Let's Make A Deal.
Picture it: It's the very last day of Moses's life
and he's gathered all the Children of Israel
around him for one last farewell pep talk.
Except this isn't really so peppy a pep talk.
It's a pep talk designed
to scare their pants off.
A pep talk with the full force
of the Torah behind it.
Parshat Nitzavim opens by observing
that everyone is there –
from the fancy elders and officials
down to the
woodchoppers and waterdrawers.
The reason even the woodchoppers
are mentioned? This is a contract
between God and everyone.
The Children of Israel
aren't gathered just to listen this time.
They are each there
to perform a binding legal act;
to enter a covenant.
It's a little bit like Let's Make a Deal,
in that God is saying "Come on Down!"
God's going to sign and seal
a lifelong bargain with them today.
On this day, says the Torah,
as if to emphasize to us that anyone
reading it is also binding themselves,
right now, today.
It's the sealing of a bargain
God promised decades before;
to the people who first got Judaism started –
Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca,
Jacob, Rachel, and Leah.
So consequential is this promise
God is about to enter,
God tells the Children of Israel
that although every last one of them is there,
(woodchoppers, waterdrawers, etc.)
God is also entering a covenant with those
who aren't there - the generations
who haven't even been born yet.
And so high are the stakes
for this bargain with God,
we are being treated to a warning:
That anyone present
who might be mouthing the promise
while secretly thinking
about straying from God's path.
Note to secret sinners:
If you break your covenant with God,
your name will be, the Torah says,
"blotted out from under heaven."
That's Torah-speak for
Don't. Even. Think. About. It.
In case you ever wondered what it means
to literally put the fear of God into someone,
Nitzavim offers some clues.
If the Israelites opt
to stray from the commandments,
God will send plagues and diseases
on the lands, and devastate the soil
with sulfur and salt.
Should the Children of Israel chase
mindlessly after other gods–
– the wood, stone, silver, and gold gods –
God will literally throw every curse
in the book at them.
You can imagine the Children of Israel
pretty much trembling in their sandals
hearing all this, but then God shows them
what's behind door number two.
Promising them free choice–
and that if they listen to and follow
the laws of the Torah
God will gather them together,
and bring them back with love.
Somehow, Nitzavim gives you the sense
that however many times
you chose Door Number One,
(the sins and stuff)
Door Number Two is always still available
if you are serious about returning to God.
No matter how many times
you choose the wrong path,
there is always the possibility
of forgiveness and return.
And the Torah is very specific
about the prizes:
If you just keep your promises to God,
you'll be rewarded with kids! Cattle! Crops!
It's even better
than the Showcase Showdown.
And for a people who have been slogging
through a dusty desert for ages,
these prizes must have sounded
like heaven on Earth.
Imagine. After all those years
of having sand in your robe,
how wonderful the idea of cooling off under
your very own olive tree
would have sounded.
God is painfully specific about the blessings
and the curses.
And there's one other thing
that's very specific today –
the commandments, or literally, mitzvot,
that God's giving – they're not to be found
up in the heavens or far out across the sea.
They are not supposed to be
complicated like that.
These commandments are already
in our own mouths and our own hearts.
You already own the prize!
Heaven on Earth is as close as
your own mouth and your own heart!
Finally, as is the case with all
binding legal agreements,
God finds two witnesses
to the deal, calling on Heaven and Earth
to witness this covenant that stretches back
to the first ancestors of the Israelites,
and forward to every descendant of those
who entered into it.
Heaven and Earth, past and present,
blessings and promises.
It really is the deal of a lifetime.
And maybe a lifetime or two after that.
Producer: Sarah Lefton
Animation Director: Nick Fox-Gieg
Animation: Liesje Kraai
Editorial Director: Matthue Roth
G-dcast Theme Music: Tim Cosgrove
Written and narrated by Dahlia Lithwick
Recording by Virginia Foundation for the Humanities