In the process of Tshuva (repentance), we slowly work on making amends
from Rosh Chodesh Elul to Slichot, to Rosh HaShana, to the Aseret Ymei Tshuva
(Ten Days of Repentance) to Yom Kippur and finally to Hoshana Raba.

In the journey of aliya, immigrating to Israel, as well, we must plan our
path properly and carefully to insure that it will be successful.

Yet there are Jews who have been gathered from the four corners of the
earth who were forced out of their homes with no opportunity to pack or plan
and the State of Israel took them in and helped with the transition.

Just a few blocks from our home in Jerusalem’s Talpiot/Arnona
neighbourhood there is a building called the Diplomat. It was a hotel until
1991 when the influx of Russian and Ethiopian immigrants arrived in Israel. At
first, the government turned the building into an absorption center for both Russians
and Ethiopian Olim.

However, there was a major clash of cultures as the Ethiopian immigrants
were very religious but had never seen indoor plumbing while the Russian
immigrants were coming out of communism and many were never exposed to
religion.

The Ethiopian immigrants were quickly moved out and were temporarily relocated
to the Shalom Hotel. After a short time, the Ethiopian Olim integrated into
Isralei society and the Shalom went back to being a hotel.

The Russian immigrants who were already older have remained in the
Diplomat as a permanent absorption center since 1991.

A few years ago, the United States bought the Diplomat which is right
next to where the New US Embassy is today.

The 500 Russian immigrants who are still living there, mostly in their
80s and 90s insisted that they will only move out if they can all be moved
together to a new facility in Jerusalem.

Until the residents move out, the new embassy in Jerusalem cannot be
expanded. Yet year after year they continue to remain living at the Diplomat
until a new building will be completed for them all to move to together.

The wide array of immigrants from so many different countries keeps the
State of Israel interesting. Over the past few years, there have been many new
immigrants from France who add a totally different culture to the mix.  

May the blessing that we say as part of the prayer for the welfare of
the State of Israel be fulfilled:

Remember our brothers, the whole House of Israel in all the lands of
their dispersion. Speedily bring them to Zion, Your city, to
Jerusalem, Your dwelling place, as it is written in the Torah of Moshe your
servant (Dvarim 30:4-5):

Even if your outcasts are at the ends of the world, from there will
HaShem your God gather you and from there will He fetch you. And HaShem, your God, will bring you
to the land which your fathers occupied, and you shall occupy it; and He
will make you more prosperous and more numerous than your fathers.

I hope to see you in Israel soon!

Mazel Tov to Isaac and Amy Halickman and family on the
upcoming Bar Mitzvah of their son, Daniel

Immediately
before Moshe passed away, he renewed the covenant between God and B’nai Yisrael
which was originally established with Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov.

In Parshat
Nitzavim,  Dvarim 29:13-14 we find an
interesting concept:

Not with you
alone do I seal this covenant and this imprecation, but with whoever is here,
standing with us today before Hashem, our God with whoever is not here with us
today.

How can a
covenant be binding on those who have not yet been born?

According to
Rabbeinu Bachya, the trunk of
the tree is viewed as the father, “the root” of all subsequent branches. All
the branches are only the offshoots of the original roots. Concerning how it is
possible to include unborn generations in this covenant, our sages in Tanchuma
Yitro 11 comment that all souls ever created since the days of the creation of
the earth were present at this assembly. They are not all described as
“standing,” as souls without bodies cannot “stand.” The words: “who are not
here,” refer to the bodies of such souls. The words “with us this day”, refer
to their souls, which are present even today. The words: “with us,” refers back
to the word “standing,” in verse 14. It is as if the Torah had written: “and
all those not standing here with us this day.” The reason Moshe uses the word
“standing,” is because the angels in Zecharyah 3:7 were described as “among
these who are standing.”

In Midrash Tanchuma, our sages claim
that all the prophets who ever lived after Moshe received their prophetic
powers when their souls were at the assembly at Sinai. However, they were not
allowed to use these powers until their respective generations when they were
alive on earth. This is also the meaning of Malachi 1:1: “The burden of the
word of God to Yisrael by Malachi”. It is significant that the wording is “by
Malachi”. The present formulation means: “A pronouncement: ‘the word of God to
Israel through Malachi’” rather than the message only now coming to Malachi.
The present formulation describes only the point in time when this message,
which the soul of the prophet had received at Mount Sinai, was released for
publication. We find something similar in Yishayahu 48:16 where the prophet
writes: “from the beginning I did not speak in secret; from the time anything
existed I was there. And now, the Lord, God has sent me, endowed me with His
spirit.” The meaning of the verse is that the soul of the
prophet had received this communication from God already at Mount Sinai but it
had only now been released for publication.

