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In parashat Nitzavim we read:

הַנִּסְתָּרֹת לַיקֹוָק אֱלֹהֵינוּ וְהַנִּגְלֹת לָנוּ וּלְבָנֵינוּ עַד עוֹלָם לַעֲשׂוֹת אֶת כָּל דִּבְרֵי הַתּוֹרָה הַזֹּאת:
“Concealed acts are the responsibility of the Lord our God ; but overt acts are the responsibility of us and our children unto eternity, to carry out all the words of this Torah.”

In the Torah portion Nitzavim is the above verse in chapter 29, verse 28 there is dots over some of the letters in the Hebrew text. There are only 10 times this sort of scribal marking is found, so it really calls out for some explanation. It is as if you underlined some passage in red ink, or a highlighter.

In the Torah scroll, it appears a with  dot over the ע of עד,  meaning unto. Why is only half the word dotted?

עד is a word that suggests continuity. A dot on only one of the word’s only two letters breaks it up. Maybe this is suggesting we may not know the secret things now, but in the world to come we will ? We simply have to do the best we can now with what we know.

If we don’t read the phrase לנו ולבנינו, us and our children because of the dots on them, which at times denote the marked world is “like” erased. Then the verse would start “Concealed acts are the responsibility of the Lord our God, and overt acts also.”  While the children of Israel are still in the wilderness, they are not wholly responsible beings; God is concerned with both their public and private acts and will dispense judgement, like a parent. Once they cross over the Jordan, into their promised homeland, Rashi informs us that then, they have to take collective ownership of their actions. Now they are adults with autonomy. They have a responsibility to maintain law and order among themselves as best they can.

Concealed acts concern the Lord our G-d; but with overt acts, it is for us and our children ever to apply all the provisions of this Teaching. (Deut. 29:28).

In the Torah scroll there are eleven dots over the words of this verse, over eleven consecutive letters:   the words lanu u-le-vanenu (= for us and our children), and over the letter ayin which begins the next word, ad (= ever). This means that we have responsibility for each other, helping each other obey the rules and do mitzvot – and we also have responsibility for ourselves. This is the longest run of dots in the Torah, eleven of them, and immediately before the dots is an eleven-letter phrase – ליהוה אלהינו. As we’ve seen, we don’t ever erase God’s name. We avoid even a suggestion of doing such a thing, so we wouldn’t put those eleven dots above ליהוה אלהינו. But the association is there; is it coincidence that there are exactly the right number of dots for ליהוה אלהינו, put in right next to the phrase, on the next available words? What if we read the verse without God? Then it reads “Concealed acts and overt acts are the responsibility of us and our children unto eternity…”

In  Avot de-Rabbi Nathan , in addressing the subject of these dots, presents an dialogue between Ezra the Scribe,  who set the text of the Torah and the rules of copying it as is today, and Elijah the Prophet, who is destined to resolve all questions and uncertainties:

Ezra said:   If Elijah should happen to come to me and ask, “Why did you write it thus?” I shall answer him, “I have already put dots over them.” And if he should say to me, “You have written this well,” I shall remove the dots.

It follows from this interchange that the dots were an accepted sign for deletion, and if Elijah should reveal to Ezra that these words were not to be written, Ezra would argue back that they indeed had already been marked for deletion. The use of dots  as a deletion sign can be seen also in  Isaiah found among the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Since Ezra was not sure whether or not these words ought to be written, he wrote them and added a deletion sign over them; it was decided that this practice continue to be followed in all Torah scrolls.  As a result, Scripture itself hints at two possible readings:  according to one, the words with dots over them are to be included in the verse; according to the other, they are to be omitted.

This verse is the longest run of dots in the Torah, eleven of them in all. Immediately before the dots is an eleven-letter phrase – ליהוה אלהינו. There is a tradition that when letters are dotted it is like the words are erased and not read. There can’t be dots on the 11 letters of ליהוה אלהינו as we don’t ever erase God’s name. We wouldn’t even make the suggestion, so we wouldn’t put those eleven dots above ליהוה אלהינו. But since are exactly the right number of dots for ליהוה אלהינו . We would read the verse “without God”? as “Concealed acts and overt acts are the responsibility of us and our children unto eternity…”. The “clippa” nourish from 11 sources.

