Parsha for Sept 8th -Nitzavim & Va'yeilech

This week is a double portion

September 8

Nitzavim - 51

'Are standing '
Deut 29:9 - 30:20


Va'yeilech - 52

'And went'
Deut 31:1 - 31:30


You can read this online using one of our links from the Torah links thread.

Use this thread to discuss this parsha.


Please share what insights HaShem gave you in this weeks parsha.

Chapter 29 ends with The hidden things belong to the L-RD, our God, but the revealed things apply to us and to our children forever: that we must fulfill all the words of this Torah.
What is given to us we must not treat lightly, but reverently, and with awe and thankfulness that He loves us so much to share it with us.
Chapter 30 again is a reminder that they ( we) will sin, and will go astray, and will commit adultery against HaShem, and He knows it will happen and He will have to punish ,but in His great love He also promises to bring us back to our own land, a land that is the only place on earth that will accept us, it is part of us, we are part of it.

It won't be easy as heart surgery is involved, yes, the circumcision of the heart will do what all the curses warned about could not do, so that we can love Him truly with all our heart and soul and strength. We will then be able to fully follow all His commandments and walk in His ways, for He promises that it is not hidden from us, nor far from us, it is not in heaven where we have to go to retrieve it, nor beyond the sea to retrieve it. But it is very close, in our mouth and heart so we can fulfill it.

But when? I don't think we alone have this power, we can only do it with the help of the Ruach HaKodesh, for we are sinful, fickle flesh, and even when we think we are following all the mitzvot we can, we still fail because all has not been righted, but will soon.


Even with the choice between only two things, good and evil, life and death, we still failed and chose evil and death, even when HaSHEM Gave us the right answer ------ CHOOSE LIFE!!!!! Hello?? Did we listen? Of course not and He knew we wouldn't , but it was all part of His plan. Because we can't do it alone, and He doesn't want us to, we need Him, it is not only a relationship but it is a partnership.

No man is an island in G-ds plan for the world, we all interact and are only as good as our worst member. The commandments were given to Israel to show the world who it's creator truly is, and part of her job actually was , in reality to fail, not in totality, but enough to show that although we are chosen, we aren't perfect, but yet G-d forgives and He remembers His covenants with us and our ancestors, and that alone is the biggest statement of love there ever was.
As R. Sha'ul said: Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Romans 5:20

It is about mercy, something HaShem loves and most don't get, His desire is us to learn of mercy and thus we learn and understand Him all the more. Yeshua brought that same message, to learn what it means to have mercy over sacrifice. If we learn mercy, how much harder it becomes to sin?

Quote :

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; 20. 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.

Huge witnesses are called to testify against us, the biggest there ever was. Heaven and earth! That is so awesome that most don't grasp the enormity of it, Heaven and earth, the two witnesses against us! He even tells us, YOU SHALL CHOOSE LIFE! ( I guess there really wasn't another choice was there? )

Three things:

1. To love the L-rD your G-d
2. To listen to His voice
3. To cleave unto Him

Those are awesome demands and very intimate too. We are not only to be obedient to Him ( listen) and to love Him over all else, but to cleave unto Him, just as first presented in Genesis 2:24 "therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." We are to be one with Him, echad, leaving no place for any other, no place for idolatry, no place to have anyone or anything take the place of the Almighty, none.

Quote :

And Moses went, and he spoke the following words to all Israel. 2.


He said to them, "Today I am one hundred and twenty years old. I can no longer go or come,

From my recollection I believe this is the only time we have anyone stating when their Birthday was in the Bible.
Jewfaq says that this was the 7th of Adar in 2368 ( 1400 BCE)

It is well known that the children of Israel crossed over the Jordan into the Promised Land on the 10th of Aviv. So counting backwards 30 days for mourning Moshe would bring us to Adar 10. This leaves three days to account for, any ideas?



Moshe addresses the people and reminds them once again that he will not be going with them. This must have been a great blow to the majority of them who lived their whole lives under this great mans leadership. But he promises them another leader, one whom HaShem has chosen to follow in his footsteps (almost, no rock hitting allowed, ) He enjoins them to Be strong, Hazak!!!, be bold, and don't be afraid for Adonai YOUR G-D is going with you, and will not fail you or abandon you, Hazak!

This must have been an exciting, yet very trepedatious time for them. Loosing their leader, going into the land that their fathers had told them stories of great fruits of the land, and great men as well. Giants! and they would have to conquer them! HAZAK!

Moshe then in the witness of all, summons Yehoshua, and tells him, Hazak! and commisions him that he will be the one going with them and he will be the one, pay attention here, Causing them to inherit it......................

Hmm, all that Moshe did, yet Y'hoshua will be the one to bring about the inheritance of the promised land.

Moshe then finnishes up writing down what he is doing this day, in the book, in the Torah. He gives it into the trust of the Cohanim with these orders: after every 7 years during Sukkot, the Torah is to be read in the hearing of all men, women and children when they come to appear before Adonai. So they can hear it, learn it, and OBEY it and fear Adonai for as long as they live in the land.

I wonder when it changed to reading it every Shabbat? a portion at a time?

Moshe is then told by HaShem to gather Y'hoshua and come to the tent of meeting for the ceremony of commision of Y'hoshua. The first thing he tells him is he is going to die and the people will not listen to a word he ( Moshe ) has taught them all these years and they will abandon Adonai and fornicate with other g/ds. How sad for Moshe, all those years, all that work, all that patience! Oy Gevalt! Enough to make you sick in your kishkes! but at least he doesn't have to witness it.

So , HaShem what does He do about it?

He tells them to write a song! A song? Ah, but not just any song, another witness to the disobedience to come. Learn the song about how you will disobey HaShem and what He will do when you do. Doesn't quite make sense does it? But He knows us and we are just to much flesh to help ourselves, again that is why we need Him.

It will not be written down and placed away only to be taken out every 7 years and read, no, it will be a song, one that sticks in your head, that you can't get out of your head, day and night you sing it, you hum it, little children and 80 year old men both know it, it is forever a witness against you, and you sing it as you turn away....................

So Moshe wrote down the song, and that very day taught it to all the Chidlren of Jacob... then he put the finnishing touches on the Torah and gave it to the Levites with the command to put this next to the Ark, not inside it, but next to the ark that carried the covenant,again as another witness..

Now Moshe calls heaven and earth to witness against these stiff necked ones.............. and started to speak the words of the song, later known as the Song of Moshe.