Tomorrow’s ‘Parashah’ {פרשה} (weekly Torah portion) is ‘Nitzavim’ {ניצבים} (Hebrew for ‘are standing’). This is the eighth ‘Parashah’ in the Book of Deuteronomy and can be found in Deuteronomy 29:9–30:20.
This ‘Parashah’ marks the END of the twelfth and final month in the Hebrew calendar (the month of ‘Elul’ {אלול}) and therefore is always read at the synagogues before ‘Rosh Ha-Shanah’ – the Jewish New Year – which will take place, this year, on Sunday evening (do not worry, we will talk about this very important Jewish holiday soon…).
The name of the weekly Torah portion comes from the opening verses of the ‘Parashah’:
“You ARE STANDING today all of you before the LORD your God: the heads of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, and the sojourner who is in your camp, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water.” (Deuteronomy 29:10-12)
The Hebrew learners among you assumed, probably, that in the original Hebrew, the word for ‘standing’ would be ‘Omedim’ {עומדים} which derives from the Hebrew root A-M-D {ע-מ-ד} and simply means ‘to stand.’ However, in this biblical reference, the actual Hebrew word is ‘Nitzavim’ {ניצבים} which comes from the Hebrew root Y-Tz-V {י-צ-ב} and its initial meaning is ‘stable’, ‘fixed’ or ‘firm’ as can be found in the Hebrew adjective ‘Yatziv’ {יציב}(‘stable’).
According to the Hebrew way of thinking, the key to achieving stability depends on the way one ‘positions oneself’ or in other words ‘standing strong’ to prevent any chance of falling. So in this case, why did the Hebrew Bible uses this word?
Well, the answer lies in the special detailed description of the different people who were ‘standing’ there:
‘The heads of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, and the sojourner who is in your camp, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water’ – or in other words ‘you are standing here today ALL OF YOU’.
That means that there was not any difference between the high and low classes of society, no difference between the rich and the poor and no difference between the different roles in society, because ‘you are standing today ALL of you before the LORD your God’ – and when you stand before God everyone is EQUAL.
If we will go back to the deeper Hebrew meaning of the word ‘Nitzavim’ (that was translated as ‘standing’) we learn that they were standing in a special way – a strong stable standing – that usually was ‘reserved’ only for the high classes (‘the heads of your tribes, your elders, and your officers’) but in this case, when one stands before God – everyone is not just equal but also ‘high class’…