These are some of  the dotted words mentioned in the Mishnah and Talmud:   elav = to him (Gen. 18:9 – Bava Metzia 87a), be-kumah = when she rose (Gen. 19:33 – Nazir 23a), ve-Aharon = and Aaron (Num. 3:39 – Bekhorot 4a), rehokah = far, long (Num. 9:10 – Mishnah, Pesahim 9.2), ve-issaron = one-tenth (Num. 29:15 – Menahot 87b), lanu u-le-vanenu = to us and our children (Deut. 19:28 – Sanhedrin 43b).   Sifre and parallel texts also mention the words:  u-veineikha = between [you and] me (Gen. 16:5), va-yishakehu = and he kissed him (Gen. 33:4), et-tzon = flock (Gen. 37:12), and asher = which is (Num. 21:30). There are many more in the Gemora Sofrim in mesechtot Katanot. You can find much more on this in catagory “mesora”. Most explain that  dots come to limit or mitigate words of the text, as in the “halakhic” teaching about the “Pasach sheni”  for those who were “on a long journey” (Num. 9:10) when the Passover sacrifice was to be offered:  “Rabbi Yose said, therefore there is a dot over the letter h ,in the word “long”, to indicate that it is not because the person is surely far away, rather he may be anywhere from the threshold of the Temple forecourt and beyond (Mishnah, Pesahim 9.2).

The masoretic literature mentions additional dotted words, however Torah scrolls today do not have dots in these places. It is found that some of  these dots  do not indicate deletion, rather they indicate a controversy.

In the list of the seventy people who went down to Egypt says:  “To Joseph were born in the land of Egypt Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath daughter of Poti-phera priest of On bore to him” (Gen. 46:20). The Babylonian masoretic tradition relays that the letter yod in the word Poti-phera has a dot over it.  This indicates that the name Poti-phera was written according to the Babylonian tradition as a single word, and not as two words, which is the generally accepted tradition.  The dot over the yod, where the two words are joined, hints that there is a difference of opinion as to how this name is to be written – as one word or two.   Indeed, the masorah indicates explicitly that there was a controversy over this question.   It is interesting to note that according to the Yemenite tradition the name Potiphera is written as a single word, so the ancient controversy that existed in Babylonia continues to this day among different Jewish communities.

In the verse, “Why will you turn the minds (written tenu’un, read teni’un) of the Israelites” (Num. 32:7), a dot was reportedly written over the first vav in the word tenu’un, and a controversy over this is reported.   According to the generally accepted text today, this word is spelled one way and read another. Apparently, according to the minority opinion in the Babylonian tradition, the word was written with the letter yod and was read as it was written. We also find that the words in the Torah that have written by them the letter nun, and a dot is placed above the word or above the letter. These are not “zitima”, and there is disagreement and controversy over them.

“Zitima” is a Greek work meaning derogatory and erroneous.  Some say   “zitima” is as , “machlakot” Hebrew for disagreement “u-pligin aleihun” and Aramaic as disagreement over them.

This passage connects between the dots that are written over an entire word or over a single letter and the sign that appears in the margin in the form of a final letter nun or a letter “zayin”.  This is an early masoretic mark which appears in ancient manuscripts where there is a note of “keri” (read)  and “ketiv” (written).

“The secret things belong to the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this Torah.”

The secret is understanding this verse in context. The verses right before talk about the Jews leaving the path of Torah and “mitzvot” (commandments), God getting angry and removing  the Jews from the land of Israel.

What does the verse mean ?

God is saying: “Don’t worry, I will take care of all the hidden sins you do not even know of, they are not your concern. Your only concern is those sins that you are aware of.” Also other people’s sins that are public knowledge, they to are your responsibility. The “Aor Hachym”  explains “areivut”  It literally means each Jew is mixed in , connected to teach other Jew. As each Jew is as a part of one’s self. This creates a necessary  mutual responsibility of one Jew to another. This exists in the physical and spiritual realms. These are things we are responsible to fix also. We see the effect of being collectively responsible for one another with the incident of  Achan, who deliberately violated a Divine Commandment, and took property from the city of Jericho, after it had fallen during the conquest of Canaan under the leadership of Yehoshua. The subsequent defeat of the Jewish army at the battle of Ai is attributed to this lone act.

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch suggests that the verse means when we are scattered in exile don’t spend all your time trying to figure out mysteries, like when redemption is going to happen. Your concern is only with the revealed – do the commandments and let God figure when the time of redemption will be.

The split between “nigleh” (revealed) and “nistar” (secret) in our verse  is as the Kli Yakar teaches that every commandment has  two aspects to it:

1. The physical requirments of its actual performance .
2. The “kavanah” (intention), to understand and become learned in the commandments secrets , which God hid from the other nations.

​He ends up connecting this to teshuvah, saying:

….it is not concealed from you, so you have no excuse to say that you didn’t know that the Holy One Blessed Be He accepts the teshuvah of the sinners, for you knew the matter of teshuvah more than all the nations because “Yisrael and teshuvah preceded the world” [Pesachim 54a].