We see from here that the Jewish souls were present at the covenant in
Parshat Nitzavim, just like they were all at Mt. Sinai when B’nai Yisrael
received the Torah.

In Parshat Nitzavim (Devarim 30:2-3)
we read: “You will return to HaShem, your God and obey Him exactly as I am
commanding you today, you and your sons, wholeheartedly and with your whole
being. HaShem, your God, will turn your captivity and will be merciful toward
you; and He will return and gather you from all the peoples that HaShem, your
God has dispersed you there.”

Rashi states:

It should have written ‘Bring back’
your returnees. The rabbis derive from here, that the Divine Presence, with all
due reverence, resides with Yisrael in the suffering of their exile, so that,
when they are redeemed, He ascribes redemption to Himself- He shall return with
them.

Rashi continues:

One may explain additionally: The
day of the ingathering of the exiles is momentous and difficult as if He,
Himself, would need to carry, literally in His grasp, every individual from his
place, as it is said (Yishayahi 27:12) “You shall be plucked, one at a time,
B’nai Yisrael.”

Just as God went into exile with us,
so too does he personally bring each and every one of us back to Israel one at
a time.

We are fortunate to be living at a
time where we have a Modern State of Israel, where each and every oleh (new
immigrant) is a miracle in and of themselves no matter what country they came
from. Each has a story of what drew them back to the Land of Israel.

Rashi’s statement about aliya being
both momentous as well as difficult is very true. When we see groups arrive
from all over the world we can’t help but feel that this is a momentous
occasion and that God is behind it. However, moving to Israel is not easy and
takes a lot of preparation and adjustment with a lot of bumps along the way. It
is important for the immigrants to remember that God is holding their hands
even in the tougher times.

We are living in miraculous times
where the prophecies of the return of the Jewish people to their homeland are
being fulfilled. May the Jewish people continue to return home one at a time.

Rosh HaShana and September 11
coincide this year.

Those of us who were living in New
York City seventeen years ago can probably recount every moment of how the day unfolded.

I remember taking my son, Dov to two
year nursery school. It was the first day that the parents did not have to stay
with their kids. I dropped him off and went upstairs to my office at the Hebrew
Institute of Riverdale when my husband, Josh called and told us that a plane hit
the Twin Towers. As most people began to evacuate the city, Rabbi Avi Weiss
decided to go downtown and see if he could help. After the second plane hit, the
nursery school told me to pick up Dov as they as the building was being
evacuated. We went home and the TV kept showing the footage of the attacks over
and over again. The next day, there was still no school. We went to the park
and could smell the fire from the burning buildings.

A few days later, I received a call
from the Amit offices. They asked me to give a lecture at the Amit National
Convention entitled “Faith in Times of Crisis.” That was an extremely difficult
speech to prepare.

I began the class with the story of
the creation of humankind which takes place on Rosh HaShana (Breisheet 1:27)
“And God created the person in God’s form (Tzelem Elokim), in the form of God,
God created him, male and female, God created them.”

We see from here that all of
humankind is created in God’s image and it is up to each person to live up to
God’s expectations.

In this week’s Parsha, Nitzavim
(Dvarim 30:19) we read: “I call to witness against you this day the heaven and
the earth that the life and the death I have set before you, the blessing and
the curse; therefore choose life, so that you may live, you and your
descendents.”

God gives us free will, God gives us
a choice, but God wants us to choose life.

The terrorists were insistent on death
and destruction. They chose the curse.

The rescue workers and others who
tried to help chose the blessing.

Where did those who tried to help
get their boundless energy?

In Breisheet 29:10, when Yaakov first
saw Rachel, something totally out of the ordinary happened. Usually, all of the
shepherds were needed to roll an extremely large and heavy stone off of the
well. Yet, “When Yaakov saw Rachel…he stepped near and rolled the stone from
the mouth of the well.”

Ramban explains that the Torah
brings this story to teach the idea from Yishayahu 40:31: “They who wait for
the Eternal shall renew their strength.” Yaakov was coming from a journey, he
was tired, yet he alone was able to roll away the stone, a task that required
all of the shepherds.

