NItzavim

 Today’s Torah begins: “See, this day I set before you blessing and curse: blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I enjoin upon you this day; and curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God.”

 

The ability of each Jew to choose good or evil, involvement or indifference, piety or skepticism, is the cornerstone of the Torah and of rabbinic Judaism. Judaism presupposes that we have the power to say “no” to God.

 

Our choice implicates God.

 

Torah records the instruction to “keep (shamor tishm‘run) all this commandment that I command you.”

 

The rabbis note the Hebrew verb shamor, to keep or guard, is the same verb used to designate someone who safeguards the property of another.  They know that the Torah uses language with great precision, and if God gives this command using shamor it must be to signify that the Torah, which is God’s property, has been handed over to us for safe keeping.  We are the guardians of God’s Torah.

 

If this is to be an even exchange, in which we guard something of God’s and God guards something of ours, then what is God keeping on our behalf?

Bar Kappara notes, “The soul and the Torah are both compared to a lamp in the Bible: the soul, as it is written, ‘The soul of a man is the lamp of the Lord,’ and the Torah, as it is written, ‘For the commandment is a lamp and the Torah is light.’ ”

 

Bar Kappara now makes explicit: “God said to humanity: ‘My light is in your hand, and your light is in mine.’ ‘My light is in your hands’ refers to the Torah.  ‘Your light is in mine’ refers to the soul.  If you guard My light, I will guard your light.”

 

 

But God also has choice.  Just as God’s Torah is in our hands, so our souls are in God’s.   Midrash suggests that our choice will determine God’s.  If we guard God’s lamp, the Torah, then God will respond with equal diligence in keeping our lamp, the soul.  

 

 

The choice is yours.  And God is waiting.

 “You shall give him [charity]… for, because of this Hashem will bless you …” (15:10). The Netziv of Volozhin once sent two fundraisers to travel throughout the Jewish world to raise funds for the Yeshiva of Volozhin. Their task was overwhelming and since they were traveling to so many places they would buy a ticket for a lottery and pray that Hashem give them the winning number, and then give all the proceeds to the Yeshiva. After deciding on a number one Meshulach entered the local Shul to pray that the winning number is 2118 while the other Meshulach went to purchase the ticket. The one who was purchasing the ticket decided at the last minute to change the number which had a more favorable Gematria. His friend did not know the change and continued praying for his #. When the winning number was announced, it wasthat. The two fundraisers returned to Volozhin dejected. They told the story to the Netziv and the Netziv said: support of the Yeshiva should come in a dignified manner without having to resort to traveling thousands of miles and stopping in hundreds of towns. But Hashem in His infinite wisdom wished to give thousands of Jews a share in the Torah which is studied in Volozhin; your ill-fated plan would have deprived them of this great merit…. 

  

Dalai Lama, “The Art of Happiness – A Handbook for Living”.  Summarized as follows. “You can only find happiness if you’re a compassionate person. Because if you’re not compassionate, you’ll be cynical, and you’ll never find goodness in people and you’ll never be happy if you’re cynical.”

 

Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.

Lao Tzu

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