Parshat Nitzavim

In dramatic fashion, Moses assembles the people, all the people – leaders, tribes, elders, officials, children, wives, and strangers in the camp, from woodcutter to water-drawer – to renew the covenant prior to their entry into the land. He warns them solemnly that their future depends on their faithfulness to it. If they break it, they will suffer defeat, devastation, and exile. Yet even then, the covenant and its promise would remain.

Even in the midst of dispersion and dislocation, if the people return to God He will return to them and cause them to return to their land. The choice will always be theirs. Therefore, “Choose life, that you and your children may live” (Deut. 30:19).

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