Parashat Nitzavim - Sixth Aliyah
Read the biblical text and try to understand it on your own, before reading the commentary.
Not in the heavens and not across the sea
The aliyah deals with the nearness and the accessibility of the commandment. The Torah stresses that the thing they were commanded is not too wondrous for a person and is not far from them. There is no need to look for it in an unreachable place or to wait for someone else to bring it.
The Torah draws two extreme possibilities in order to rule them out: there is no need to go up to the heavens in order to receive the thing, and there is also no need to cross to the other side of the sea in order to bring it. That is, the responsibility to fulfill it does not depend on an impossible journey or on a distant outside factor.
The aliyah reaches its peak in the statement that the thing is very near to a person, in their mouth and in their heart, to do it. There is a connection here between three layers: speech, inwardness and action. The way is not only something to know about, but something meant to travel from the heart and the mouth into life itself.
Insights from the aliyah
The way is not as far as it seems
A person can feel that a spiritual change is beyond them or is located in a place they cannot reach. The aliyah rejects that feeling and returns the responsibility to the place nearest to the person.
There is no need to wait for someone to bring the way
The verses describe a person who looks for someone to go up on their behalf or to cross over on their behalf. At the level of the idea, it is easy to push responsibility away with the thought that someone else will explain, awaken or lead. The Torah returns the starting point to the person themselves.
Near does not necessarily mean easy
The thing is within reach, but it still has to be done. The nearness cancels the excuse that the way is impossible, not the need for effort.
The mouth and the heart have to work together
There are things a person says without feeling them, and there are things they feel without giving them expression. The aliyah joins the mouth and the heart so that the inner intention and the outward expression will lead in the same direction.
The final test is the deed
The verses do not end in knowing or in feeling but in doing. At the level of the idea, a Torah that stays only in thought has not yet arrived at its destination.
Sometimes the greatest distance is in the perception
If the thing is very near, it may be that the main difficulty is not the real distance but the feeling that it is far. The aliyah invites a person to stop turning the way into something unreachable and to begin from the step that is right in front of them.
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