When put in a difficult situation,
when necessary, we find an inner strength that we did not know that we had.

The Talmud, Shabbat 104a explains a
verse from Mishle (Proverbs 3:34) “If to cynics he will act cynically, but to
the humble he will grant favor?” If one comes to defile himself, they provide
an opening for him; but if one comes to purify himself, they actually help him-
even opening a new door for him. In other words, if someone wants to transgress,
God is not going to stop him, but if someone wants to do something good, God
will help him.

We clearly see which path God wants
us to choose from the end of the story of Kayin and Hevel. After Kayin killed
Hevel, God said to Kayin (Breisheet 4:10) “What have you done? The voice of
your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.”

Where was humankind on September 11?

There were those who used their
Tzelem Elokim to try to save people. They chose the good path. And then there
were the terrorists who chose death and destruction.

The fact that this year Rosh HaShana
falls out on September 11 reminds us that we each have a choice for how we will
conduct ourselves in the upcoming year. May we remember those who used their
Godliness to choose the correct path and may we each do what we can in the fight
against terrorism.

May the memories of the victims of
September 11 be remembered for a blessing.

In Memory of Shimon Peres z”l

The Haftara for Parshat Nitzavim,
the seventh of the prophecies of consolation seems to describe exactly what
took place in Jerusalem today, on the morning of Shimon Peres’ funeral
(Yishayahu 62:1-2):

For Zion’s sake, I will not be
silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be still, until her righteousness
shall go forth like a bright light and her salvation shall flame like a torch.
And nations shall perceive your righteousness and kings your honor and you
shall be called a new name which the mouth of God shall articulate.

Today, Israel stands as a bright
light which is respected by many nations whose leaders gathered to pay their respects
to Shimon Peres and to the State of Israel. Among those who were represented
were presidents, ministers and royalty of some of the most powerful countries
in the world.

According to Amos Chacham’s
commentary in Da’at Mikra, the idea from Yishayahu of giving Jerusalem a new
name refers to the idea that when someone rises to power they earn a new name
for themselves. Israel will rise from weakness to strength and from lowliness
to greatness.

The prophecy teaches that Jerusalem
will no longer be disgraced or destroyed and that God will once again dwell
there.

The fact that leaders who represent
more than half of humanity changed their schedules at the last minute in order
to show their respects in the State of Israel is a step in the direction of the
fulfillment of the prophecy.

Rashi comments that there will only
be true peace once the righteousness of Jerusalem shines.

Our next step in fulfilling the
remainder of the prophecy of bringing peace to Jerusalem is to perform acts of
tzedaka, justice and righteousness. 

In Parshat Nitzavim, Moshe gathers the entire community
together on the last day of his life and initiates them into the covenant of
God.

We read in Devarim 29:9-10: “You are standing today all of
you before HaShem your God: the heads of your tribes, your elders and your
officers- all the men of Israel; your small children, your women and your
convert who is in the midst of your camp, from the chopper of your wood to the
drawer of your water.”

Why are the choppers of wood and the drawers of water
specifically pointed out here?

According to Rashi, the Cnaanim came to convert during the
days of Moshe, the way that the Givonim came to convert during the days of Yehoshua.
As it says concerning the Givonim (Yehoshua 9:3) “They too acted cunningly.”
Moshe assigned these Cnaanim to serve as wood cutters and water drawers.

What was the problem with the Givonim?

According to the Rambam in Hilchot Melachim 6:1,6, In the
days of Yehoshua, the Givonim thought that it was too late to make peace with
B’nai Yisrael, agree to observe the Seven Noahide laws of universal morality,
pay taxes and perform national service. The Givonim were under the impression
that they would either have to evacuate the Land of Israel
or face total war. They therefore devised a plan to deceive Yehoshua and the
leaders of Israel.

The Givionim disguised themselves as travelers from a
distant region and asked Yehoshua and the leaders to swear that they would not
harm them. When the leaders found out the truth, that the Givonim were in fact
not from a faraway land, they did not annul their oath.

According to Rabbi Yehuda in the Talmud, Gitin 46a, we learn
from here that an oath made in public cannot be annulled as it says in Yehoshua
9:18: “B’nei Yisrael did not slay them (the Givonim), because the leaders of
the assembly had sworn to them by Hashem…”

Rashi comments that if the leaders had they been able to,
they surely would have had the vow annulled.

