Nitzavim

Yeshaya 61:10–63:9

Oh! To Be with You

This week’s Haftarah concludes the seven-week series on Jewish redemption. In this final phase Hashem announces His actual return to His people. Aside, from this dimension, every aspect of redemption will have been achieved. Eretz Yisroel will be revived; the exiles will have returned in full; Zion will be rebuilt, but the ultimate will have not yet occurred. In this final, reading Yeshaya Hanavi shared with the Jewish people Hashem’s boundless appreciation for His children and expressed it in terms that can almost not be quantified.

Our Soul Thirsts for Hashem

     Regarding this final phase of redemption Yeshaya Hanavi quoted that the Jewish people will say, “I will be gladdened by Hashem, my soul will rejoice over My Hashem.” (61:10) Chazal explain that the Jewish people will express at that time that their primary interest in their redemption is to bond with Hashem. Although they will undoubtedly appreciate the fulfillment of all their incredible prophecies about their glorious future, they will emphatically state that their true source of happiness is but one, Hashem’s return to them. Their singular expression of gladness and joy will reflect how they sorely longed for the privilege of hosting Hashem’s presence amongst them and yearned with a passion to experience His closeness to them. (Yalkut Shimoni, Yeshaya 505)

Yeshaya continued and described the extraordinary proportions of Hashem’s return to them. He quoted Hashem saying, “You will no longer be considered forsaken… because regarding you it shall be proclaimed, ‘My desire is in you’…” (62:4) Hashem pledged to devote His total focus on His people and to display His greatest interest in them. Hashem’s relationship with His beloved children will be so tangible that they will assume a new world identity and will be universally recognized as, “Hashem’s desirable one.”

Hashem Rejoices Over His Bride

     But with all this, the Jewish people conceivably will be concerned about one aspect of Hashem’s return to them. They will wonder, since they once merited His closeness and then forfeited it, will they feel uneasy about returning to Him? Will Hashem merely reinstate His relationship with them, or will they be privileged to a fresh start?

Yeshaya prophetically responded to their concern and foretold the incredible proportions of their upcoming experience. He said, “As a groom rejoices over his bride, Hashem will rejoice over you.” (62:5) Hashem’s future relationship with His people will have the freshness and newness of the first beloved moments of a groom with his new bride. That heightened experience typifies the epitome of happiness and appreciation, as the two begin forging their eternal bond of admiration and appreciation. They see in each other the opportunity for their most fulfilling experiences in life. In essence, each of them senses that their eternal partner offers them everything life could possibly bring.

Yeshaya foretold that the Jewish people’s redemption will be of similar nature. Hashem’s newly founded relationship with them will be so encompassing that it will surpass all previous associations. The happiness and fulfillment it will generate will be so complete that it will leave no room for reflection on the past and no need to worry about the future.

Hashem’s Eternal Bridal Relationship

     Radak adds an unthinkable dimension to this relationship and reveals that its newness will continue forever. Instead of allowing for familiarity and routine, Hashem’s relationship will constantly generate levels of closeness to Him. Every gained level will be so elevating and fulfilling that it will feel like an entirely new relationship replete with all its freshness and appreciation. (Radak to Yeshaya 62:2)

Yet, the most startling factor of Yeshaya’s message is that he projected with it Hashem’s feelings towards the Jewish people. Yeshaya told them that Hashem will forever rejoice over them with the emotion of a groom over His newly acquired bride. We learn from this that Hashem’s interest in His beloved children is boundless. Even after all their years of straying from Him, He retains an intense desire to unite with them in untold proportions. He seeks to erase every aspect of their imperfect past and to establish with them a totally new relationship. In fact, He seeks to bond with them with such eternal endearment that it can only be quantified in human terms through the ecstatic emotions of a groom to his bride.

Placing Hashem’s Ring on Our Finger

     In truth, these emotions are the hidden message behind the tefillin we don each day. As we wrap our tefillin strap around our index finger, we recite verses that express our betrothal to Hashem. Our wrapping ceremony is likened to the placement of a wedding ring on our finger and represents our commitment to a perfect relationship with Hashem.

