This Week In The Torah



Parsha Nitzavim Devorim/Deut.Ch29/9-30/20

A Taste of Things to Come
by Rabbi Yechezkel Fox

G-d your Lord, will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, to love G-d, your Lord, with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. Ch.30/6

What does it mean that G-d will circumcise our hearts?

The heart is the seat of desire. When our mind tells us to do one thing, but the desire of our heart is otherwise, that is known as the foreskin of the heart, orlas halev. G-d promises that one day He will remove that foreskin, and our minds and hearts will function together to serve G-d.

Tradition teaches that those who seek repentence in the month of Elul will merit great heavenly assistance. If we take the first step, G-d will help to circumcise our heart, taking away some of the barrier of desire between Him and us.

For this reason Elul is hinted at in our verse. In the Hebrew text, the first letters of the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th words spell out Elul. For the month of Elul is like a taste of the World to Come, when G-d will circumcise the heart.

Source: Rav Gadliah Shore

* * * * *


Key To Survival
I call the heavens and the earth today to bear witness against you: I have placed life and death before you, blessing and curse: and you shall choose life, so that you will live, you and your offspring.Ch.13/19

Why is it necessary for the Torah to advise us to choose life? Perhaps because there are times when those who have chosen death and destruction seem to be overwhelming us. At this point, when feelings of despair and hopelessness are submerging us, the Torah says choose life. Never give up!

And this is the key to the survival of the Jewish Nation. Every generation since the beginning of the exile, almost 2000 years ago, has had to say, that unequivocally we are going to choose life and not give in to the powers of evil.

On Rosh Hashanah we will be praying to G-d: Remember us for life, O King who desires life, and inscribe us in the Book of Life---for your sake, O Living G-d. Let us use this opportunity to deeply reaffirm our commitment to a purposeful life and resolve to make a better world.

Wishing you and your families a New Year of much blessing, and that you will be written and sealed in the Book of Life.



This Week In The Torah's archive    Back to the current E-geress issue