04/09/2026
Do you ever feel like everyone else knows how to do this properly?
Nitzavim–Vayelech opens with Moses gathering everyone — and then listing them. Heads of tribes, elders, officers, the children, the women, the stranger in the camp. And then, so nobody can miss it, all the way down: from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water.
The list runs from the top of the society to the bottom and stops nowhere in between. Nobody is standing there as a guest.
And then: lo bashamayim hi. It is not in heaven. Not across the sea. Not filed away with people more qualified than you. It is already in your mouth and in your heart.
Which is why “choose life” is written as a command and not as a blessing. You can only be instructed to do something that is actually within reach.
The last Shabbat of the year. Selichot begin on Saturday night.
Shabbat Shalom.