Nitzavim – Page 9 – Peninim on the Torah

“And you will return unto Hashem, your G-d, and listen to His voice.” (30:2)

There is a remarkable contrast between two types of people: one defies rebuke, laughing it off with disdain and derision; and the baal teshuvah, penitent, who hears Hashem’s call, responds to His voice and returns wholeheartedly. Two people – or could it be one person, one individual in different stages of his spiritual development? Is it possible for the hard-core sinner, the individual who mocks Hashem and His followers bitterly, to return and be accepted? It is certainly possible for him to be accepted: Hashem is a loving Father Who waits patiently for His errant child. How does one…

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Rabbi L. Scheinbaum In Nitzavim, 5761

“The hidden (sins) are for Hashem, our G-d, but the revealed (sins) are for us and for our children forever.” (29:28)

Simply, we are not held responsible for those sinners who hide their evil. The hidden sinners are in Hashem’s province. Our focus must be on those whose evil is blatant, who have no shame and no fear. Our lack of response to those sins and sinners – and in some cases, our open acceptance of their evil – impugns the integrity of Klal Yisrael. In an alternative exegesis, the Belzer Rebbe, z.l., suggests that nistaros and niglos, “hidden” and “revealed,” refer to mitzvos and good deeds, but not to sins. His pshat, rendering of the pasuk, is better understood in…

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Rabbi L. Scheinbaum In Nitzavim, 5760

“From the hewer of your wood to the drawer of your water.” (29:10)

Everybody was present that day, from the woodcutter to the water carrier. Is this the correct sequence? Should it not be worded, “From your leadership all the way down to your woodchoppers” or “From your goldsmiths to your woodchoppers”? One would think that the woodchopper and water carrier are basically on an equal level. Shivim Panim LaTorah suggests the following idea: When the ax is raised up over the head of the woodchopper, the “ax” would never consider that it is higher or more distinguished than the woodchopper, because the woodchopper is the one who is raising it up. Likewise,…

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Rabbi L. Scheinbaum In Nitzavim, 5760

“Perhaps there is among you a root flourishing with gall and wormwood.” (29:17)

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Rabbi L. Scheinbaum In Nitzavim, 5760

“And you will return unto Hashem, your G-d, and listen to His voice.” (30:2)

There is a remarkable contrast between two types of people: one defies rebuke, laughing it off with disdain and derision; and the baal teshuvah, penitent, who hears Hashem’s call, responds to His voice and returns wholeheartedly. Two people – or could it be one person, one individual in different stages of his spiritual development? Is it possible for the hard-core sinner, the individual who mocks Hashem and His followers bitterly, to return and be accepted? It is certainly possible for him to be accepted: Hashem is a loving Father Who waits patiently for His errant child. How does one…

Home -> 5760 -> Nitzavim

Rabbi L. Scheinbaum In Nitzavim, 5760

“The hidden (sins) are for Hashem, our G-d, but the revealed (sins) are for us and for our children forever.” (29:28)

Simply, we are not held responsible for those sinners who hide their evil. The hidden sinners are in Hashem’s province. Our focus must be on those whose evil is blatant, who have no shame and no fear. Our lack of response to those sins and sinners – and in some cases, our open acceptance of their evil – impugns the integrity of Klal Yisrael. In an alternative exegesis, the Belzer Rebbe, z.l., suggests that nistaros and niglos, “hidden” and “revealed,” refer to mitzvos and good deeds, but not to sins. His pshat, rendering of the pasuk, is better understood in…

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Rabbi L. Scheinbaum In Nitzavim, 5759

You are standing today, all of you, the heads of your tribes, your elders, your small children, your women. (29:9)

Is there a specific reason that the Torah emphasizes the fact that the heads of the tribes, the Jewish leadership, were also gathered there? Horav Tzvi Hirsch Ferber, zl, explains that ultimately Hashem judges everybody, regardless of the importance of his position, whether he has fulfilled his teudah, mission, in life. He cites Horav Chaim Volozhiner, zl, who explains that the tefillah which we recite in the Mussaf Shemonah Esrei of Rosh Hashanah, “maasei ish u’fekudoso” “everyone’s deed and mission”, delineates the function that each individual must carry out. We all have responsibilities that we are to carry out during…

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Rabbi L. Scheinbaum In Nitzavim, 5759

And he will bless himself in his heart saying, “peace will be with me, though I walk as my heart sees fit.” (29:18)

One must be extremely sure of himself, ever smug, to feel that he has no cause to worry. Horav Tzvi Pesach Frank, zl, suggests that this pasuk refers to the individual who asserts that his heart will save him. He does not care about mitzvos. He rejects the Torah, but he has a “good heart,” he is a nice, kind human being. He gives of himself,.opening his heart to those in need. Hashem does not forgive such a person. The heart is but one organ of the body, albeit an important one, that keeps the entire body functioning. One who…

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Rabbi L. Scheinbaum In Nitzavim, 5759

The later generations will say, your children who will arise after you and the foreigner who will come from a distant land. (29:21)

The Jew and the nachri – foreigner from a distant land – will both be shocked when they see Hashem’s destruction. What seems to be an innocuous verse is tragically a curse that critiques the behavior of Klal Yisrael in the days preceding the advent of Moshiach. Horav Chaim Soloveitchik, zl, bemoans the bitter prophecy, the tragic portent for the “acharis ha’yamim”, the prediction that in the end of the days, the yedias ha’Torah, Torah knowledge, of many Jews will be equivalent to that of a “foreigner from a distant land.” How tragic it is when the non-Jew knows more…

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Moshe Marcovich In Nitzavim, 5758

You are standing today, all of you, before Hashem, your G-d, the heads of your tribes, your elders, and your officers…from the hewer of your wood to the drawer of your water. (29:9,10)

Since the Torah says “kulchem — all of you“, it obviously includes everyone from the “wood chopper” to the “water drawer.” Why is it necessary to reiterate the various classes or positions held by individual Jews? Horav Elyakim Schlesinger, Shlita, suggests that the covenant did not necessarily bind only the klal, the collective community of Klal Yisrael, but also each individual Jew, regardless of his station in life. If ever a breakdown in the spiritual fabric of Klal Yisrael would occur, if the leadership for some reason errs, the covenant would be sustained via the individual Jew. The Brisker Rav,…

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“And you will return unto Hashem, your G-d, and listen to His voice.” (30:2)

“The hidden (sins) are for Hashem, our G-d, but the revealed (sins) are for us and for our children forever.” (29:28)

“From the hewer of your wood to the drawer of your water.” (29:10)

“Perhaps there is among you a root flourishing with gall and wormwood.” (29:17)

“And you will return unto Hashem, your G-d, and listen to His voice.” (30:2)

“The hidden (sins) are for Hashem, our G-d, but the revealed (sins) are for us and for our children forever.” (29:28)

You are standing today, all of you, the heads of your tribes, your elders, your small children, your women. (29:9)

And he will bless himself in his heart saying, “peace will be with me, though I walk as my heart sees fit.” (29:18)

The later generations will say, your children who will arise after you and the foreigner who will come from a distant land. (29:21)

You are standing today, all of you, before Hashem, your G-d, the heads of your tribes, your elders, and your officers…from the hewer of your wood to the drawer of your water. (29:9,10)

YEARS

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