Published September 14, 2009
NITZAVIM is always read on the last Shabbat of the year, the Shabbat right before Rosh HaShana. Sometimes it is read alone - specifically when Rosh HaShana is Monday-Tuesday or Tuesday-Wednesday. A bit more often, it is read together with Vayeilech (when RH is THU-FRI or SHABBAT-SUN). The official reason for the tweaking of the schedule of weekly sedras causing Nitzavim to be read on the Shabbat before RH is to let it be a buffer between the harsh TOCHACHA of Ki Tavo and Yom HaDin, a.k.a. Rosh Ha- Shana. Perhaps a more substantial and significant reason for its being read on the Shabbat before Rosh HaShana is the perfectly appropriate topics contained in little Nitzavim - the topics of T’shuva, Reward and Punishment, and Free Will.
Rambam’s Hilchot T’shuva is introduced by a note on the topics to be presented in this particular section - the final one - of Sefer Mada, the Book of Knowledge. Those are T’SHUVA and other concepts that come along in its wake - namely, Reward and Punishment and Free Will. And these are exactly the topics presented in Nitzavim.
Let’s take a look at the way the Torah presents the topic of T’shuva. Paraphrasing… When you will be punished for turning away from G-d by being dispersed among the nations of the world… YOU SHALL RETURN TO G-D and keep the mitzvot… And G-d will RETURN you to the Land (of Israel)... and He will help in the process of your return… You shall RETURN…
RETURNING has two facets - returning to G-d and returing to Eretz Yisrael. These are NOT two different things, because return to the land is part of and conditional upon return to G-d.
Can a Jew return to the Land and not to G-d? Technically, he can, but that’s not the point. Look at D’varim 30:1-10 and see how intertwined and interdependent the two facets of return are. The Torah’s promises of prosperity when we return is qualified by its happening in the Land.
Some of these p’sukim are quoted in the Prayer for the State of Israel. The full prayer includes the part about the Ingathering of the Exiles AND of G-d’s circumcising our hearts to facilitate our love and commitment to Him. When Jews come back to Torah and to Eretz Yisrael, we can talk of Israel being the “beginning of the flowering of our redemption”. Just physically coming here does not give Israel that beautiful depiction. May we all return fully.
© 2012 OU. All rights reserved.