Nitzavim
Return To Me

-- Rabbi Lawrence Kushner

Surely, this commandment which I command you this day is not too awesome for you, nor is it beyond your reach . . . No, the thing is very close to you, already in your mouth and in your heart, to do it. (Devarim/Deuteronomy 30:11, 14)

Some commentators suggest that the "commandment" here that is already in our mouths and hearts is teshuvah, returning to God. This may indeed just be the mother of all the commandments, the only thing God really says, all the other commandments being only human refractions and imaginings of the one "word."

All God ever says is "Return to Me." You don't need to go anywhere. You're already there. You can hear it everywhere: in the wind and the rustling of the leaves; in the clink of money in a beggar's cup, the coo of lovers, and the cry of those in pain; it's in the moisture on your tongue, the effortless emptying and filling of your lungs, and the rhythm throb of your pulse. "Return to Me."

What is it that Moshe receives up on Mount Sinai? Only the permission to hear what has already been within him and the rest of us all along, the one utterance which may ultimately be the same as Torah: "Return to Me."

Return to Reb Laura's "Taste of Torah" list.

Return to "Teachings from Our Rabbis and Friends" list.

---

[ Home ]	[ Asiyah ]	[ Yetzirah ]	[ Briyah ]	[ Atzilut ]	[ Calendar ]
	( Doing )	( Feeling )	( Knowing )	( Being )