Some Seasonal Torah Thoughts
This year two of the shortest Torah readings of the year are combined into one, on this coming Sabbath before Rosh HaShanah: Nitzavim (Deut 29:9-30:20 and Vayelek (Deut 31:1-30), with the Haphtorah reading for Nitzavim: Isaiah 61:10-63:9. These two readings are surely among the most stirring in all the Torah, containing as they do these ringing last words of the Prophet Moshe, but also the far reaching history of Israel in both Exile and Regathering–thus hooking to the Prophetic portion from Isaiah so appropriately.
A few random observations:
Deut 29:28 The secret things belong to YHVH…but the things revealed to us, that we may do all the words of THIS Torah. This verse is usually quoted in isolation, out of context, to set some general principle, sometimes even applied to mystical matters, but in context it reads very differently, and maybe should be better translated “the hidden things,” clearly referring to the historic plan of Yehovah with his people, from Exile to Redemption. All does not appear, and there are times of the “hiding of the Face” (see below), but what does appear, and is revealed, is the Way of Torah. In other words, the verse, far from being a statement about heavenly or mystical things, is actually about the ways of YHVH in the earth, in carrying out far-reaching historical purposes. In that regard the verses of Deut 30:11-14 are very very close in meaning. The Torah is not in heaven, or beyond the sea, but very near, in our mouth and heart–that we may DO it…
Deut 30:3ff as in so many passages in the Prophets the return of the Tribes (all 12!) from Exile is something that YHVH does–it is HE who gathers them…and it is he who brings about the conversion of the heart (”circumcision”).
Deut 30:19-20 is certainly one of the most moving declarations in the entire Torah. It is a complete summary of the whole Plan, the whole relationship, and it is a covenant or relationship of the heart, of listening and cleaving–much like marriage–with the two becoming one…
We have all read and heard of the Torah Codes. One of the more fascinating and chilling is hidden within the verses of Deut 31:16-18. If you take a Hebrew Bible and circle the letter Heh in the name Moses in v. 16, then count 50 letters you come to the letter Shin, then another 50 letters takes you to the letter Vav, another 50 to Alef, and a final 50 to the letter Heh again. These letters spell the Hebrew word “HaShoah” or “the Shoah,” or Holocaust, a word that does not even appear in Biblical Hebrew. If you read the content of these verses, the meaning becomes all the more striking.
Another interesting puzzle is found in Deut 31:22-23. Moses is clearly the subject of v. 22, as he is the one who wrote the song and taught it…but then keep reading the next verse, 23–”And HE gave Joshua the son of Nun a charge…Who is the “he” here? The natural way to read it would be that is continues to speak of MOSES–but the one speaking in the first person speaks of bringing the Israelites into the land that he promised them, and that he will be with them. Could this possibly be Moses? Most of the translators say no, and they put “the LORD” in here as the speaker, even though the Hebrew does not contain that term (see the NRSV). One might just assume that there is some shift in the speaker here, and that YHVH nows speaks. But there are other passages in the Torah like this, most of them highlighted by Moshe Guibbory in his Jerusalem Research, where Moses seems to speak not only for YHVH but as if he is indeed YHVH. See Deuteronomy 29:1-5, from last week’s reading, for one of the best examples. So there might be some very hidden mystery here.
The reading from Isaiah equally moving and comprehensive in its visionary scope. One might want to also read Isaiah 61:1-9, for a wider context, but this reading (61:10-63:9) is really quite extraordinary on its own. One can not miss the strong affirmation in this text that YHVH himself who will be the Savior, no human is with him, no “saviors” or “redeemers” other than him (compare Isa 15-20). In other words, the GO’EL or Redeemer appears to be YHVH himself. The late David Horowitz, founder of UIWU, used to point out that the Prophets almost never speak of the coming of any Messiah, at least they never use that term, but they do talk about a MOSHIA’–a Savior (one letter different from Moshiach, the Hebrew term for Messiah)–namely YHVH himself (this is the word in Hebrew in Isaiah 63:8). This seems in great contrast to both the traditional Christian and Jewish focus on Messiahs. The chilling, wrenching, first person words of YHVH himself are so moving in this section of Isaiah. And notice, he comes from the south–from Edom and the area of Bozrah–deep in the desert or Aravah. Several times in the Hebrew Prophets YHVH speaks of “his place,” and of gong to it and coming forth from it–and there are surely indications it is in those Desert areas to the south, which is where Horeb or Mt. Sinai is located.
Staff