Nitzavim, Nitsavim, Nitzabim, Netzavim, Nisavim, or Nesabim (—Hebrew for "ones standing," the second word, and the first distinctive word, in the parashah) is the 51st weekly Torah portion (, parashah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the eighth in the Book of Deuteronomy. It comprises Deuteronomy 29:9–30:20 (Deuteronomy 29:10 onwards in some versions of the Hebrew Bible). In the parashah, Moses told the Israelites that all the people stood before God to enter into the covenant, violation of which would bring on curses, but if they returned to God and heeded God's commandments, then God would take them back in love and bring them together again from the ends of the world. Moses taught that this Instruction was not beyond reach, and Moses put before the Israelites life and death, blessing and curse, and exhorted them to choose life by loving God and heeding the commandments.
The parashah is made up of 2,123 Hebrew letters, 553 Hebrew words, 40 verses, and 72 lines in a Torah Scroll. Jews generally read it in September or, rarely, late August or early October, on the Sabbath immediately before Rosh Hashanah. The lunisolar Hebrew calendar contains 50 weeks in common years, and 54 or 55 weeks in leap years. In some years (for example, 2025), Parashat Nitzavim is read separately. In other years (for example, 2024, 2026, and 2027), Parashat Nitzavim is combined with the next parashah, Vayelech, to help achieve the number of weekly readings needed. The two Torah portions are combined except when two Sabbaths fall between Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot and neither Sabbath coincides with a Holy Day.W. Gunther Plaut, The Torah: A Modern Commentary (New York: Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1981), page 1553. In the standard Reform prayerbook for the High Holy Days (, machzor), parts of the parashah, Deuteronomy 29:9–14 and 30:11–20, are the Torah readings for the morning Yom Kippur service, in lieu of the traditional reading of Leviticus 16.Chaim Stern, editor, Gates of Repentance: The New Union Prayerbook for the Days of Awe (New York: Central Conference of American Rabbis, revised edition 1996), pages 342–45.
Readings In traditional Sabbath Torah reading, the parashah is divided into seven readings, or , aliyot. In the Masoretic Text of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), Parashat Nitzavim is a single "open portion" (, petuchah) (roughly equivalent to a paragraph, often abbreviated with the Hebrew letter , peh) and thus can be considered a single unit. Parashat Nitzavim has several further subdivisions, called "closed portion" (, setumah) divisions (abbreviated with the Hebrew letter , samekh). The first closed portion spans the first three readings. The second closed portion spans the fourth and fifth readings. The third closed portion is coincident with the sixth reading.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, The Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Devarim / Deuteronomy (Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 2009), pages 185–95.
First reading—Deuteronomy 29:9–11 Moses told the Israelites that all the people stood that day before God to enter into the covenant.. The first reading ends here.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Devarim / Deuteronomy, page 186.
Second reading—Deuteronomy 29:12–14 In the second reading, Moses made the covenant both with those who were standing there that day and with those who were not there that day.. The second reading ends here.
Third reading—Deuteronomy 29:15–28 In the third reading, Moses reminded the Israelites that they had dwelt in the land of Egypt and had passed through various other nations and had seen the detestable idols of wood, stone, silver, and gold that those other nations kept.. Moses speculated that perchance there were among the Israelites some whose hearts were even then turning away from God to go worship the gods of those nations, who might think themselves immune, thinking that they would be safe though they followed their own willful hearts.. But God would never forgive them; rather God's anger would rage against them until every curse recorded in the Torah would come down upon them and God had blotted out their names.. And later generations and other nations would ask why God had done that to those people, and they would be told that it was because they forsook the covenant that God made with them and turned to other gods.. So God grew incensed at that land and brought upon it all the curses recorded in the Torah, uprooted them from their soil in anger, and cast them into another land, as would still be the case.. Concealed acts concerned God; but with overt acts, it was for the Israelites to apply all the provisions of the Torah.. The third reading and a closed portion end here with the end of chapter 29.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Devarim / Deuteronomy, page 190.
Fourth reading—Deuteronomy 30:1–6 In the fourth reading, Moses foretold that, after all these curses had befallen them, if they took them to heart in their exile, and they returned to God, and they heeded God's commandments with all their hearts and souls, then God would restore their fortunes, take them back in love, and bring them together again from the ends of the world to the land that their fathers possessed, and God would make them more prosperous and numerous.. Then God would open their hearts to love God with all their hearts and souls, in order that they might live.. The fourth reading ends here.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Devarim / Deuteronomy, page 191.
Fifth reading—Deuteronomy 30:7–10 In the fifth reading, Moses foretold that God would then inflict all those curses on the enemies who persecuted the Israelites, and would bless the Israelites with abounding prosperity, fertility, and productivity.. For God would again delight in their wellbeing, as God had in that of their fathers, since they would be heeding God and keeping the commandments once they had returned to God with all their hearts and souls.. The fifth reading and a closed portion end here.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Devarim / Deuteronomy, page 192.
