Nitzavim
Not with you alone do
I make this covenant and this oath. But
with those who are standing here with us today before God, our God and with
those who are not here with us today…
29:13 - 14
The reading of this chapter
suggests that only a complete suspension of all the laws of nature could sever
the bond that exists between Israel and its God…Also, if we cannot contravene
the laws of the Torah physically, what about the concept of free will upon
which the entire system of reward and punishment is built?...We musts subscribe
to the notion that the eternal existence of the Jewish people as well as their
special status…is not tied to the observance or non observance of the covenant,
but rather that it is anchored in the very nature of this people, which will
not change even when defying the covenant…the so called voluntary acceptance
was induced by the realization that if God were to forsake them, their very
existence would come to an end, as had been demonstrated by their experience
with Haman.
Akedat
Yitzchak (15th Century)
Even as no limit has been placed
upon the number of persons included in the covenantal oath, so too, no limit
has been set to its validity. The
covenant embraces all persons that are counted among the nation of
Samson
Raphael Hirsch (19th Century)
Moses is implying here that when
the choice is made, one is to make sure that it is not for oneself alone, but
for one’s children as well. It is as if
Moses were saying: Make sure that the
way of the Torah you are accepting is not a way which creates a gap between the
generations. A culture and a way of life
cannot be tested in one generation. It
stands the test only if it is perpetuated and proves viable for “you and your
children.”…It is through the fulfillment of commandments that families comes
together to sit around the same table and share ideas and ideals.
Pinchas
Peli (20th Century)
The question that one may ask is
to what extent man is free to choose, as part of natural reality, in which one
thing by necessity follows from another…the naïve ones among us, t hat claim
that man’s free will is one of the basic principles of religious faith, make a
grave error…There are those who claim, for alleged reasons of faith, that we
must deduce from the Torah that man has free choice: “I have set before you life and death,
blessing and curse: therefore choose
life.” But one should not that the Torah
demands of man to choose the good and to choose life, but does not promise that
he has the power to choose…It does not state that man is capable of doing so,
but that he is commanded to attempt to choose the good and not the bad, the
blessing and not the curse, life and not death.
Yeshayau
Leibowitz (20th Century)