Moreover, Chazal deduce from our Haftarah that Hashem also “dons” tefillin. Yeshaya said, “Hashem swore by His right and by the strength of His arm.” (62:8) Chazal explain that the “right” refers to the Torah that Hashem gave through His right, and the strength of the other arm akin to our left arm refers to the tefillin that Hashem ‘dons’. Chazal continue and note that the leather boxes we don, contain segments of the Torah that express Hashem’s oneness and exclusiveness, sovereignty and supremacy. But what expressions does Hashem ‘don’ each day? They answer that Hashem “dons” similar statement to ours, statements that express the exclusiveness and supremacy of the Jewish people over all nations. (Berachos 6a)

Hashem’s Reciprocal Relationship

     Maharsha explains that our binding the Tefillin to our arm (next to our heart) and on our head, represents our great passion to cleave to Hashem. We seek to create an inseparable relationship with Him and to express His glory through our recognition of His unparalleled exclusiveness and sovereignty, as stated in the verses placed inside our tefillin. Chazal teach us here that Hashem responds to our sincere interest and reciprocates with a similar expression of interest. In fact, when we, through donning our tefillin, express our interest in creating an inseparable relationship with Hashem we activate Hashem’s interest in creating an inseparable relationship with us. It stands to reason then, that in the same manner we yearn to display Hashem’s exclusiveness to the world, Hashem yearns to display our exclusiveness to the world. (Maharsha ad loc)

Let us now return to our tefillin wrapping ceremony and to the verses we recite at that time. We quote Hashem saying, “And I betrothed you to Me forever; I betrothed you to Me with righteousness, justice, kindness and compassion; I betrothed you to Me with faith and you shall know [bond with] Hashem.” (Hoshea 2:21-22) We proclaim through these verses that our act of donning tefillin, in addition to reflecting our commitment to Hashem, reflects Hashem’s commitment to us. We therefore wrap the tefillin strap around our finger akin to Hashem’s bride accepting the placement of His wedding ring. (Shlah, mitzvas Tefillin 119)

Assistance Beyond Human Capacity

     We read our Haftarah in conjunction with Parshas Nitzavim that contains the Jewish people’s sincere return to the Torah’s ways and its result, the ingathering of the exiles. Therein the Torah states, “You will return to Hashem and listen to His voice…He will gather you from all the nations that He scattered you there…Hashem will circumcise your hearts…to love Him with all your heart and soul…He will distinguish you from all with absolute goodness, when He will return to rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over your forefathers.” (Devarim 30:2-9)

Rabbeinu Yonah explains these verses in an astounding way. He deduces from here that the power of repentance is so great that when one sincerely regrets his inappropriate conduct and returns to Hashem, Hashem will assist the person to attain heights beyond one’s human capacity of achievement. (Shaarei Teshuvah 1:1) Apparently, he interprets the phrase “circumcise your hearts to love Him…” to refer to a level of love far beyond the capacity of the Jewish people.

Cleaving to Hashem Like Our Patriarchs

     Indeed, this is the case as evidenced through Rabbeinu Yonah’s interpretation of the concluding verse, “as He rejoiced over your forefathers.” Rabbeinu Yonah profoundly states, “This refers to the Jewish people’s cleaving to Hashem at the end of their days to the same degree that the Patriarchs did in their times!” The Torah recounts that Hashem will cleave with joy to the Jewish people in the same manner that He cleaved to the Patriarchs, in response to the people’s constant focus on Hashem akin to that of the Patriarchs.

Seforno describes the Patriarchs incredible degree of devotion and states that they constantly cleaved to Hashem and never separated from Him even momentarily in their thoughts and words of Torah. (Seforno to Bereishis 32:26)

Rabbeinu Yonah appropriately credits this incredible achievement to the Jewish people’s sincere repentance at the time of redemption. Although one could never entertain the idea of reaching even after thousands of years, the inseparable relationship of the Patriarchs with Hashem, at the end of time Hashem will assist His beloved children who sincerely repented, to attain levels of devotion and purity far beyond their human capacity. (Derashos u’Perushei Rabbeinu Yonah ad loc)

We now realize how our Haftarah is a perfect expansion of this message and describes the incredible proportions of Hashem’s future relationship with His beloved children. In response to their constantly cleaving to Hashem in thought and in words of Torah, Hashem will reciprocate and establish a permanent bridal relationship between Hashem, our groom, and the Jewish people, His bride.

As we prepare to coronate Hashem on Rosh Hashana let us sincerely express our boundless desire to cleave to Him in the above proportions. Let us entreat Hashem to soon bring us to the time of our complete relationship will Him when we will merit to forge our eternal bond with Him.