And if so, then when Hashem created teshuvah, you were also there.

And if the nations need prodding about teshuvah – like the people of Nineveh – behold, you don’t need any prodding because the secret of teshuvah was revealed to you ever since that ancient time.

The Kli Yakar goes on to say that no one need ascend to Heaven to find out whether Hashem will accept our teshuvah; the answer to that secret is already known to us.

The parsha begins ”You stand this day all of you before Yhv”h Elohech”a”. The sages say the day referred to here is Rosh Hashanah.

As every word of the Torah is precious. One can find so much meaning to its voice. Its written ” Not with you alone will I make this covenant and this oath; But with him who stands here with us this day before Yhv”h Elohech”a and also with him who is not here with us this day” (29:13-14). The Torah is Eternal as hinted by ” also with him who is not here with us this day”.

Its further written ”you will enter into covenant with Yhv”h Elohech”a, and into his oath, which the Yhv”h Elohech”a makes with you this day. That He may establish you today for a Nation to himself ”. This is what it is to be the Nation of Israel. The nation of GOD. Who here makes a covenant with us. Concerning this Covenant a few verses later GOD reminds us ”It should come to pass, when one hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart, Yhv”h will not spare him (18-20). But now standing in front of the Jewish people are noble men but they are not educated in Divine wisdom-Torah Knowledge. Many even naked of knowledge of Torah law. Only with knowledge is one given free choice. One would not know that the creator has forbidden growing two different types of plants close together unless one read this in the Torah. Then we know what to do. Without this knowledge there is not free choice. Without knowledge of the Torah one ends up with a different kind of life, so the generations changed. Most of us have heard stories of our religious ancestors. But a lack of Torah knowledge can rip away faith in the Divine God, the giver of the Law from generations. Creating a Jewish culture with different values not necessarily focused concerning piety, holiness, or respect for Torah, which is their heritage. Jewish youths found delight and closeness to God meditating on the Midrash (Ancient Jewish spiritual texts). When the House of learning Torah was the community gathering place. Today instead they gather at basketball games and parties. Yet the mitzvoth are not profane or ordinary, but they are Holy purifying and sanctifying the Jewish people revealing Godliness and also in all worlds. In a generation where every one wants to be part of the fad and fashion and no one wants to be left out. It is difficult to live as an individual with the uniqueness and distinctiveness of the one God and one people. Thus there is intermarriage, indifference and assimilation. Yet there are those that see GOD as omnipotent and believe it is under his laws, values and concepts we must love. Others can be found among our people that do not believe in a God that is effected by man. It will be between these and those that the future of the Jewish people and The State of Israel will be decided. Will Jerusalem be a reflection of the Heavens of Holiness; this cannot be accomplished by secularism alone, nor by impassionate religion resulting from spiritual starvation, creating a comfortable convenient Judaism. Which is something like playing ” Charade ”. The parsha concludes saying ” love Yhv”h Elohech”a, and that you may obey his voice, and that you may cleave to him; for he is your life, and the length of your days; that you may live in the land which Yhv”h swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”

When Moses had finished writing down in a book the words of this law to the very end, ^31:25 Moses commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of YHWH, saying, ^31:26 “Take this book of the law and put it beside the ark of the covenant of YHWH your God; let it remain there as a witness against you.”

What is written on this scroll exactly? In chapter 28 are the blessings and curses. 

So let us all , as in this parsa accept upon ourselves the kingship of GOD this RoshHashanah, and become the nation of Israel spoken of here in our parsha so that we may see the words in our parsha fulfilled ”. And Yhv”h Elohech”a will put all these curses upon your enemies, and on those who hate you, who persecuted you.” (7:30) With the arrival of our righteous Mashiach quickly in our days.

NO FREE LUNCH

Filed under: fear-awe, image of God, middot, Parsha VaYalech, parzufim, The Temple, Torah, Will

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

VaYalach                                                                  בס”ד

This week’s portion ,Vayalech, tells us what transpired during Moses’ last day on earth. On  that fateful day he wrote down the whole Torah scroll. The Torah scrolls we use today are copies of copies of copies of the original Torah scroll written by Moses on the day of his passing, on 7 Adar of the year 2488. Moses commanded the Levites to Take this new Torah scroll and place it at the side of the Ark which also housed the Two Tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments . This Ark was in the  Tabernacle in the desert and later the Temple in Jerusalem. It is interesting that Rabbi Meir held that the Torah scroll needed to be placed inside the Ark, at the side of the Two Tablets. Rabbi Judah teaches that a shelf protruded from the outside of the Ark and the Torah scroll was placed on that shelf. 

