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Parshat Netzavim
1998
No Deposit No Return
Parshat Netzavim could easily be labeled the Parsha of return. It is certainly read at the right time of the year, this year especially. Rosh Hashanah reminds us every year that we are responsible and appropriately burdened by our past choices. Humanity writ large does not live in harmony, and we, as individuals exemplify internal conflict. The small world that is the human, struggles with itself with all the force and fury of nations at war. There is no peace. In the following verses, once the consequences of wicked behavior have been fully explicated, we are given a hope that there will come a time when:
Deuteronomy 30:1-6
1 Now it shall be: when there come upon you all these things, the blessing and the curse that I have set before you, and you take them to your heart among all the nations where Yhwh your
G-d has thrust-you-away,
2 and you return to Yhwh your God and hearken to his voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your being,
3 YHWH your God will restore your fortunes, and have-compassion on you: he will return to collect you from all the peoples wherein YHWH your God has scattered you.
4 If you be thrust-away to the ends of the heavens, from there YHWH your God will collect you, from there he will take you,
5 and YHWH your God will bring you to the land that your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it, he will do-well by you and make you many-more than your fathers.
6 Yhwh your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your seed, to love YHWH your God with all your heart and with all your being, in order that you may live.
Your Torah Navigator
Does verse 2 issue a promise or a hope?
What is the result of this return?
What does it mean that God will circumcise your heart?
Nachmanides (Ramban) On Verse 6
"And YHWH your God will circumcise your heart"
The Talmud reflects what is written here, "One who comes to purity will be helped." It has been guaranteed that if you return to the Holy One with all your heart, the Holy One will help. One sees this stated throughout the writings, for from the time of creation Adam could choose to do what he wished; to be righteous or to be wicked.
This was also true when the Torah was given, so that people would be rewarded for their good choices and punished for the wicked ones. When the messianic era approaches, however, it will be natural to be good, the heart will not wish for that which is unsuitable and no one will ever desire that which is evil. This is the circumcision that is being spoken of here.
For all desire and greed is contained in the heart?s foreskin. The circumcision of the heart means that one no longer is covetous or lustful, and thus one returns to the time before the sin of the first Adam when doing good was natural, and he had no desire to do the opposite...
Your Ramban Navigator
Whom, according to the Ramban, has to make the first move?
According to the Ramban, why was the Torah given?
Will the Torah be necessary during the Messianic era? What will be the result of our circumcised hearts?
A Word
No Doctor would ever fiddle with a healthy heart, yet we are told that it is part of our nature that the heart contains that which is painful and destructive just as it contains that which is good, beautiful and life giving. It is this tension which makes the Torah necessary, so that we may all fight the good fight against the evil from within. The struggle is within all of us until that wonderful time when the exiles are ingathered and we, according to the Ramban, are allowed to rest and just be naturally good.
This will occur when there is a national awareness that makes us return and when we as a people return, our hearts will be transformed and we will be like Adam before the fall.
The Hasidic Master, Rabbi Simcha Bunim once said, "The great tragedy is not that humans sin--for the temptation is great and one?s power is weak. The tragedy is that at any given moment one can turn to God but does not do so."
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