My Weekly Drash (a mini D'var Torah) - Nitzavim
Posted by Daniel M. Kimmel on September 26, 2008 | Tags:
Parshah Nitzavim includes a verse the rabbis have puzzled over for centuries. “Concealed acts concern the Lord our God; but with overt acts, it is for us and our children ever to apply all the provisions of this teaching.” (Deut. 29:28). Does this mean we’re responsible for each other for our public acts, and God will deal with our private ones? Does it mean we should only judge a person’s outer actions and not his inner motivations? If you look at the Hebrew text of the verse, you will see dots placed over some of the letters, which only occurs fourteen other places in the Torah. This signifies a problematic or challenging verse that the rabbis wrestled with, and whose full meaning may be ambiguous. As we head into the High Holidays and, in a month’s time, start reading the Torah anew, it’s interesting to note that there are texts that challenged the greatest sages and continue to challenge us today. As we read it year after year, we should never feel it has offered up everything there is to learn.
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Daniel M. KimmelJoined: October 2, 2007 Daniel M. Kimmel is a Boston area film critic, lecturer and author. He does these weekly mini-lessons for the Mishkan Tefila Brotherhood's newsletter. You are free to use them for similar purposes. Divrei Torah (117) |
