This week’s Sidra begins with Moses’ declaration that the Israelites were standing ready in front of the Lord in order to make another covenant with him. This covenant was made in the Land of Moab and it was a renewal of the covenant that had originally been made in Mount Chorev, another name for Mount Sinai. Together with the covenant, Moses also expressed a very solemn oath, cursing anyone who would transgress that covenant.
The remarkable aspect of this covenant is that the Torah mentions, specifically, every group that was present. The list includes the most prominent leaders of the nation as well is the least important workers, those whose job was to cut wood for the fires and bring water, from the wells, into the camp, in skins. It also includes the children and proselytes. It even includes all the unborn generations of Israelites. On the basis of this fact, our rabbis of the Talmud claimed that every Jew alive today has an obligation to observe the Torah because he also took the oath on that solemn occasion.
The detailed list of all the groups that participated in this event comes to emphasise that every individual is important in the presence of the Almighty, no matter what is his station in life. Everyone has the same potential for spiritual growth. Everyone has the capacity to reach the summit. No one should consider himself too insignificant to be a partner in the covenant.
The story is told about Rabbi Levi Itzchak of Berdichev that, one Rosh Hashanah, when he was about to begin the blowing the shofar, he suddenly removed the shofar from his lips and put it down. There was a delay which the people couldn’t understand. Then, the rabbis explained that in the back of the shul there was sitting a strange Jewish person, who had been kidnapped as a young child, and brought up by a gentile family. He was later drafted into the Russian army. When he became 40 years old, he was finally allowed to leave and return home. He had not been inside a synagogue since his childhood and couldn’t remember any of the prayers. Yet, he was so overcome with emotion being in a synagogue again after so many years, that he began to pray by reciting the letters of the Aleph Bet. That is all that he could still remember. The Rabbi said that he knew that that strange man was reciting the letters very sincerely and explained that he had stopped blowing the shofar because he wanted to wait for that man to conclude his prayer.
We can see, from this beautiful story, that everyone’s prayer, however far he may be from religious practice, is acceptable to Hashem.
The Hebrew expression which the Torah uses for the making of the covenant is: LA’AVOR BRIT, which means ‘to pass the covenant’. The expression shows that when the Israelites made the covenant they passed between parts of animals which were cut to pieces. We find a detailed description of this dramatic ritual in the account of the covenant which Abraham made with God in chapter 15 of the Book of Genesis.
The first two brief portions of the Sidra describe the making of the covenant. The third portion, which is much longer, records Moses’s warning never return to idolatrous worship and the consequences of disobedience. He told them that there would be a good chance that one day a man or woman, family or even an entire tribe would be sufficiently arrogant to turn again to idols and corrupt a large number of people. He called those people by the remarkable expression: ‘a root which grows poisonous weeds’, spreading like wildfire and destroying not only the wicked, but also the righteous. Thus, Moses foresaw that idolatrous practice would not be able to be contained. He warned the people that God would be extremely angry. Indeed. He used the expression: YE’ESHAN, which means that God’s anger would burn so fiercely that thick smoke would emanate from him against the sinners.
Moses prophesied that the punishment for idolatry would be exile from the land. The land itself would become uninhabitable. It would become completely devastated by sulphur and salt, with nothing planted and nothing growing, not even a blade of grass.
Later in Jewish history the worst happened. By the end of the sixth century BCE, when the first Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians, the whole nation had embraced idolatry and many were exiled from the Holy Land. Only few remained. Moses mentions them in verse 21 referring to them as the last survivors. These were people who refused follow the majority and to be corrupted.
The last verse of chapter 29 declares: “The Lord our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable for ever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions”. The Hebrew words VEHANIGLOT LANU ULEVANENU, meaning the things that are revealed to us and to our children, have 11 dots written above them in the scroll of the Torah. It seems that these dots were added by the early scribes in order to emphasise their importance. For the same reason, the entire second part of this verse is read out, in the synagogue, very loudly.
There are a number of explanations for this declaration. According to one explanation the secrets, which only God knows, are the evil thoughts and deeds which people deliberately conceal and which only God knows about. We, human beings, cannot do anything about them and cannot possibly be accountable for them. On the other hand, there are sins which people commit which are in the public domain. For them, the whole nation is accountable. We have a duty to prevent them and punish those who are responsible for them.
According to a second explanation the secret things which only God knows are the events which will happen in the future. Human beings can only know the past and the present. Therefore, they have a duty to study them carefully and understand them, so that, as a result of their knowledge they will be able to keep all the words of the Torah.