The Rabbis in the Talmud disagree with Rabbi Yehuda. They
say that a vow that was made publicly can be annulled especially since it was
made under false pretenses The Givonim said that they came from a distant land
when they did not come from a distant land at all. They were living in the Land of Israel the whole time.

So why didn’t Yehoshua kill the Givonim if technically they
could have annulled the vow that said that they wouldn’t harm them?

Yehoshua did not kill the Givonim in order to sanctify God’s
name. This way, later on, no idol worshippers would be able to say that the
Jews violated their oath.

However, B’nai Yisrael were very angry and wanted to kill
the Givonim for deceiving them.

Yehoshua did not allow anyone to hurt the Givonim. Instead,
he gave the Givonim the punishment of having to be woodchoppers and water
drawers for the Mishkan and for the Beit HaMikdash. Their status was as non
Jewish slaves that would not be allowed to marry into B’nai Yisrael.

Yehoshua could have been cruel but for the sake of the
sanctification of God’s name, he did not hurt the Givonim even though they took
advantage of him.

A lot of what happens in Yehoshua, Chapter 9 reminds me of
what is happening in Israel
today.

Israel
is still making treaties with those who come under false pretenses. Israel holds up
her end of the bargain even when our “peace partners” do not. For the
sanctification of God’s name Israel
continues to use more restraint than any other nation in the world ever would
given the circumstances.

In Parshat Nitzavim (Devarim 30:15-16) we read: “See, I have
placed before you today life and good, and death and bad. For which I command
you this day, to love God, to go in His ways and to guard His commandments and
His statutes and His laws; and you will live and you will flourish, and HaShem,
your God will bless you in the Land that you will inherit.”

According to Yalkut MeAm Loez, we learn from these psukim that
reward and punishment depend on our observance of the Torah and our performance
of the Mitzvot. However, our service to God should not be carried out with the
expectation of these rewards, but rather out of love.

Even when we serve God without the expectation of a reward,
we are still eligible for a reward.

The reward mentioned here has a few different elements:

1. “You
   will live” refers to life and health
2. “You
   will flourish” refers to the blessing of children
3.  “God will bless you” refers to material
   wealth

These blessings will be received “in the Land that you will
inherit.” God’s influence is revealed to a greater extent in the Land of Israel than in other lands. Therefore,
the greatest reward for Torah observance is in the Land of Israel.

Living in Israel
we especially need these blessings as our enemies would like to put an end to
our lives. Israelis are conscious about having a lot of children to ensure that
the Jews remain a majority in the Land. In Israel,
we especially need the blessing of parnasa as it is often more difficult to
make a living in Israel and the jobs don’t pay as well as in other countries.

Despite these difficulties, many have followed the words of
the pasuk to inherit the Land of Israel and are now enjoying all of the rewards that
the Land of Israel has to offer.

Parsha Points- Nitzavim- Vayelech 5771

Sponsored by
Midreshet Devora in Honor of Rut Abreu,  the First Student from the Dominican Republic to Spend a Year of Torah
Study in Jerusalem

In Parshat Nitzavim, Devarim 30:11-14 B’nai Yisrael are
told: “For this mitzvah that I am commanding you today; it is not too hard for
you nor is it distant. It is not in heaven for you to say ‘Who will go up to
heaven for us, and acquire it for us, and acquire it for us, and inform us of
it, and we will fulfill it’? Nor is it overseas, for you to say, ‘Who will
travel overseas for us, and acquire it for us, and inform us of it, and we will
fulfill it’? For the matter is extremely close to you; in your mouth and in
your mind to fulfill it”.

According to Rashi “this mitzvah” refers to the Torah.

In Devarim Raba 8:6, we learn that the Torah is no longer in
Heaven. Moshe already brought it down. Nobody should say that Moshe should go
and bring us another Torah from Heaven.

Rambam, in Hilchot Yisodei HaTorah 9:1 states that the laws
of the Torah are of eternal and lasting validity subject to no change, addition
or subtraction… It is stated: “It is not in heaven”- this implies that a
prophet is henceforth not entitled to introduce any innovation. Consequently
should there arise anyone, gentile or Jew, to perform a miracle or sign and
assert that the Lord had sent him to add or abrogate a precept recorded in the
Torah or deviate from the accepted interpretation of an observance, as we have
heard it from Moshe or state that the commandments given to Israel were not
meant for eternity but were merely temporary- this man is a false prophet…

We must take the Torah that we have, observe it and treasure
it. The mitzvot in the Torah are within our reach.

