BS"D
HEBREW TEXTS . HEBREW LANGUAGE . JUDAISM
Here are described some of the fundamentals of the Jewish faith: the unity of Israel, the redemption before the fulfillment of the divine instructions, the command to always choose Life.
Texts
Nitzavim 5783
Lo bashamayim hi.
The Torah is not in the heavens. The Talmud illustrates this with a story we have shared before, the story of Taanuro shel Hachnay, Hachnay's oven, in which, during a rabbinical debate, one of the rabbis called upon the heavens as a witness. He said that if he was correct in the discussion they were having, the walls of the yeshiva where they were would lean in; and the walls indeed leaned. Still, no one took his version as true because, in reality, the debate was on Earth, no longer in the heavens.
Nitzavim 5782
“Atem nitzavim hayom kulchem lifnei Adonai”—“All of you today stand tall before the Creator.”
Thus begins our parashah. It speaks to all of us—but not while we are going about our daily business or with our minds on something else: we stand tall in the presence of this God who did EVERYTHING for us. And it is not as if this is told to us as a story that happened to our ancestors. This is happening TODAY.
