Maybe G-d’s Greatest Gift to Us
G-d created the world, gave us life, and put us in the world He created. He gave us the Torah and a Torah way of life. In recent weeks, we’ve read in the Torah of the multifaceted blessings that will be ours... if we keep faithful to G-d. (We have also been duly warned - in graphic detail - of what will happen if we turn away from G-d.)

But in this week’s sedra (the first of the two) we are presented with a gift that might even be greater than everything else we as human beings and we as Jews have been given and/or offered. And that gift is T’SHUVA, repentance, the opportunity for a Second Chance.

If you think about things logically, there really should not be any such thing as T’SHUVA. G-d is the True Judge, the Divine King, and He created this world on the basis of strict justice. He gave Adam and Chava permission to eat from any tree in the Garden, except for the Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil, and warned Adam that if he ate from that tree, he would die - on the very same day. After this warning, they did eat from the tree, and Adam HaRishon DID die - 930 years later! Adam apparently thought that his having violated G-d’s command would bring swift punishment. Even the idea of being able to express his regret to G-d and to promise not to disobey in the future probably didn’t occur to Adam... until later. Later, when he finally realized that he was being given the opportunity to repent, he took it.

Until this week’s sedra, the brachot and curses are presented as potentials for the future as reward or punishment for proper or improper conduct. In Nitzavim, Moshe Rabeinu carries things one step further, by telling us what to do (and what G-d will do) if (and when) the k’lalot occur and the People of Israel are exiled and the Land is devastated.

We are commanded (urged, given the opportunity) to return to G-d, which by itself, is a comfort in light of the terrible things that might happen to us. And, in addition, the Torah promises us that G-d will not just wait for our T’SHUVA and our return, physically and spiritually, but He will gather us from the farthest corner of our dispersion and He will help in our T’SHUVA pro- cess by “circumcising our hearts and those of our children”, so that we will once again come to true love of G-d and live a Torah life that is motivated by that Ahavat HaShem.

We must realize that the path of our Return is not so long, because G-d will come out to meet us half way (or more) and help us along, so to speak. Then we will appreciate and use this gift well.