Parashat Nitzavim: Standing Together Across Time

On the day of his passing, Moshe Rabbeinu gathered the entire Jewish People. Not just the leaders, not just the elders — everyone: the men, the women, the children, the converts, the strangers, the woodcutters, and the water-carriers. And he said:

“You are all standing today before Hashem… to enter into a covenant.”

This was not a formality. It was a renewal. A reaffirmation. An eternal oath.

And Moshe made something very clear:

“It is not with you alone that I establish this covenant… but also with those who are not here today.”

That means us. Every Jew. Every generation.

Whether we were physically at Sinai or not — we are spiritually bound by the oath. That is why when a Jew today violates the Torah, it is not just a sin — it is a breach of a promise. We are oath-bound.

Moshe warned us not to walk “at the whim of our heart” — thinking we can live in Eretz Yisrael without fulfilling the laws of the Torah. Such a person, Moshe said, won’t just face judgment for willful sins — even his “accidental” sins will be counted as deliberate. Once you’ve heard the warning, you can’t claim ignorance.

Sadly, all the klalot — the curses Moshe warned about — came true.

Our land became desolate. The once-blooming Eretz Yisrael turned to ashes. Writers and travelers from across the world — Mark Twain among them — documented the eerie devastation. A land that had once flowed with milk and honey now bore no fruit. No life. No charm. A land abandoned.

For nearly 2,000 years, it remained that way. Until now.

Because Parashat Nitzavim doesn’t end in despair. It ends in hope — and prophecy.

“And you will return to Hashem… you and your children… with all your heart and all your soul.”

This teshuvah isn’t symbolic. It’s not theoretical. It’s happening right now.

I have witnessed it.

In America. In Eretz Yisrael. Even in the Former Soviet Union. People from all walks of life — Jews who knew nothing, who came from generations of disconnection — are returning to the faith of their fathers.

We are living in the days Moshe foresaw.

And the Torah says: “Hashem will return your exiles… He will gather you… He will bring you back to the Land… and place the curses upon your enemies.”

The galut was long. The land was silent. But now the land blooms, the Torah awakens, and the nation returns. The covenant Moshe spoke of — the one we all took upon ourselves, even those “not here today” — is alive.

As the Navi Yeshayahu said: “The redeemer will come to Tzion — to those who turn from sin in Yaakov.”

That turning has begun. The redemption will follow.

By Rabbi Yitzchok Zilber, ztk”l, Founder, LaMaalot Foundation