Parshat Nitzavim: A Divine Moral Bailout
I’m not so sure any of us really has any idea what $700 billion dollars looks like nor how large a number it actually is. And the truth is I am also not so sure that our incomprehension even matters.
Looking at the market, reading the paper, watching and listening to the news, I think we can all pretty much say in agreement that our nation is financially stuck in a trouble spot. We, the people of America, have followed a pattern of greedy behavior that led us down the long, windy road we are presently trying to navigate. Bailout is the buzz word in the press, and both Senators McCain and Obama have issued a joint-statement, saying, “Now is our chance to come together to prove that Washington is once again capable of leading this country,” and we continue to learn that the talks keep stalling.
America is beyond perplexed and dismayed by the rising dollar signs—and not rising in a positive sense. And so we turn to our authority on high, those wise leaders on the Hill, to set our course true.
Because I do have our nations’ financial woes on the mind, while reading this morning’s Torah portion, there was one verse that jumped out at me just as did the continuous “$700 billion dollar bailout bill” headlines. U’Mal Adonai Elohekha et-l’vavkha v’et l’vav zarekha l’ahavah et-Adonai elohekha b’khol-l’vavkha uv’khol nafshekha l’maan chayekha (Deuteronomy 30:6). “And Adonai your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love Adonai your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, so that you may live.”
Just like the headline, I got the gist, but could not at first fully grasp the details. On one account, I understood economic salvation, but what exactly is this bailout and how? And on the other, I read and understood the impetus of “so that we may live,” lmaan chayekha, but by circumcising our hearts? What could that possibly mean?
Some verses really do not have a p’shat – a simple, plain reading – that is, they beg for interpretation. And this, my friends, is one of those verses. We are at a loss…how can our heart possibly have a foreskin?
I assure you, just as the great 12th century Torah Commentary Ibn Ezra assures us, this is not any similar circumcision of the flesh as we are obligated to do with our sons.
But still, the word choice is very specific. And God will circumcise our hearts. Nachmanides, the Ramban, helps us to make sense of it all: Since the dawn of Creation, we human beings have had the privilege to do as we please, to be righteous or to be wicked. We gain merit for choosing good, but are punished for leaning toward evil. Ramban suggests that our troubling verse is a glimpse into the messianic future: one day, we will naturally choose to do good without any hesitation or need for discernment. The heart will not desire anything improper.
Ramban says, V’hi hamilah nizkeret kan – simply put, this is the circumcision that is mentioned here. For greed and desire are the foreskin of the heart; circumcision of the heart is literally trimming that fat, so that the heart will not covet or desire evil.
This simple but abstruse verse of blessing in this morning’s parashah finds us sitting in the pews at the perfect time of year. The verse is surrounded by charges of blessing and teshuvah: “And it shall come to pass, when all these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you…,you shall return to Adonai your God, and shall obey God’s voice according to all that I command you this day, you and your children, with all your heart, and with all your soul” (Deuteronomy 30:1-2).
If we are to do teshuvah, if we are to trim the fat, if we are to literally turn in step and work toward walking a path free from the greed and the cravings and the unwarranted desires that led our nation to the treacherous valley in which we lay awaiting salvation today, then we have to bring ourselves to a point this week where we are ready for God to take the helm. It is the preparation of the past month and this season. We have to bring ourselves to such a point of exasperation in our quest for repentance that God must literally carry us over the goal line into Yom Kippur and the days that follow. That it is God who must finish the job. That God must be the one to write us in the Book of Life.
And the truth is that this is a perfect commentary on this week’s headlines. We must work and brainstorm and problem-solve until we’re burnt out and bare—exactly where the economists stand now. And then we have to leave the final yards to the playmakers, to the highups on the Hill.
In the financial world, it will be the lawmakers and appointed officials who take us out of this nose-dive. In our spiritual lives, God will be the one to bring us the extra step. A financial bailout and a spiritual bailout. In both situations, we must have faith to complete the journey. For, in both our secular lives and our religious lives, we stand on the cusp of potential greatness and redemption. And although we need stay the course and fulfill the mission objective, the “Mission Accomplished” comes from above. Our endurance must provide the faith toward which we must endeavor.
My friends, the message of the verse finally becomes simple and clear. Work hard, Stay strong, and press on until 99%. The Holy Blessed One will pick you up and take you that final percent. But we must be ready and we must be weary.
It is our prayer this Shabbat that we all come to welcome each other on the other side of this financial and spiritual storm-eye with smiles and hugs of comfort.
