Volume 29 Issue 28 11 Sep 2020 22 Elul 5780

 Nitsavim-VaYelekh

Aaron Lemberg – Year 11

Nitsavim-VaYelekh

Parashat Nitsavim-VaYelekh talks strongly about God’s promise to the Israelite tribes and the consequences for the tribes of Israel if they were to worship the idols like that the people of the land that they are about to enter do. The parashah goes further in speaking about this wandering astray from the path of God when it talks about the punishments such as the curses described in this book of Devarim, and the removing of one’s name from heaven.

It then talks about the great benefits of following the path of and establishing a people for God by following his covenant that he had sworn to the Fathers of the nation: Avraham, Yitzhak and Ya’akov.

This may not relate entirely to everyone, as not everyone follows the Torah down to the last letter, but it is certainly relatable when you apply it to the current day question that I took from the reading of this parashah: “Must we only do good in order to achieve our goals?”

Keeping on a straight path in order to achieve your goals has been a moral question of mine for as long as I can remember. Is it right to achieve high accolades if you have put others down and cheated to get there? Is it ok to be in a high position in business if your business is run unethically? Is it OK to gain social status if you are gaining it by doing something bad?

All of these questions are questions that I still struggle with and also have a strong link to this week’s parashah which talks about these questions in terms of God and the Jewish people. These questions are questions that I urge us to think more about whether in relation to ethical work practices, friendships that we value and also in relation to our Judaism and God.