Unfortunately, there are many missionaries around the world
who try to convince the Jewish people that the Torah no longer applies. We must
provide a proper Jewish education for the next generation to make sure that
they do not fall prey to these missionaries but rather find the beauty and
spirituality in our Torah and the reason why we do not need to search
elsewhere.

In Parshat Nitzavim we read two psukim that should be
familiar to us (Devarim 30:4-5) from the second paragraph of the Prayer for the
Welfare of the State of Israel:

“Im Yehieh Nidachacha Biktze HaShamayim, MiSham Yikabetzcha
HaShem Elokecha, Umisham Yikachecha. Vehaviacha HaShem Elokecha el HaAretz
Asher Yarshu Avotecha v’rishta, v’Hetivcha v’Hirbecha m’Avotecha.”

“Even if your outcasts are at the ends of the world, from
there HaShem your God, will gather you, from there He will fetch you. And
HaShem your God will bring you to the Land which you fathers occupied and you
shall occupy it; and He will make you more prosperous and more numerous than
your fathers.”

What is interesting about those psukim is that although they
are part of the Prayer for the Welfare of the State of Israel, they actually
talk about the Jews who are still in exile. The paragraph begins with the
words: “Remember our brothers, the whole house of Israel, in all the lands of their
dispersion. Speedily bring them to Zion, Your
city, to Jerusalem,
Your dwelling place.

The ingathering of the exiles is something that we all have
the power to help out with. Helping promote and facilitate Aliya for Jews throughout
the world should be a goal that we should be working towards. We are fortunate
to have the State of Israel which offers free flights for immigrants to come
home as well as help from the government to resettle in the State of Israel.
This paragraph above is not just a prayer- it is a prophecy that we can have
control over.

Rivka Haut, a friend of mine once said: “Is it enough to
pray for the Agunot (women whose husbands refuse to give them a Jewish
divorce)? Why are we just praying that their husbands give them a divorce? Why
not do something about it?”

When we stand in shul praying this Rosh Hashana, we must ask
ourselves what we can do to help Israel in the upcoming year. For
those already in Israel
we can commit to helping our friends who are in the process of Aliya with any
questions that they may have as well as help them feel comfortable when they
arrive. Those inside as well as outside of Israel can help organizations that
make a difference in the lives of underprivileged Israelis in soup kitchens,
senior centers, group homes for people with special needs, battered women’s
shelters, nursing homes or orphanages.

We do not have control over many of the ideas mentioned in
the first paragraph of the prayer: “Send your light and truth to the leaders,
officers and counselors and direct them with Your good counsel. Strengthen the
defenders of our Holy Land; grant them
salvation; crown them with victory. Establish peace in the land and everlasting
joy for its inhabitants.”

Let’s pray for what is not in our hands- the safety of our
soldiers, peace and happiness and let’s do what we can to work together to
improve the quality of life in the Land of Israel.

In Parshat Nitzavim we read the words (Devarim 30:3): “God will bring back your returnees and will be merciful toward you; and He will return and gather you from all the peoples that God has dispersed you there.”

This pasuk describes the end of the exile and the return of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel.

This week Midreshet Devora opened its doors to the 2010-2011 students who were literally gathered up from all over- Seattle, Baltimore, New York, Toronto, Cincinnati, Teaneck- students who did not know each other from before, but came with a common goal of learning Torah in Jerusalem.

As Religious Zionists, we are in the beginning days of the redemption. We now see several thousand young men and women coming to study in Israel for a year from all over the world.

When did the “ingathering of the students” begin?

In 1957, Rabbi Zevi Tabory, director of the Torah Education Department of the Jewish Agency sent a few young men to the Hesder Yeshiva, Kerem BeYavne. The following year, Machon Gold, a program for both men and women was established. By 1968 there were about 45 students studying in post high school programs in Israel. In 1969, other Hesder Yeshivot agreed to take students as well.

By the 1990’s about 90% of students graduating from Modern Orthodox day schools came to study in Israel for a year. The numbers are even higher today.

I met my husband, Josh while studying in Israel after high school. Josh is from Montreal and if not for the post high school “ingathering of the students” we may never have met.

The” ingathering of the students” is a step in the direction of the “ingathering of the exiles” as many students decide to stay on in Israel after their year of study or at least have an idea of what it is like to live in Israel in the event that they decide to make aliya one day.