• | Print |
•  Email

Parshat Nitzavim
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron

בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו

Connecting to the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land

ואתה תשוב ושמעת בקול ה'... כי ישוב ה' לשוש עליך לטוב כאשר שש על אבותיך

"Have compassion upon me... and aid me and merit me to speedily go to and arrive in the Holy Land, which is the source of our holiness, as You know that all of our holiness and purity and all our Judaism is dependent on the Land of Israel...” (Likutei Tfilot I 20)

These days are days of returning, returning to our souls, returning to our Roots, returning to the light of Hebron, the light of our Holy Land and the Holy Presence. Our title quote teaches us that just as we return to HaShem, so too HaShem returns to us. This quote goes even further to say that HaShem will return to rejoice upon us just as He rejoiced upon our Forefathers, which yet again shows how returning to God ultimately brings one to the City of our Forefathers, Hebron.

The term used here for 'rejoice' - 'sas' is interpreted in the Megilas Ester by our Sages to homiletically refer to Bris Mila. They learn this concept from the verse in Tehilim “'sas'-happy am I upon Your words-'imratecha'”. They interpret that this rejoice was due specifically to 'imratecha' the more softly spoken words of HaShem used to command Avraham on Bris Mila than the more harsher sounding term - 'dibur' - later used in almost all the mitzvot at the era of Moshe Rabeinu. From this inference we can gain a deeper meaning into the nature of the source of our covenant with HaShem which began with our Father Avraham and continues in the present and future forever.

The concept of covenant implies an agreement agreed upon by both sides which entails that one side was not forced into the agreement. However, once this covenant is formed the ramifications are strongly binding and may be harshly re-enforced, as we see in the 'words of the covenant' in the Blessings and Curses of last week's parsha at length. Now we understand why the soft term 'imratecha' indeed reflects the nature of a covenant at its initiation when it is softly imposed so that the other side will not feel compelled to agree to this covenant. Indeed, our Sages teach us that there was a deliberation on Avraham's part if to commit the bris mila.

In the Midrash our Sages teach that two of three of Avraham's friends, Aner and Eshkol both advised Avraham to abstain from committing bris mila. However, Avraham's third friend, Mamreh, took the courage to disagree ('mamreh' - lehamrot - to disagree) and advised Avraham to indeed commit this mitrzva. Since then, and throughout history such as in the covenant formed with David in Hebron, till this day when many justly have the custom of performing Bris Mila at Maaras HaMachpela, Hebron is synonymous with the concept of covenant and faithfulness to our time-old dedication to HaShem and His Holy Land.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Real Stories from the Holy Land #136

"The time had come to sell my old business in favor of a new business that seemed better than the first. After agreement by my wife and receiving blessing from a tzadik to sell quickly and for a good price, I decided that the best way to advertise the business was through business contacts and not through personal acquaintances, who can cause lots of time 'waisted' on petty interest and not on serious interest on buying the business. One day, I saw that my wife had just finished a conversation with her talkative friend about my intent on selling the business. I then explained to my wife that I do not want this info to be delivered to the private arena and the reason for this. The next day I got a call by a man who introduced himself as someone who would like to buy another business in the area and would like to talk with me before signing the contract. I explained that I was on the way to Oman St. (Jerusalem) to buy something, to which he answered that he happened to be on the same street repairing his car. We met. In the end, he decided to buy my business instead of the other business he told me about on the phone. Over just a few hours we signed on contract to the satisfaction of all parties. It 'turns out' that it was my wife's phone-call that I opposed that was the link that brought about the business transaction the next day." H.Y

Sources: Megila 16b, Rambam Tshuva 3, 6 - Tshuva and believing Mashiah and Thias Hamesim -the Land

Comments, questions, and/or stories,email  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.