Sep 16/06 - Parashat Nitzvavim / Vayelech

Commentary by Chazzan Aníbal Mass

Two children are talking during recess at school:

— Today, my teacher taught us everything about the biggest and most powerful animals in the world.

— Wow, what did he tell you?

— He said that they are tall like light posts and strong enough to demolish little buildings with their tails, and that they eat tons of food.

— And where are these wonderful animals? I want to see them!

— The teacher said that you can only see them in the Museum.

— But, are they all dead? Weren’t they the most powerful creatures on earth?

— Well, then he told us about how the climate of the planet had changed and that these animals, called dinosaurs, didn't know how to evolve and, believe it or not, for this reason they all perished.

I think it is no coincidence that after a Parashah called “Nitzavim” comes another one called “Vayelech”, and that very often we read these two Parshiot together.

“Nitzavim” means “to be standing”, while “Vayelech” means “he (Moses) walked”.

The Torah is teaching us that the only way to generate continuity in Judaism, and not to become museum pieces as the dinosaurs did, is to put these two concepts together: “Nitzavim” and “Vayelech”.

My reading is that this “Nitzavim”, this “to be standing” or “to stay in the same place” means to be able to incorporate into our lives the eternal and unmovable values of the Torah, to study them, to understand them and to assimilate them, and not to give in to the pagan values that society tries to impose on us.

But we should also be able to incorporate the “Vayelech”: that is, to advance in the way of seeing the world because, like it or not, the world is changing as you read this article.

We cannot generate continuity if we are not able to blend these two concepts.

There are people who say we should be only “Nitzavim”, and we should insist on not changing anything because Judaism has never changed. Has Judaism ever evolved to give a better response to external changes? There is only one example: in the Book of Genesis we read that our patriarch, Yaakov, had two wives plus two concubines. Now, try to propose that to your wife and I bet that tonight you will have to sleep out. And do you know why? Because times have changed and the Rabbis knew how to adapt our tradition to the new conditions of the world.

But there are also people who seek to impose the position of being only “Vayelech”, eliminating completely the eternal values of the Torah that have characterized us as a unique people, and for the sake of “progress” they forget the sanctity of Shabbat, Kashrut, Tefillah, etc.

The Conservative Movement, whose motto is “Tradition and Change”, shows us the way to achieve continuity so that we can find the answers for our daily life in the Torah. Tradition: “Nitzavim”, and Change: “Vayelech”.

To conserve the content, to adapt the forms.

One person who has defined these two concepts in a very clear way for 21st century Jews was the rabbi and recognized international human rights activist, Marshall Meyer Z'L (1930-1993). Rabbi Meyer said: “The Jew should be able to hold the Torah with one hand and the newspaper with the other.”

The Torah in one hand and the newspaper in the other.

Only in this way will we be able to live a life committed to the continuity of Judaism and a better world.

Shanah Tovah u’mtukah.