No Standing!
One must be prepared to yield and move aside when someone else’s interests are at stake. The parsha of Nitzavim underscores the virtue of stubbornness and firmness when it comes to principles. Vayeilech teaches that when it comes to personal matters one must be flexible and forgo our interests in the interests of others. LIGHT FORM THE FUTURE – PARSHAS NITZAVIM-VAYEILECH LIGHT FORM THE FUTURE – PARSHAS NITZAVIM-VAYEILECH
Diametrically Opposite Approaches
In some years the parsha Vayeilech is read independently of the preceding parsha of Nitzavim. In truth, these two portions actually form one parsha, and in most years they are read together.
Nitzavim means standing firm, while Vayeilech (which means “And he [Moses] went”) connotes movement from one place to another. These two names represent diametrically opposite approaches. In Jewish life, there are principles and values that cannot be changed. What must change is us.
The virtue of one who stands firm (Nitzavim) is that no one or nothing can budge a person who has principles. And the virtue associated with movement (Vayeilech) is that the person employs his or her steadfastness to their principles, not to their own person quirks, idiosyncrasies, or personal interests and needs. When it comes to one’s LIGHT FORM THE FUTURE – PARSHAS NITZAVIM-VAYEILECH selfish interests one is flexible and malleable; when it comes to other people’s needs, one stands with firm resolve to help. (Obviously, there are limits to that as well. One does not help a drug addict procure drugs, and the like. But, that is another matter, for in that situation, one who thinks he is helping is actually harming)
It is crucial that one does not reverse the two: To be unyielding when it comes to their own needs, and very flexible when it comes to upholding principles. How often do we hear people say how flexible and non-judgmental they are with Jewish law. But if you do something to irk them personally, they are unforgiving and steadfastly indignant. Their liberalism and flexibility goes to the wayside.
In most years, when we read the two halves of the parsha Nitavim and Vayeilech together, the flexibility of Vayeilech tempers the steadfastness and firmness or Nitzavim.
This Year’s Emphasis
In this year, when Vayeilech is separated from Nitzavim, greater emphasis has to be placed on the idea of movement in our lives that is not tempered by our emphasis on firmness.
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What Makes this Year Unique?
Perhaps the difference between the reading of Vayeilech this year and other years when it is read together with Nitzavim is that in past years the movement desired is one that is intended to temper the mode of firmness, i.e., one must be prepared to yield and move aside when someone else’s interests are at stake. After reading and internalizing the lesson of Nitzavim that underscores the virtue of stubbornness and firmness, it is necessary to temper that with the knowledge that when it comes to personal matters one must be flexible.
However, this year, when we read Vayeilech apart from Nitzavim, it has an independent message. Not only should one be prepared to yield for others, but even in matters of principle and convictions one must constantly grow and change (this is not intended as a political endorsement). One should not just be moving aside for others, one should be moving forward.
Grow and Change
Even someone as great as Moses—about whom it is written “And he went”—must change. And even though it was the last day of his life, Moses recognized that he must still grow and change. This sheds light on why the phrase LIGHT FORM THE FUTURE – PARSHAS NITZAVIM-VAYEILECH “and Moses went” is not mentioned earlier in the Torah. It is to underscore that Moses never stopped growing even until his last breath.
When our souls were still in Paradise they, as the angels, are referred to as “standing.” They cannot move from one place to another, because any progress they make in the spiritual sense is incremental and within range of their point of origin. Only when we enter into this physical world—when our souls inhabit bodies—can we break away from our previous location and acquire the title “mover.” Because of the challenges in this world, every movement forward we make is a quantum leap.
The fact that the first Sabbath of the New Year is Vayeilech, suggests that this year is all about what we do to grow, not resting on our laurels of the past year Year of Hakhel This message is amplified in a year of Hakhel. In this week’s parsha, the Torah commanded the Jewish people to gather in the Temple in the post Sabbatical year. The king would then read the Torah as a reenactment of the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai.
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The fact that this commandment is mentioned in the parsha called Vayeilech that signifies continual movement and growth suggests that the message of movement pertains to the Mitzvah of Hakhel.
Community Versus Indivdual
Perhaps the message is that we ordinarily associate growth to an individual who is free to chart his or her own course. A community, however, is far more constrained in terms of their ability to change.
Here the Torah teaches us otherwise.
In the parsha Vayeilech that revolves around the theme of constant movement and quantum leaps, the Jewish nation was commanded—as a people—to gather every seven years—seven representing the natural cycle—to break out of that cycle, as good and holy as it was, and travel back to the Sinai Experience that transported them into a new world of G-dly reality.
The year of Hakhel, should be geared to gatherings of Jews for the purpose of strengthening our bonds with the Sinai experience and to forge a collective as well as individual force that will enable us to break out of the constraints of exile, By doing so we will greet the King Moshiach, as he is LIGHT FORM THE FUTURE – PARSHAS NITZAVIM-VAYEILECH referred to in rabbinic literature, who will read the Torah for us in the new Third Holy temple in Jerusalem.
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From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Nitzavim by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
