ‘What was the name of the leader who took the Jews out of Egypt? What happened at the sea as they were leaving? How long did it take them before they got to the land of Israel? What did they eat during the period when they were wandering in the desert?’ Once you get their answers to these questions, please carefully reconsider the question that you have just asked me!”

Even today, it is self-evident that Jewish people around in the world palpably feel this shared heritage and yes, even a shared destiny. In fact, I would argue that it’s not so remarkable that this shared heritage survived over three thousand years of Jewish expulsions and endless wanderings. Rather, it’s specifically because of this shared heritage and shared identity that the Jewish people have survived as a nation when nearly every other nation of the ancient world perished long ago.

Of course, the source for this ongoing identity and unity is the Torah itself, and specifically we see its origin in this week’s Torah portion. Moses gathers the entire nation and binds them into a new covenant with the Almighty and he says:

“Today you are all standing before God your Lord […] You are being brought into this covenant with God your Lord […] He is establishing you as His nation and He will be a God to you just as he promised you and swore to your ancestors […] I am making it both with those that are standing here today and those who are not yet here” (Deuteronomy 29:9-14).

As the famous medieval Biblical commentator Rashi points out (ad loc) this covenant was binding on all future generations as well. In other words, the Jewish people are no longer merely a collection of related tribal affiliations, they are now merged into a unified whole. The message for the Jewish people as they enter the Land of Israel is that they are not bound together by a shared geography but rather by a set of beliefs and shared destiny. This unified vision raises the Jewish nation to the status of a single entity. It is no longer merely a brotherhood of 12 tribes, instead it is a unified body made up of many millions of cells.

This is also the reason why the covenant was binding on future generations – ones that weren’t present at the time that the covenant was struck. Membership in a unified entity means that as long as the unified entity exists all the covenants entered into by that entity stay in force. Thus, all future iterations of that entity are bound by those covenants. This is also the reason that God is bound to keep His part of the covenant, because the covenant is in force as long as the entity exists.

But there is an even more amazing aspect to this concept that may not be readily apparent. The Torah writes, “Hidden things may pertain to God our Lord, but that which is revealed applies to us and our children forever” (Deuteronomy 29:28).

Rashi comments that here the Jewish people become responsible for one another’s sins and misdeeds. According to the sages, God will take care of those who commit sins in a private or hidden way, but when it comes to outright misdeeds (i.e. those done in public) the Jewish people have an obligation to see that their brethren stay on the straight and narrow. Rashi goes on to say that once the Jewish people entered the Land of Israel they became responsible for one another.

I will explain this in another way. Because the Jewish people are now a unified entity each person should see himself as a merged entity with others. I am reminded of the time that the famous and saintly Rabbi Aryeh Levin, known as the tzaddik (righteous man) of Jerusalem, took his wife, who was suffering from a painful malady in her leg, to the doctor. When asked why they were there he responded, “Our leg really hurts.” He understood that marriage wasn’t a partnership, it was a merged new entity – a unified whole.

Much like a physical body, in which an illness in any one of its many parts will affect the entire entity, so too the Jewish people must help one another stay on the proper path for the wellbeing of the entire entity. In a ceremony that took place in the Land of Israel, when the entire nation stood between Mount Gerizim and Mount Eival and listened the criteria for being considered blessed or cursed (discussed in the 9/17/22 issue), the final category of cursed said, “Cursed is he that does not uphold this entire Torah.”

The medieval sage of the 13th century known as Nachmanides makes some extraordinary remarks on this last curse. He points out that the Torah doesn’t say cursed is someone who doesn’t perform the entire Torah, instead it says one who doesn’t uphold it. Therefore, says Nachmanides, it refers to someone who refuses to confirm the veracity of the entire Torah – a person that denies any part of it.

By contrast, Nachmanides continues, a person who violates a commandment because he cannot control himself (e.g. eating pork) or because he is just plain lazy (e.g. he doesn’t bother to shake the lulav (symbolic Four Species) on the holiday of Sukkot) does not fall under the category of the cursed. This is because the person isn’t rejecting God or the Torah and its principles, but rather is succumbing to a human frailty – a failing of self-control and discipline. It’s not an overt act against God.

Nachmanides then says something truly astonishing: Even if a person is wholly righteous, and he faithfully fulfills all of the commandments in the Torah and he has studied and kept the Torah, if he has the opportunity to influence others who are not yet keeping the Torah (either by enabling them to study it or by strengthening the uninitiated in their fulfillment of the Torah) and he fails to help others to uphold the Torah, then he too is in the category of the cursed. Meaning, a person who is himself righteous will still find himself in the category of those who are cursed if he doesn’t help others in their fulfillment of the Torah. Everyone has a responsibility to see that others have the same opportunities to connect to the Almighty.

Generally, when thinking of following God’s laws we only consider what we must do or must not do. Here we find a third category: We are held accountable for not acting when we are supposed to act. We must internalize that neglecting others is not just a lost opportunity to grow – it’s an epic failure and calls into question our own status within the Jewish people. As we prepare for Rosh Hashanah and establishing the Almighty as our King, there is no more relevant message than that; all of God’s children must be brought and welcomed into His kingdom.

Nitzavim-Vayelech, Deuteronomy 29:9 - 31:30

On the day of Moses’ death he assembles the whole Jewish people and creates a Covenant confirming the Jewish people as the Almighty’s Chosen People for all future generations. Moses makes clear the consequences of rejecting God and His Torah as well as the possibility of repentance. He reiterates that Torah is readily available to everyone. He warns us against idolatry (thinking anything other than God has power) and assures us that eventually the Jewish people will do teshuva (repent) and will be redeemed and brought back to the Land of Israel — and those who hate the Jewish people and pursue us will get their just recompense.

Nitzavim concludes with perhaps the clearest and most powerful statement in the Torah about the purpose of life and the existence of freewill: “I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil […] the blessing and the curse. Therefore, choose life that you may live, you and your descendants.” (Now that's a real Quote of the Week!)

Vayelech begins with Moses passing the torch of leadership to Joshua (Yehoshua). Moses then gives Joshua a command/blessing, which applies to every Jewish leader: “Be strong and brave. Do not be afraid or feel insecure before them. God your Lord is the One who is going with you, and He will not fail you nor forsake you.”

Moses writes the entire Torah and gives it to the Cohanim and Elders. He then commands that in the future at the end of the Shmita (Sabbatical Year) the king should gather all the people during the Sukkot festival and read to them the Torah so “[…] that they will hear and learn and fear the Lord your God and be careful to perform all the words of the Torah.”

The Almighty describes in a short paragraph the course of Jewish history (that’s starting from Deuteronomy 31:16 for the curious). Lastly, before Moses goes to “sleep with his forefathers,” he assembles the people to teach them the song of Ha’azinu, the next weekly Torah portion, to remind them of the consequences of turning against the Almighty.