Sixth reading—Deuteronomy 30:11–14 In the sixth reading, Moses said that surely, this Instruction that he enjoined upon them was not too baffling, beyond reach, in the heavens, or beyond the sea; rather it was very close to them, in their mouths and hearts.. The sixth reading and a closed portion end here.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Devarim / Deuteronomy, page 193.
Seventh reading—Deuteronomy 30:15–20 In the seventh reading, which is also the concluding maftir () reading, Moses said that he set before them the choice between life and prosperity on the one hand and death and adversity on the other.. Moses commanded them to love God, to walk in God's ways, and to keep God's commandments, that they might thrive and increase, and that God might bless them in the land.. But if their hearts turned away and they gave no heed, and were lured into the worship of other gods, Moses warned that they would certainly perish and not long endure in the land.. Moses called heaven and earth to witness that he had put before the Israelites a choice between life and death, blessing and curse.. He exhorted them to choose life by loving God, heeding the commandments, and holding fast to God, so that they might have life and long endure on the land that God swore to their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.. The seventh reading, the single open portion, and the parashah end here.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Devarim / Deuteronomy, page 195.
Readings for Parashiot Nitzavim-Vayelech When Jews read Parashat Nitzavim together with Parashat Vayelech, they divide readings according to the following schedule:
ReadingVerses129:9–28230:1–6330:7–14430:15–31:6531:7–13631:14–19731:20–30Maftir31:28–30
Readings according to the triennial cycle In years when Jews read the parashah separately, Jews who read the Torah according to the triennial cycle of Torah reading read the entire parashah according to the schedule of first through seventh readings in the text above. When Jews read Parashat Nitzavim together with Parashat Vayelech, Jews who read the Torah according to the triennial cycle can read the parashah according to the following schedule.See, e.g., Richard Eisenberg, "A Complete Triennial Cycle for Reading the Torah," in Proceedings of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative Movement: 1986–1990 (New York: Rabbinical Assembly, 2001), pages 383–418. Year 1Year 2Year 3Reading29:9–30:1430:1–31:631:7–30129:9–1130:1–331:7–9229:12–1430:4–631:10–13329:15–2830:7–1031:14–19430:1–330:11–1431:20–22530:4–630:15–2031:22–24630:7–1031:1–331:25–27730:11–1431:4–631:28–30Maftir30:11–1431:4–631:28–30
In inner-biblical interpretation The parashah has parallels or is discussed in these Biblical sources:For more on inner-Biblical interpretation, see, e.g., Benjamin D. Sommer, "Inner-biblical Interpretation," in Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler, editors, The Jewish Study Bible, 2nd Edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), pages 1835–41.
Deuteronomy chapter 29 In Deuteronomy 29:9–10, Moses cast the net broadly to include in the covenant all in the Israelite camp, including "your stranger" and those in the servant classes of "the hewer of your wood to the drawer of your water." In Joshua 9:3–15, the Gibeonites tricked Joshua into believing that they were not among the local inhabitants whom God had instructed the Israelites to eliminate. In recompense, in Joshua 9:21, the Israelite chieftains decreed that they should become "hewers of wood and drawers of water to all the congregation," and in Joshua 9:27, "Joshua made them that day hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation, and for the altar of the Lord." Even so, 2 Samuel 21:2 reports that later in the time of David, "the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites."
Deuteronomy chapter 30 The exile into captivity which is anticipated in Deuteronomy 30:1 is reported in 2 Kings 24:13-16 and mentioned in Esther 2:6, Jeremiah 1:3 and Ezekiel 1:1. The return to the Promised Land which is anticipated in Deuteronomy 30:3 is predicted, for example, in Jeremiah 33:7.
The command of Deuteronomy 30:16 to "walk in His [God's] ways" reflects a recurring theme also present in Deuteronomy 5:30; 8:6; 10:12; 11:22; 19:9; 26:17; and 28:9.
Moses calls heaven and earth to serve as witnesses against Israel in Deuteronomy 4:26, 30:19, 31:28, and 32:1. Similarly, Psalm 50:4–5 reports that God "summoned the heavens above, and the earth, for the trial of His people," saying "Bring in My devotees, who made a covenant with Me over sacrifice!" Psalm 50:6 continues: "Then the heavens proclaimed His righteousness, for He is a God who judges."
In early nonrabbinic interpretation The parashah has parallels or is discussed in these early nonrabbinic sources:For more on early nonrabbinic interpretation, see, e.g., Esther Eshel, "Early Nonrabbinic Interpretation," in Adele Berlin and Marc Brettler, editors, Jewish Study Bible, 2nd edition, pages 1841–59.
Deuteronomy chapter 29 One of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Community Rule (1QS), tells how the Qumran sectarians reenacted the covenant renewal ceremony commanded by Deuteronomy 29:10 on an annual basis, many scholars believe on Shavuot. Another Dead Sea Scroll, The Rule of the Congregation (1QSa), described how the Qumran sectarians planned to reenact that covenant renewal ceremony in the End of Days.Lawrence H. Schiffman, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls: The History of Judaism, the Background of Christianity, the Lost Library of Qumran (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1994), page 133 (citing Rule of the Community 1:1–3:12).