Nitzavim-VaYelech Excerpts

נצבים וילך

Shabbat Shalom

(30:1-7) H' will gather us from the four corners of the earth. When we return Him and heed His voice and what He commands us.

Israel. Gathering of the exiles. Different cultures. A lot of misunderstandings and fighting among the people again.

(30:11-13) The Mitzvot are not hidden from us or far from us. They are not in the heavens, or across the sea.

In the heavens, is out of reach. Across the sea is something you are trying to find, that is not right in front of you...looking for what you don't have. This shul does not have a building fund right now. That seems out of reach, being that nobody has paid their dues. This shul doesn't have one decent teenager. It seems out of reach to raise children that are good people, practicing Mitzvot. Maybe it is. All the good ones moved to Israel. They were in-gathered...Inbred is the Marks family, Bernie.

(30:14) 'It is very close to you, this thing, in your mouth, and in your heart, to do.'

You may not understand others. There may be a jerk in the supermarket that thinks it is not OK for you to put a milk on his conveyor belt, like he owns it. But he was in-gathered from a different culture. A messed up culture. A native of Topeka.

It is how you respond. The mitzvot are within you, but you don't let them out. Bernie, doesn't let it be known that he is a decent individual, in-gathered from Europe...fighting his while life, with his Italian wife. We know that, because they yell all the time. Their neighbors in the building next door tell us. They should have never downsized. Now everybody hears them. They are a house family.

(31:17) When H' hides His countenance

Israel will say 'Is it not because Gd is not with us, that we are finding this badness.' Yes it is. It is because, Gd is not with us that we do not have a building fund. 

Sometimes you have to see the bad to understand what we have to do. To practice the Mitzvot, unlike our children who only see the good in going to the JCC and playing basketball, as if that is their only Jewish ritual, along with floor hockey...(31:19) The song to teach the Jews that bad will come if we do not keep to our covenant with Gd. 

A song of our people. 'The people of Topeka don't help out. They don't even go to the court for judgment. When the people of Beis Emes Sefilah are out. The rest of the city needs to be dormant...Because they are rejects, rejected by Gd, never helping out their fellow because they created the smog...Everybody...'

They messed up in Israel. A beautiful land. You messed up Topeka, a land that could have been beautiful.

(31:19) Got to write it so that they will know. Moshe is told to write it the song. Why? Because people forget the lyrics. And there is nothing worse than listening to a song, with only NayNayNays, because they didn't write down the words to 'Kol HaOlam Koolo, Gesher Tzar Meod.' That is when people forget to pay their dues. Because the song of the curse is not written.

(31:14-16) All at the time that he is about to die and passing over the leadership to Yehoshua. 'You are going to lay with your fathers and the people will stray after other gods...'

Moshe dies and the people sin. It is going to be that simple...when people forget the last generation, they sin.

You practice the Mitzvot for your parents, your ancestors. What about for your people? This Rosh Hashana, think about the next generation and don't be cheap. We don't need another song written about how messed up this congregation is.

Will we see our new leader and join in the in-gathering of the exiles, with our inbred brethren?...