Beyond E Pluribus Unum
The challenge of life is to strike a balance between two aspects of humanity; our external and internal personas: “External” refers to our relationships with others, our clothing, our bodies, and even the more manifest and conscious levels of our soul. Our internal persona involves the way we relate to ourselves. More specifically, it relates to our soul as opposed to our bodies. Within our souls, there are inner precincts that rarely find expression in our routine lives. Certain occasions and experiences enable us to come face to face with our true inner being—the inner dimension of our souls. LIGHT FORM THE FUTURE – PARSHAS NITZAVIM-VAYEILECH LIGHT FORM THE FUTURE – PARSHAS NITZAVIM-VAYEILECH
Three Paradoxes
The Torah portion of Nitzavim-Vayelech always coincides with the New Year. In most years (as it is this year) both portions are combined and are read on the Shabbos before Rosh Hashanah. (In some years it is split into two portions, Nitzavim is read before Rosh Hashanah and Vayelech is read separately on the Shabbos that follows Rosh Hashanah).
What is the message conveyed by these two Torah portions that prepares us for the New Year?
When we examine the content of these two parshiyot we are struck by their paradoxical nature.
First, the very names of these twin portions convey opposite meanings. Nitzavim translates as “standing firm.” Vayelech, by contrast, means “and he went,” and it implies LIGHT FORM THE FUTURE – PARSHAS NITZAVIM-VAYEILECH movement. How do we reconcile the message of standing firm with constant movement?
Second, the opening verse of Nitzavim reads: “You are standing firmly today before G-d your G-d.” This—as the Ba’al Shem Tov, whose birthday was observed last Shabbos, the Chai-18th of Elul, states—refers to our judgment on Rosh Hashanah. We are guaranteed to be victorious in our case before G-d when we are judged on Rosh Hashanah, the Day of Judgment. The implication of this optimistic assertion is that we are all virtuous and deserving of a positive verdict in this judgment.
Yet throughout the parsha there are ample references to our rebellious and sinful nature. How, then, are we to view ourselves? Are we to focus on our righteousness and ignore all of our shortcomings? Or should we be honest about our failings and recognize the brutal truth that we are flawed individuals?
Third, Nitzavim begins with a description of our unity; how we all stand together before our G-d. Yet immediately afterwards the Torah enumerates no less than ten distinct categories of Jews, from the heads to the water carriers! Are we truly one? Or are we a conglomerate of distinct entities? How can both statements be true?
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In short, on the one hand we are seen as standing firm, meritorious, and unified, and on the other hand we are characterized as in constant flux, flawed, and fragmented. Which is it?
A Tale of Two Tiers
All these apparent contradictions can be resolved with one premise that views the human condition on two levels and sees the challenge of life as one of striking the balance between them:
There is our external persona. “External” can refer to our relationships with others, our clothing, our bodies, and even the more manifest and conscious levels of our soul.
There is also an internal persona which we all possess, though we may not be aware of its existence. Unlike our relationships with which we deal with the world outside of our own, our internal identity involves the way we relate to ourselves. More specifically, it relates to our soul as opposed to our bodies. But even within our souls, there are inner precincts that rarely find expression in our routine lives. However, there are certain occasions and experiences that enable us to come face to face with our true inner being—the inner dimension of our souls.
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Self-Examination
When we take the time to invest the energy—as we are commanded to do in this month of Elul—to examine ourselves (as well as the way we should view others), we must recognize that there two distinct dimensions of our personalities that we must investigate:
First and foremost, we have to know who we truly are and what our essential identity truly is. We must realize that— regardless of who we are and where we think we stand— we have an intimate relationship with G-d because of the inner dimension of our soul that is always connected to its G-dly source. Because of this relationship we also know that we will inevitably end up “standing firm” in our judgment because G-d will not allow those who stand before Him to fail.
Once we reach that conclusion, we must then “roll up our sleeves” and work on our external persona that may be totally out of sync with our internal self. To change our external identity we must unleash the power that derives from our essential bond with G-d and thereby bring purity and atonement to all aspects of our lives.
