Parshas Nitzavim - aspects of the Torah and aspects of the Jewish people

The passuk says in the week’s sedrah

אַתֶּם נִצָּבִים הַיּוֹם כֻּלְּכֶם לִפְנֵי ה' אֱלֹקֵיכֶם רָאשֵׁיכֶם שִׁבְטֵיכֶם זִקְנֵיכֶם וְשֹׁטְרֵיכֶם כֹּל אִישׁ יִשְׂרָאֵל

“All of you are standing today before Hashem your G-d, your leaders, your tribes, your elders and your officers, every man from the בני ישראל.”

The Medrash Tanchuma comments on this passuk

ראשיכם שבטיכם - אף על פי שמיניתי לכם ראשים, זקנים ושוטרים, כולכם שווים לפני, שנאמר, כל איש ישראל.

“Even though I appointed for you leaders, elders and officers, you are all equal before me, which is why the passuk concludes כל איש ישראל.”

According to the Medrash Tanchuma, the translation of כֹּל אִישׁ יִשְׂרָאֵל is not, "Your leaders, your tribes, your elders and your officers, and also everyone else from the בני ישראל.” Rather the translation of כֹּל אִישׁ יִשְׂרָאֵל is literally “every man of the בני ישראל”, which includes the leaders, tribes, elders and officers. If so, the passuk has referred to these people twice, which is why the Medrash Tanchuma says that the words כֹּל אִישׁ יִשְׂרָאֵל come to teach you through a derasha that כולכם שווים לפני.

• Why does the Torah emphasise here that all of the בני ישראל are equal before Hashem?

The passuk continues (דברים כ"ט י"ג - י"ד)

וְלֹא אִתְּכֶם לְבַדְּכֶם אָנֹכִי כֹּרֵת אֶת הַבְּרִית הַזֹּאת וְאֶת הָאָלָה הַזֹּאת. כִּי אֶת אֲשֶׁר יֶשְׁנוֹ פֹּה עִמָּנוּ עֹמֵד הַיּוֹם לִפְנֵי יְהוָה אֱלֹקֵינוּ וְאֵת אֲשֶׁר אֵינֶנּוּ פֹּה עִמָּנוּ הַיּוֹם

“And not with you alone do I make this covenant and this dread oath. But rather with those who stand here today with us before Hashem our G-d and with those who are not here with us today.”

Rashi explains

"ואת אשר איננו פה" - ואף עם דורות העתידים להיות

“And also with the generations which are going to be.”

• Why was it necessary for Moshe to directly make a ברית with those generations that were going to be, why would they not be bound by force of the ברית made with the first generation of the בני ישראל?

The gemara says in Gittin (דף ס' ע"ב)

א"ר אלעזר תורה רוב בכתב ומיעוט על פה שנא' (הושע ח', י"ב) אכתוב לו רובי תורתי כמו זר נחשבו, ור' יוחנן אמר רוב על פה ומיעוט בכתב שנא' (שמות ל"ד, כ"ז) כי על פי הדברים האלה

Rabbi Elazar said, “The majority of the Torah can be deduced from the chumash using the י"ג מידות שהתורה נדרשת בהן, a minority of the Torah was given to Moshe בעל פה at Har Sinai. This can be proven from the passuk in Hoshea that says, ‘I wrote for them the majority of the Torah, but they considered it as a foreign thing.’”

Rabbi Yochanan said, “The majority of the Torah was given to Moshe בעל פה at Har Sinai and a minority of the Torah can be deduced from the chumash using the י"ג מידות שהתורה נדרשת בהן.”

According to both Rabbi Elazar and Rabbi Yochanan it appears that it would be possible for the entire Torah to be written down, the machlokess is only in regards to the proportion of halachos that can be deduced from pessukim to the halachos that were stated to Moshe בעל פה at Har Sinai.

However, the Medrash Tanchuma says (פרשת נח)

יתברך שמו של מלך מלכי המלכים הקדוש ברוך הוא, שבחר בישראל משבעים אומות... ונתן לנו את התורה בכתב רשומו ברמז צפונות וסתומות, ופירשום בתורה שבעל פה, וגילה אותם לישראל. ולא עוד אלא שתורה שבכתב כללות, ותורה שבעל פה פרטות. ותורה שבעל פה הרבה, ותורה שבכתב מעט. ועל שבעל פה נאמר ארוכה מארץ מידה ורחבה מני ים

Blessed be the Name of Hashem who gave us the written Torah which is embellished with hidden and concealed hints, and He explained them in the oral Torah and revealed them to the בני ישראל. And not only that, but the written Torah states general principles and the oral Torah states the specifics. And the oral Torah is much and the written Torah is little. Concerning the oral Torah the passuk says in Iyov, it’s measure is longer than the earth and wider than the sea.

• If the oral Torah is longer than the earth and wider than the sea, how can the gemara in Gittin say that it would be possible to write down the entire Torah?

The Pri Tzadik explains as follows:

We know that there are 600,000 letters in the Torah and 600,000 בני ישראל who came out of Mitzraim. The neshama of each of the בני ישראל corresponds to one letter in the Torah. This signifies that just as the whole Torah can be extrapolated from any letter in the Torah, so too each of the בני ישראל understands the entire Torah relative to their שורש הנשמה in the Torah.

When the gemara in Gittin says that it would be possible to write the תורה שבעל פה, it means that it would be possible to write one of the 600,000 ways in which the Torah can be understood. When the Medrash Tanchuma says that the Torah is ארוכה מארץ מידה ורחבה מני ים, it means that the entire 600,000 ways of understanding the Torah, and the interrelationships between them, could never be written down.

Equally so, every generation has their own approach in עבודת ה' which requires the application of a different understanding of the Torah, as the gemara says in Sanhedrin (38b)

מאי דכתיב (בראשית ה', א') זה ספר תולדות אדם מלמד שהראהו הקב"ה דור דור ודורשיו דור דור וחכמיו

“What does the passuk mean זה ספר תולדות האדם – this is the book of the generations of Adam. This comes to teach you that Hashem showed Adam each generation, its leaders and its חכמים.”

Just as the leaders of each generation are appropriate for the approach in עבודת ה' of that generation, so too is the חכמה of the חכמים of each generation unique, according to that generation’s needs. Since each generation requires a different set of the 600,000 ways in which the Torah can be understood, therefore the leaders and the חכמים of that generation will be those בני ישראל whose neshamos correlate to the letters from which perspective that generation has to understand the Torah.

Therefore, although someone with a particular שורש הנשמה may be a wood chopper or a water drawer in one generation, in the next generation a person with the same שורש הנשמה could be the leader or one of the חכמים of that generation.

This is why the Medrash Tanchuma at the beginning of parshas Nitzavim explains that Hashem told the בני ישראל - כולכם שווים לפני. Since the covenant made with the בני ישראל was for all time, and included all generations that would ever be, the covenant was made relative to any perspective the Torah can be understood from, and relative to any approach in עבודת ה'.

Subsequently all the בני ישראל are equal in this light, because at some stage the שורש הנשמה of every one of the בני ישראל will be needed to provide guidance and חכמה to their own דור.