Voices of WRJ: Parashat Nitzavim-Vayeilech

It is September—my favorite time of year. The weather begins to change and the leaves on the trees turn magnificent colors. After summer hiatus, it is time again to get back to our typical, daily routines. It is the month of Elul. The High Holidays are upon us. It is a time for reflection and repentance. It also begins a new season for WRJ sisterhoods and women's groups across North America and beyond. Imagine at your first meeting you begin in song, hinei ma tov—a song that repeats the same few lines in Hebrew that translate to: “how good and pleasant it is for brothers and sisters to sit together in unity.” Imagine the connection that women feel at your first gathering in your kehillah kedoshah, your sacred community. This week, on the Jewish calendar, we have a double parashah: Nitzavim and Vayeilech. They tell us that Moses is now at the ripe age of 120. This wise and old man rises in front of the Israelites and informs them how they will probably stray from their path, but as long as they repent, God will forgive them. During the High Holidays repentance will occur, but this week, God speaks to Moses and says that the Israelites will forsake Him and break His covenant with them. God explains how He will be angry and that “many evils and troubles shall befall them” but they must repent and will eventually be forgiven and God will bring them into “the land of milk and honey.” This advice tells Moses to share these words with the Israelites before his time on earth comes to an end. In 2014, we, Women of Reform Judaism, do not have a 120-year-old wise leader who guides and advises. But advice comes in all forms: sometimes uninvited but sometimes encouraging and helpful. We must remember that people sharing their advice deeply care about your sisterhood or women’s group just as God and Moses deeply cared about the Israelites. We learn a lesson about unity from our wise teacher, Moses: we, too, should unite all of our women within our congregations so they feel connected to each other. The whole of the community is greater than the sum of its parts. Each individual may be flawed and imperfect, but when they all join together, the strengths and good qualities of each are reinforced and magnified. Moses then begins his final address to the Israelites:

"You stand this day, all of you, before the Eternal your God—your tribal heads, your elders, and your officials, all the men of Israel, your children, your women, even the stranger within your camp, from woodchopper to water drawer—to enter into the covenant of the Eternal your God, which the Eternal your God is concluding with you this day . . . not with you alone, but both with those who are standing here with us this day before the Eternal our God and with those who are not with us here this day (Deuteronomy 29:9-14)."

We learn that God's covenant belongs not merely to the wise or the influential, but to every member of our community regardless of age, gender, or social station; its expansiveness extends even to include the countless generations yet to come. This Torah portion reminds us that the covenant includes all of us. Moses, the Israelites’ leader and preacher, is soon to leave. Change is among the people and Moses is guiding and preparing them for that time. Parashat Nitzavim delivers the message that change is not only possible, but is also desirable. We are all capable of significant growth—a hopeful message that lies at the heart of Torah. The Hebrew verb for return or repentance, shuv, appears seven times in the first ten verses of chapter 30 and we learn that when words appear in Torah many times they are of the utmost importance. We are only human, and as human beings we make mistakes, but we can practice t’shuvah by reflecting on our errors, learning from them, and resolving to act differently the next time we face similar choices. As the year 5775 progresses remember the advice people have shared with you, remember how much these people care about you and your sisterhood or women’s group, and remember that we are united by our covenant with God. Go forth strongly and confidently into 5775.