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Unum E-Pluribus
We can now understand the reason why the Torah speaks of the Jewish people as one and then divides them up into categories. When dealing with our essential identity we are indeed one. We cannot distinguish one Jew from the other. Moses, on this plane, is no more of a Jew than the simple “water carrier,” and the water carrier is no less of a Jew than Moses.
From the perspective of our external identities there are indeed differences among the various classes of Jews. There are people whose role in life are to be leaders, and they must not shirk the responsibility that goes along with leadership in the guise that after all we are all really equal anyhow. The same G-d that made our inner soul one with the inner soul of the other is the same G-d Who gave us different appearances, attitudes, personalities and diverse talents.
Just as we must allow our inner dimension influence and inspire our outer beings, so too we are challenged to allow the unifying aspect of our inner souls to inform and impact our diversity so that even as we express diverse and often conflicting viewpoints we never lose sight of the fundamental fact that we are truly—not just metaphorically—one!
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If we think about this concept it goes beyond the motto Epluribus Unum to, indeed, make one out of the many. This implies that we are essentially many and that we must seek to bring unity to that many. Our parsha tells us that we are essentially one (Unum) and that we have to instill that oneness into our differences.
Moving While Standing
We can now resolve the third apparent contradiction as to whether we stand in one place or do we constantly move.
Our inner soul is the part of us that is stable and in no need of growing. It is the anchor that provides for stability in an otherwise chaotic and forever fluctuating world. But while our inner persona stands firm, our external identity is forever searching, probing, and discovering new depth and meaning in life.
Growing and moving from one place to another is like any physical journey though; it is fraught with danger. One’s life’s journey can take us far away from our true destination. Growth can sometimes conflict with the ideals which are in consonance with who we really our and which transport us to alien places where we don’t really belong.
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Again the ultimate challenge is to allow the anchor of our inner soul to prevent us from faltering and losing our balance, focus, and direction as we journey through the vicissitudes of life.
Putting a Head on Our Shoulders
As we enter a new year these two dimensions come into focus. This is the time of the year when we are so much closer to realizing that we have an inner soul. On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur that essential bond between G- d and us is most likely to come into the spotlight. And it is therefore the time of the year when we get in touch with the anchor of our lives. That, in turn, provides us with the confidence that G-d will give us a good and sweet year because we are—in essence — good and sweet, even as we are brutally honest in acknowledging our external shortcomings.
For the same reason, this is also the time of the year when the differences between us are much less divisive and discordant than usual throughout the year because at his unique time we are closer to the awareness of the unifying character of our inner soul.
Without the unifying force of Rosh Hashanah our inner essence, or the “Rosh-Head” of our soul, is, figuratively LIGHT FORM THE FUTURE – PARSHAS NITZAVIM-VAYEILECH speaking detached from the body of our soul. Rosh Hashanah can thus be described as the day when our head is reattached to our body. In medical terminology, Rosh Hashanah is like recovery from a stroke which compromised the connections of the brain to the rest of the body.
Redemption: Recovery from a Stroke
All this is true each and every year as we come to the end of one year and are ready to usher in the New Year. It is especially true and relevant when we are not just situated at the end of the year but also at the end of the “old” system and are ready to enter into the new epoch of the Messianic Age.
The old system we call Galus-exile, when we experience the dichotomous forces of separation, separation of one Jew from another, separation from our Holy Land which is our true Homeland, and separation from the essence of our soul. It is no wonder that the process of Galus has been likened to a stroke because of the debilitating results that Galus engendered. Galus is the ultimate instrument of detachment from our true inner selves.
Geulah, or Redemption, therefore, is the process by which the head or “Rosh” of our soul—the inner essence of our LIGHT FORM THE FUTURE – PARSHAS NITZAVIM-VAYEILECH soul—is no longer detached from the external aspects of our lives. The inner soul thus provides catharsis and purification, stability and direction to all layers of our personalities as well as to the entirety of the nation regardless of which level each one is on.
A Kesivah Vachismah Tova, L’Shanah Tova Umesukah!
May we all be inscribed and sealed for a good and sweet year; a year of genuine and complete Redemption!
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Nitzavim by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
