Nitzavim

So in this weeks parsha (Nitzavim) the opening words are “ atem nitzavim hayom kulchem lifnei Hashem Elokim” You are standing today all of you before Hashem your G-d. The gematria of these words is the equivalent to La’amod l’selichos’ – to stand before G-d and seek forgiveness. During the year we run so fast from activity to activity and sometimes so fast that we forget why we are running and what are lives are all about. But on the day of judgement we are commanded to stand still and examine our hearts.

The first thing that i was thinking is very significant with this is the idea of standing still and taking a reckoning of what we are doing with our lives. It is kind of the same sensation you have with Shabbat. Why are we commanded to stop once a week? Says Rav Dovid Pinca z”l that only once did the world stop - "When Hasem gave the Torah no winged creature flew, no cow mooed, the sea didn’t sway, people didn’t speak. Rather the world was completely silent and a voice rang out: “I am Hashem, your G-d...” " It is not that the world had to be quiet so they could hear Hashem, Hashem’s message is always loud and clear, his presence is always in the world. But rather we are too preoccupied to even notice. Like a subject who visits a king in his castle. The castle has such beautiful painting and architecture and music that the subject doesn’t notice the king in the room with him. So the king announces for everyone to stop what they are doing and go home and suddenly the room notices the king. We are very drawn in by the world and all the physical pleasure we see and the world deters us from noticing Hashem. This is the essence of Shabbos. On a weekday we run around in the bustle of life but on Shabbos we experience cessastion and are alone with Hashem. My experience in India really taught me that on Shabbat you need some time to really stop and be alone with Hashem and the same thing is true with davening. We must stop and realise before whom we are standing.

I learnt a few years ago with my mum a book on all the different brachot of the Shmoneh esrei and the most powerful for me was the first two lines when we ask Hashem to open lips and for us to pray properly. This is the whole essence to my davening and if the first 2 lines go wrong for me im done for! But not even in the words lies the beauty but in the movement of your feet. Why do we do so much ‘foot work’ in our davening?! The three steps back are supposed to represent drawing ourselves out of this world imagining leaving the domain of here and now – sort of like the three wafts you do with your hands over the Shabbat candles before Shabbos. Then when you move forward you imagine yourself moving into the courtyard of Hashem. Why three steps though? There are many explanantions but my favourite comes from Moshe Rabbeinu when he ascended Sinai. As he approached Hashem he moved through three mediums. Firstly he stepped through wind and rain, then through fog and then through very thick fog until he was with Hashem. Likewise when we take our own three steps forward, i try and imagine going through those three mediums and then reaching Hashem at the end of it. As I was saying in most shuls there is written on the Aron the words, know before whom you are standing and i think this is the key. You are not talking to yourself or doing self reflection you are literally standing before Hashem and no davening can have the deepest connection without this thought.

Standing before Hashem having the same gematria as the words of Selichos i think is also so powerful. We have been granted the most amazing gift of selichos and we must truly believe in the power of this awesome gift. It may seem daunting but at the same time we are told in the same parsha that ‘the commandaments i command you today are near to you’ the covernent is embedded in our souls and we can take that journey to Sinai every time we call upon Hashem sincerely.

Not only that but the parsha says that ‘all of you’ are standing before Hashem and then goes on to name who that is. But why name each individual group and ‘all of us’. The answer is simple, we are all responsible for one another and our destinies are intertwined. As i love to quote, ‘an injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere’. We are like a body – although we are separate parts we make one whole which cannot function without each other. The same is true of our davening. We pray in the plural ‘shma koleinu’ hear our voices and so on. We must look after ourselves as a community and as individuals. And so even more powerful should our prayer be because we are all standing alone with HAshem but at the same time we are all doing it together