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When the Jews were about to enter the land of Israel, while standing near the eastern borders of the land of Israel, they received a speech from Moses. It was a sort of pep talk, encouraging them to think about the past forty years in the desert, about the giving of the Torah, and about their new responsibilities as a people. But, there was also a deeper dimension to Moses’s speech – he wanted the Jews to enter into a new relationship with each other.
Moses’s message is in the double Torah portion that we read last week (Nitzavim-Vayeilech), but it applies to Rosh Hashana as well.. The verse that interests us (Deut. 29:9-11) reads, “You are standing today, all of you before the lord your G-d, heads of tribes, elders and officers…children, women, and the converts among you, from your wood choppers down to your water drawers… in order to establish a covenant with G-dŔ The commentaries explain that that Moses wished to establish a covenant to bring all of the Jews into a new relationship with one another. From now on, they would not only be individual members of the Jewish people. From now on, they were also to be ‘guarantors’ for one another. It would no longer be sufficient for every individual Jew to have specific duties. Henceforth, all Jews were to be responsible for all other Jews. If there was even one Jew who didn’t fulfill his responsibilities, all other Jews had to take up the slack. No-one could just rest on his own laurels. Every Jew had to make sure that every other Jew was doing what he should do as well.
There are a couple of questions about this speech. First of all, the new covenant, making every Jew responsible for every other Jew, didn’t take full effect until the Jews entered the land of Israel. If so, then why did Moses admonish the Jews now, before they crossed the Jordan and entered the holy Land? It would seem to make more sense to tell them about the new covenant only when it was to take effect, upon their entrance to the holy Land.
A second question; the relationship between the guarantor and the person whom he guarantees is usually a one-way street. For example, a guarantor is called in when a burrower cannot pay a loan, and then the guarantor steps up and pays the loan in his place. In such a case, the guarantor clearly has more money than the borrower, who can only receive money, but not give. If so, what do the commentaries mean by saying that the new covenant established all the Jews as guarantors for one another? Some Jews can be givers and others receivers, but how can all of them be simultaneously both givers and receivers? How does that fit with the normal concept of guarantor as one who takes responsibility when another “falls down on the job?”
The explanation lies in the definition of unity. People can be united in two different ways. They can be united as individuals who possess similar traits, or as individuals who are very different from one another. And that is the difference between the Jews as they stood on one side of the Jordan, listening to Moses, and after they crossed the river and entered the land of Israel.
After Sinai, the Jews spent forty years in the desert in constant communion with the G-d while learning the Torah, aware of Him through their own direct experience. Under Moses, there was ongoing communication between G-d and the Jewish people, and between Moses and Joshua and the sages of the generation. The Jewish people were all in the position of receiving from Above, either directly from G-d, or from the elders and sages who were wiser than they. They were united, since all of them shared the same experience and sources of wisdom. This is the unity of people who are similar to one another and share the same experiences. In the desert, much sharing took place, but it was all in one direction only – from the teacher to the student. Whoever was more talented or who managed to learn more passed on his knowledge to whoever knew less. This is one level of unity, in which one person could be a guarantor for another only if he was able to provide him with more wisdom.
However, this was not the unity of the new “brit,” or covenant that Moses wanted to pass on to the Jewish people before he passed away. Moses wanted the Jews who entered the land of Israel to experience the unity of people who are different from one another. Upon entering Israel, the Jews would no longer remain in direct communication with G-d, through their sages and prophets, as they did in the desert. Entrance to the land of Israel meant that the Jews had to get involved with the physical land, plowing, sowing, harvesting and doing all kinds of agricultural work. They would no longer be free to spend all their time learning Torah. Their whole style of serving G-d would be different, since they would have to find Him not through “seeing,” or direct experience, but through “hearing,” or involvement in the physical world that hides His presence. Under such circumstances, it was the differences between Jews that would come to light, more than the similarities.
Once in the land of Israel, every Jew would have his own piece of land, grow his own crops, and experience his own path, both physical and spiritual. With the proper amount of “bitul,” or self-nullification, Jews would be able to learn from one another. They would learn that everyone has something to offer. They would learn that however smart one Jew is, he can learn something from another Jew. The possibilities of serving G-d are much more varied and individual in Israel, where one is involved in the physical world, than while in the desert. Therefore, every Jew could develop his own style of serving G-d, from which other Jews could learn. Under these circumstances, the relationship of the guarantor (teacher) to the receiver was not to be a one-way street, since the receiver also would have what to offer the giver (guarantor). So, the new covenant that G-d offered the Jewish people was a “two-way street,” in which every Jew was not only a receiver, but also a potential giver. This is the unity of people who are different from another, but whom have what to share and learn from each other. Their very uniqueness is what bestows upon them the ability to share with every other Jew.
This second unity – that of “units” who are different from one another – demands “bitul” or self-nullification. In order to share our uniqueness with others who differ from us, we have to experience something beyond ourselves. We need to know that even though we are different from one another, we all come from the same source. We share one Father above, and that being the case, we all have what to offer one another. The land of Israel imparts such awareness, and that’s why the new covenant that Moses established with the Jews didn’t take effect until the Jews entered the land of Israel. The style of serving G-d changed upon entering the Land; He was no longer as revealed as He was in the desert, but His presence was even greater. In order for G-dliness to become revealed in the physical world, it must come from even a higher source than the spirituality that became revealed in the spiritual worlds. That’s why entering the land of Israel was an “aliya,” physically as well as spiritually; it gave the Jews an opportunity to access a higher level of G-dliness.
G-dliness that has the power to permeate and become revealed in the physical world comes from a higher source than G-dliness which permeates the spiritual worlds alone. And that’s the level of G-dliness that allowed the Jews to find unity even in their disparate individual lives. We’re all different, but we all have what to offer one another. That’s what Moses wanted to impart in the Jewish people before he passed away, while standing on the east side of the Jordan river.
There’s one more important thing that the sages said about Moses’ss final speech to the Jewish people. They said that it took place before Rosh Hashana. Just as we read this section (Nitzavim-Vayeilech) every year before Rosh Hashana, so did Moses speak to the Jews before Rosh Hashana. And his message therefore is connected to Rosh Hashana. The best way to go into the new year is with unity. Like a parent who is happy with his children when they are getting along well together, so G-d looks upon us favorably when He sees that we are all in it together. Tshuva and tzedaka and prayer all help, and so does unity among Jews. If we’ll find a way to love and respect our differences, then our unity will enable us to prevail.
From Likutei Sichot of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, ztz’l, vol. 4, pp. 1139-1144 Rabbi David Sterne, Jerusalem Connection in the Old City of Jerusalem