Why is Natzavim Read Before Rosh Hashana

Episode 99: "Why Is Nitzavim Read Before Rosh Hashanah" (25 Elul 5781)

Welcome to our weekly program, The Inside Story of Chabad in America, through the Mindel archives. This week is Parshas Nitzavim, and Parshas Nitzavim always falls out before Rosh Hashanah.

Nitzavim means "all Yidden are standing," and they are acquitted in judgment — important people and plain, simple people. A plain, simple person has some skill, but what does he do? He's a water carrier — there's no skill, mamash. He's not a poshuter Yid — I mean, mamash not a poshuter Yid — but if he's a Yid, then on Rosh Hashanah everybody is equal.

Moshe Rabbeinu brought the Jews together, and he commanded them to be areivim — guarantors — one for another. Just like in the body of a person there is an advantage of the feet over the head — the head cannot be complete if there are no feet. The head wants to go to school, but if there are no feet, God forbid, he can't. The same thing goes — everybody is connected. The same thing also applies to the body of all the Jewish people — whether it's wood choppers or water carriers — they have an advantage over the Roshei Am [the heads of the nation], even though the heads are more chashuv, more important. The poshute Yidden have an advantage over the Roshei Am, but all of them have to be together. Everyone has to know who he is and what he is. Then comes the brocha — Avinu, then the Aibishter blesses us and gives us a good year, that we are all together.

This starts with Selichos this week — the beginning is now, but it goes on throughout the whole of Tishrei. We see Sukkos also shows unity — we have to sit, we'll sit in one sukkah, all eight days. The whole body has a mitzvah when you put the daled minim in the hand — that too is together, united. If the hadas is not there, then you can't make a brocha on this. The esrog has a specialty only if you have everything else together — if the esrog is separate, it doesn't count, and you can't fulfill it.

And that's why — to show the beauty of the poshuter Yid, the good Yidden, not the scholars — Hoshana Rabbah can never fall on Shabbos. Why? Because the aravah is muktzah. The aravah shows the honor of the poshuter Yid, and Hoshana Rabbah is almost like Yom Kippur — that's how holy it is. That's the love of the poshuter Yid. So now, this Shabbos we read Nitzavim, and we're all standing — the brocha that Hashem gives should be mekuyam, fulfilled, for a whole year.

Where do we see the advantage of a poshuter Yid over a Rosh, over a scholar? First of all, we see — we spoke a couple of weeks ago about Rivka Imeinu. Rivka Imeinu became the wife of Yitzchak Avinu, she became the mother of Klal Yisroel, because she was a water carrier, plain — she did chesed. That's the thing that made it — not that she was great, and she didn't know how to learn or whatever — that wasn't the thing — it was the kindness she showed. She gave water to drink, and this is what she was known for. And that's the beginning — we spoke about the mother, she had the koach to bentch all the Yidden — as we spoke a few weeks ago, the kabolas ol of a poshuter Yid — that's the advantage of an ish poshut. Of course the advantage of a Rosh — what we have, we know, the heads — what we don't have, we know — and without one, of course you can't have the other, because they teach you how to feel. So there's a balance, each one.

Now I want to tell you something very interesting that the Rebbe told Rabbi Mindel, when they did the tefillin-laying I mentioned last week, and they came to lay his tefillin. He said this interesting vort, and Rabbi Mindel wrote it down: We put on tefillin, and the Aibishter, so to speak, puts on tefillin. What does it say in our tefillin? It says Shema — how much Hashem loves every single Yid. We put on tefillin shel yad, and the Aibishter puts on tefillin shel yad. We put on tefillin shel rosh, and Hashem puts on tefillin shel rosh. What is the tefillin shel yad of the Aibishter? These are the poshute Yidden — people who are oskim b'tov, who do good, people who do chesed — it doesn't mean they don't know how to learn, they learn too, but the ikar, the main thing, is doing good deeds, kindness, favors — that's the story of those Yidden. What is the tefillin shel rosh of the Aibishter? These are the Roshei Am — these are the scholars. It doesn't mean they don't do chesed, they do chesed, but the ikar is learning Torah — that comes first for them.

So what comes first? Before we know Torah, we have to be kind and good, be a baal chesed — that's tefillin shel yad, that goes on first. Then we put on tefillin shel rosh — that's the scholars — then we can learn Torah the way we're supposed to. When we take off our tefillin, what comes off first? Shel rosh comes off first — shel yad always stays on. We begin with shel yad, and we end with shel yad. And by the Aibishter it's the same thing — the love for every Yid, because that is the ikar, and we need everything, but the poshuter Yid comes first — the kabolas ol — this is the most important thing.

I once asked my father — I don't know if everybody's afraid to ask it, but I think you can ask it — my father said somebody asked: the phrase we say every morning, "Talmud Torah k'neged kulam" — that learning is greater than anything else — so somebody asked a very clever question: does that mean Torah is more important than kibud av v'eim? Is it more important than gemilus chassadim? It's almost like a kashya. So my father answered them: you're right, Talmud Torah k'neged kulam — but it says: when is Talmud Torah k'neged kulam? When all the things before it are done properly. When a person does kibud av v'eim properly, there is credit for the parents. When a person davens properly — a person gets up every morning to shul and davens the way we spoke about last week — he walks in, davens with seriousness, goes out properly — when a person does, what a person does, does all these things that are mentioned properly, then the Torah that you learn is k'neged kulam — it reaches the highest level. But if you have just Torah, and the other things are not that important, that doesn't mean that's for the good — that's the negative side.

So now is the preparation for us — we're right before Rosh Hashanah. Now, as a matter of fact, I'm just thinking — I remember that when the Frierdiker Rebbe became Bar Mitzvah and started to put on tefillin, he was told, "You can ask me whatever you want, and I'll answer you" — he could have asked him anything. What did he ask? Why do we have to shuckle before davening? So the Rebbe answered him — but that's not important now, but I want to bring out what bothered him: the first thing, from his first tefillin, is about loving one's fellow Jew.

So as the preparation, each one should know his own inyan — and if a person is a lamdan, he should put in more learning; if a person is oskim b'tov, he should do more of what he does. And this will bring us — this will bring a kesivah v'chasimah tovah, this will bring a gmar chasimah tovah, this will bring gezunt, health, parnassah, livelihood, nachas, and all the brochos that we need from Hashem — all should be mekuyam.

So when we dip the apple in honey — why do we dip the apple in honey? We should really dip the onion in honey, to make the bitter sweet. The apple is already sweet — why do we dip the apple in honey? Because we want it to be even better — niglah — we want everything to be good, but we want a year of revelation, that should be mamash b'ruchniyus u'vgashmiyus — in spirituality and in physicality. And this is what we're asking. And through all this, I'm sure — through doing everything together that we spoke about the last few weeks — we wish everybody a good Yom Tov.