Parashat Nitzavim/ Rosh Ha-Shanah
Deuteronomy 29:9 – 30:20
This Torah reading (often joined with next week’s reading) is always read on the Shabbat preceding Rosh Ha-Shanah. Among its teachings that have great relevance to this season is the following intriguing verse: “The concealed matters are for the Eternal, our Almighty God, and the revealed matters are for us and for our children forever, to do all the words of this Torah.” (Deut. 29:28)
This verse is full of portent and mystery. It mixes the abstract with the practical. It speaks of eternity as much as about our immediate, everyday tasks. “What is hidden is God’s. What is out in the open belongs to us.” But what are these matters that are revealed or hidden? The answer is, itself, hidden. Is the reference to actions done in secret or in the open? Or to thoughts unexpressed or spoken? Or to truths beyond our ken and those we know for sure?
“What is hidden is God’s.” Paradoxically, by referring to hidden matters the verse piques our interest, only to immediately squelch it by telling us that what is hidden is none of our business. But we are searchers. We are curious. We seek to discover – to uncover – that which is concealed. We love to solve mysteries. Does our verse warn us off of such a quest? Does it mean to tell us that there are some things best left hidden, best left to God? Or does it mean to urge us to uncover God’s hidden treasures so that they may become our own precious possessions forever?
The Book of Psalms begins by extolling the person “whose desire is for God’s Torah, and who studies his own Torah day and night.” (Ps. 1;2) The Sages explained that when one begins to study some Torah the meanings of the words are still hidden. Thus they are “God’s Torah.” But, once one has labored over the words and discovered wellsprings of meaning within them, then God’s Torah is transferred to the ownership of the student. It becomes “his own Torah.” (See BTQiddushin 32b, Rashi)
Furthermore, the mysterious phrase signifying eternity – `ad `olam – hints at a hidden quality that is forever. After we uncover that which is concealed, that which has been hidden, that which has been God’s alone, have we, like Prometheus, wrested that matter away from God? Has God been completely dispossessed by our demystification of his hidden things? We are cautioned to understand that our possession of these things requires that we remember that they still belong to God, that their hiddenness can never be completely dispelled. We need to try to discover the hidden – `ad `olam – until we can grasp it, not as revealed, but as ever hidden.
A Sweet New Year to All!
Rabbi David Greenstein
Subscribe to Rabbi Greenstein’s weekly d’var Torah
image: “Disarmed the thunder’s fires” by Nick Kenrick altered and used with permission via Creative Commons.
- Toby Stein: In Memoriam - Thu, Feb 8, 2024
- Faithfulness and Hope: Parashat Sh’lach - Thu, Jun 23, 2022
- Past Their Prime: Parashat B’ha`a lot’kha - Thu, Jun 16, 2022
I believe that the things that are hidden are only revealed when G-d wants them revealed. Not sure all of our discoveries are indeed ours alone! The timing may not be up to us.