Parashat Va-Yalech mentions for the last time in the Torah  “The place YHV”H will choose” (Deut. 31:11). Before the Tabernacle was set up, the high places were permitted, and the sacrificial service was performed by the first-born.  Once the Tabernacle was set up, the high places were prohibited, and the service was performed by the priests…After they arrived at Gilgal, the high places were permitted…When they came to Shiloh, the high places were prohibited.  There was no roof to it, but below [were walls] like a house of stone and curtains above, and this was the resting place …After they came to Nob and to Gibeon, the high places were permitted…When they came to Jerusalem the high places were prohibited and were never again permitted

It says in our Parsha :

“Their children, who have not known any thing, may hear, and learn to fear Yhv”h Elohech”a, as long as you live in the land to which you go over the Jordan to possess.” (devarim 31:13)

This means forever folks, You should know that the sages teach us three things are given on condition, the land of Israel, the Holy Temple and the kingdom of David. ” These are given on the condition you keep my covenant”. The land is God’s, on this condition he gave it to us. It is not an outright gift. Our presence in the land of  Israel  depends on our observing the commandments. 

Moshe said “I am no longer able to come and go, and G-d has told me you will not cross the Jordan” (31:2) This reminds us of the times Yisrael needs new leadership.

In Chupat Eliyahu we learn 3 gifts Hashem gave to Yisrael, but they are received through  yesurim (sufferings). These gifts are Torah, Aretz Yisrael and Olam Haba (the world to come). The  building of the bait ha Mikdash (the Holy Temple) is an inheritance in merit of Torah learning.

There is no free lunch

As said above we must “learn to fear Yhv”h” as “Ratzon” (will) is Atik (the source of delight). Chesed (kindness) is “ratzon” concerning the “avoda” (divine service) of Yisrael. If there is no “avoda” there is caused hiddenness of this Divine will called Chesed. The Nashamot of Yisrael bring out “Dat” (knowledge) from potential to actual by the giving of the Torah. This is called Z’a (Source of the Ruach, emotional soul). It is all arranged by Hashem in his free will to give us all free choice. Thus there is revealed accordingly the power of evil which stands against the  “kidusha” (holiness), so there will be displayed love and fear of Hashem. these are all acts of his kingship. They exist so that we may approach levels of Holiness needed in the service of  Hashem. The “chuchum” (wise man) understands the good  that is hidden. Where ever he is he sees the place of the level of “kidushah” (holiness). The evil is only to teach the good (it will never leave his hands weak !).   Fear  embraces humility and humility embraces “chasidut” (piety). So by fear of sin one gets all these qualities. All the time one is only occupied only  in the simple meaning of the Torah they see themselves  as poor and dead. The main part of the Torah is its secrets. One who has the fear of Hashem without chuchmah (Kabbalah) will not reach the “midot” (attributes) of “chassidut” (piety). Fear of Hashem is Chuchmah (Wisdom that inspires), turning away from evil is Bina (understanding). The beginning of the mitzvah of fearing Hashem is to know that “elokenu” (our God) is the ד”ו parzufim  (masculine and feminine aspects of Hashem). These are the Written and Oral Torah by whose ruling we were taken out of Egypt.

Bina (understanding) is אשר who made man in צלם (supernal image) of  מ”ה (name of 45/source of Z’a-ruach). If a man gives his heart and dat to the fear of Hashem, behold the letters of  יהו”ה cleave in  his heart. One who merits this has no lack. This is what it means “Make Me a migdosh (temple), and I will dwell in them”..  One sanctifies their heart so  as to have dwell in it יהו”ה. But if his heart lacks fear  of Hashem, the letters of יהו”ה are far  from him.  This is the greatest possible lack.

It’s said that one person may take another’s portion in gan aden, so all are not the same. One serves from fear while another from love ,  but booth are called sadeekem. One is greater than his fellow in humility and the fear of sin. Our parsha contains the name of another parsha in it “Mekaitz”. In the verse  “Moses commanded them say, ” At the end (“Mekaitz”) of 7 years, at the time of smittah during the holiday of Succot” (Deut 31:10) May this connection be revealed with the coming of the Mashiach quickly in our days !

Sources :

safer lecutim-ar’i p.412

Safer HaKanah

Alp Bet p.161 Safer HaKanah

Ner Yisrael p.266

Chupat Eliyahu-Atzorot Midrashim p.167,172

Zohar Nasso 145a, Alp Bat Book p.67

Tractate Magilla 18a

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