page_title: Nitzavim
section_title: Deuteronomy chapter 29
hierarchical_section_title: Nitzavim / In classical rabbinic interpretation / Deuteronomy chapter 29
context_page_description: Nitzavim, Nitsavim, Nitzabim, Netzavim, Nisavim, or Nesabim is the 51st weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the eighth in the Book of Deuteronomy. It constitutes Deuteronomy 29:9–30:20. In the parashah, Moses told the Israelites that all the people stood before God to enter into the covenant, violation of which would bring on curses, but if they returned to God and heeded God's commandments, then God would take them back in love and bring them together again from the ends of the world. Moses taught that this Instruction was not beyond reach, and Moses put before the Israelites life and death, blessing and curse, and exhorted them to choose life by loving God and heeding the commandments.
  The parashah is made up of 2,123 Hebrew letters, 553 Hebrew words, 30 verses, and 72 lines in a Torah Scroll. Jews generally read it in September or, rarely, late August or early October, on the Sabbath immediately before Rosh Hashanah. The lunisolar Hebrew calendar contains 50 weeks in common years, and 54 or 55 weeks in leap years. In some leap years, Parashat Nitzavim is read separately.
context_section_description: A Midrash taught that the words, “You are standing this day all of you before the Lord your God,” in Deuteronomy 29:9 should have been placed at the beginning of the Book of Deuteronomy, only the Torah does not follow chronological order. The Midrash likened this to the words, “I Kohelet have been King over Israel in Jerusalem,” in Ecclesiastes 1:12, which Rabbi Samuel the son of Rabbi Isaac said ought to have been written as a superscription at the beginning of the Book of Ecclesiastes, but is written in Ecclesiastes 1:12 because the Torah does not follow a chronological order.
  A Midrash cited Deuteronomy 29:9 as one of several places where Scripture speaks of the people of Israel as it does of angels.  For Scripture speaks of both angels and the people of Israel as standing.  In reference to angels, Isaiah 6:2 says, “Above Him stood the seraphim,” while concerning Israel, Deuteronomy 29:9 says, “You are standing this day.” Similarly, Isaiah 6:3 reports that the angels daily proclaim a three-part praise of God, saying, “Holy, holy, holy,” and the people of Israel correspondingly daily say in three parts in the Amidah prayer, “The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Psalm 104:4 calls the angels “fire,” referring to, “The flaming fire Your ministers,” and Obadiah 1:18 also calls Israel “fire,” saying, “And the house of Jacob shall be a fire.” The Midrash told how angels renew themselves each day, praise the Lord, and then return to the river of fire from which they emerged, and the Lord renews them and restores them to their former condition; for Lamentations 3:23 reports, “They are new every morning.” So also Israel is sunk in iniquity on account of the evil impulse (יֵצֶר הַרַע‎, yetzer hara), but they do penitence, and God each year (on Yom Kippur) pardons them and renews their heart to fear God; for Ezekiel 36:26 says, “A new heart also will I give you.” Hence God compared Israel to angels in Song of Songs 6:10, which calls Israel: “Terrible as an army with banners.”
  Rabbi Berekiah interpreted Lamentations 3:1, “I am the man (גֶּבֶר‎, gever) who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath,” to mean that God strengthened the writer (representing the people of God) to withstand all afflictions (interpreting גֶּבֶר‎, gever, “man,” to mean גִּבֹּר‎, gibor, “strong man”).  Rabbi Berekiah noted that after the 98 reproofs in Deuteronomy 28:15–68, Deuteronomy 29:9 says, “You are standing this day all of you,” which Rabbi Berekiah taught we render (according to Onkelos), “You endure this day all of you,” and thus to mean, “you are strong men to withstand all these reproofs.”
  Similarly, a Midrash reported that two teachers offered different explanations of Lamentations 3:12, “He (God) has bent His bow, and set me (וַיַּצִּיבֵנִי‎, vayatziveni) as a mark for the arrow.” One taught that the verse compared Israel to a wedge used to split a log (as the wedge, Israel, is struck, but the log, the enemy, is split).  The other taught that the verse compared Israel to a post on which a target for arrows is placed, at which all shoot but which remains standing.  Rabbi Judan taught that the verse meant that God strengthened the writer (representing the people of God) to withstand all afflictions (reading וַיַּצִּיבֵנִי‎, vayatziveni, to mean “He has made me stand firm”).  Rabbi Judan noted that after the 98 reproofs in Deuteronomy 28:15–68, Deuteronomy 29:9 says, “You are standing (נִצָּבִים‎, nizavim) this day all of you,” which Rabbi Judan taught we render (according to Onkelos), “you endure this day all of you,” and thus to mean, “you are strong men to withstand all these reproofs.”
  The Gemara deduced from the separate mention of "all the men of Israel," "your stranger," and "the hewer of your wood to the drawer of your water" in Deuteronomy 29:9–10 that Moses meant to decree that the hewers of wood and the drawers of water (whom the Gemara deduced from Joshua 9:27 were Gibeonites) were to be considered neither Israelites nor converts in that generation. The Gemara further deduced that in Joshua 9:27, Joshua extend
caption: A Seraph (illustration from a medieval manuscript)
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