Find Your Niche

A thought on Parashas Nitzavim

As I sat down this week to learn Parashas Nitzavim, I was trying to figure out what I should write about. I was drawing blanks, even though the Parashah is full of important ideas. I thought maybe compare the Queen’s Funeral and all the different people involved in making the Malchus happen, to the list of the 10 different people who were standing by Moshe waiting to go into Eretz Yisrael. I figured someone else would write about that. Then, someone asked me why I started writing weekly Divrei Torah, and while answering, it all came together and hit me.

Moshe famously tells us in this Parashah that Teshuvah, and in fact Torah, is not out of our reach, we all have the ability to grasp onto it, we just have to open ourselves up to it.

כי המצוה הזאת אשר אנכי מצוך היום לא־נפלאת הוא ממך ולא רחקה הוא

Surely, this Instruction which I enjoin upon you this day is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach.

לא בשמים הוא לאמר מי יעלה־לנו השמימה ויקחה לנו וישמענו אתה ונעשנה

It is not in the h…