Parshas Nitzavim: Choose Life - the Must do Mitzvah

Our Torah portion this week, Nitzavim (Deuteronomy) 29:9–30:20, opens on Moses' last day of his 120 years on earth. He gathers all the people together to impart final instructions regarding their bilateral spiritual contract with God, first introduced at Sinai meant for those present after the Exodus.

Moses introduces a second version of the contract that obligates all Jews in the future. The covenant is binding only if future generations comply with its terms. 

God anticipates widespread abrogation of the contract among the Jewish people for which shared dire consequences are guaranteed. This will teach the people spiritual cause and effect and provide a way to repentance and the messianic redemption. He wants the rest of the nations to witness the Jewish experience so that they also learn the path to the messianic redemption, known by a universal Divine consciousness and love of God and neighbor.

CHOOSE LIFE

This portion includes the profound life and death message in Deuteronomy Chapter 30:15-20.

Behold, I have set before you today life and good, and death and evil, inasmuch as I command you this day to love the Lord, your God, to walk in His ways, and to observe His commandments, His statutes, and His ordinances, so that you will live and increase, and the Lord, your God, will bless you in the land to which you are coming to take possession of it. 

But if your heart deviates and you do not listen, and you will be drawn astray, and you will prostrate yourself to other deities and serve them, I declare to you this day, that you will surely perish, and that you will not live long days on the land, to which you are crossing the Jordan, to come and take possession thereof. 

This day, I call upon the heaven and the earth as witnesses [that I have warned] you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.

You shall choose life, so that you and your offspring will live; To love the Lord your God, to listen to His voice, and to cleave to Him. 

For that is your life and the length of your days, to dwell on the land which the Lord swore to your forefathers to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob to give to them.

Nitzavim closes as God speaks directly to Joshua, telling him to forego consultation with administrative officials, whose bad advice will doom society, and instead rule with confidence in God's guidance. Torah law must be the law of the land.

ISAIAH'S PROPHECY

In our Haftorah: Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 61:10 - 63:9, Isaiah's prophecy of salvation echoes across the centuries to give hope to a troubled world. He knew that spiritual and national transformation depends on free speech protections, as it still does today.

For the sake of Zion, I will not be silent, and for the sake of Jerusalem I will not rest, until her righteousness comes out like brilliance, and her salvation burns like a torch.

And nations shall see your righteousness, and all kings your glory, and you shall be called a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall pronounce.

And you shall be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord and a kingly diadem in the hand of your God.

No longer shall "forsaken" be said of you, and "desolate" shall no longer be said of your land, for you shall be called "My desire is in her," and your land, "inhabited," for the Lord desires you, and your land shall be inhabited.

Please share this post on your social media to amplify our message in this troubled world. Thank you.

Cecily Routman 

May there be abundant peace from Heaven, and good life upon us and upon all Israel. Amen.

Cecily Routman is the founder and president of the Jewish Pro-Life Foundation. She opposes abortion homicide in general and among Jews in particular and laments secular policy making in Israel that results in loss of Jewish life and delays the messianic redemption. She envisions a Torah based holy Land of Israel and a world that respects the life of every human being from conception.