In this week’s parashah, Nitzavim, the Israelites are on the cusp of entering the Promised Land, a pivotal moment in our people’s history. And with all the possibilities brought about by envisioning a new life after forty years of wandering, Moshe delivers one of the most empowering, yet demanding, statements in the entirety of the Torah:
כִּי הַמִּצְוָה הַזֹּאת אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מְצַוְּךָ הַיּוֹם לֹא־נִפְלֵאת הִוא מִמְּךָ וְלֹא רְחֹקָה הִוא׃לֹא בַשָּׁמַיִם הִוא לֵאמֹר מִי יַעֲלֶה־לָּנוּ הַשָּׁמַיְמָה וְיִקָּחֶהָ לָּנוּ וְיַשְׁמִעֵנוּ אֹתָהּ וְנַעֲשֶׂנָּה׃וְלֹא־מֵעֵבֶר לַיָּם הִוא לֵאמֹר מִי יַעֲבׇר־לָנוּ אֶל־עֵבֶר הַיָּם וְיִקָּחֶהָ לָּנוּ וְיַשְׁמִעֵנוּ אֹתָהּ וְנַעֲשֶׂנָּה׃כִּי־קָרוֹב אֵלֶיךָ הַדָּבָר מְאֹד בְּפִיךָ וּבִלְבָבְךָ לַעֲשֹׂתוֹ׃
Surely, this Instruction which I enjoin upon you this day is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach. It is not in the heavens, that you should say, “Who among us can go up to the heavens and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?” Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who among us can cross to the other side of the sea and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?” No, the thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to observe it. [1]
This is not a simple remark; it is a radical declaration. Moshe tells the people that the capacity to live a meaningful, ethical, and religious Jewish life is not reserved for prophets or dictated by distant authorities. It is "very close to you".
This verse lays upon the modern Progressive Jew two profound mandates: to Reclaim Inner Authority and to embrace Communal Co-Creation. For a voluntary, thriving community like ours, these mandates are the bedrock of our future. Yet, when a new rabbi arrives (or, as is the case here, comes back in a more permanent role) to a community thirsty for a rabbinic voice, there can be a tendency to relax from the lay-led effort that guaranteed its success and to delegate the decisions to the new rabbi. I want to talk about this with you today—about your role and mine in helping this community reach the heights it deserves, and in helping you make relevant Jewish decisions in your personal lives.
The human tendency, which Moshe attempts to shatter, is to outsource our moral and spiritual lives. We look for an expert, a definitive answer, or a simple "yes" or "no" to resolve the deep tensions of being a Jewish human. We want an authority to go "up to the heavens" for us because that process absolves us of the hard work. But Moshe insists the hard work is internal. The instruction is not too baffling.
For us, modern Progressive Jews, this individual agency is foundational. We live with what Rabbi Deborah Waxman, in a recent essay, calls a "splintered authority". [2] This choice means we are "taking authority onto ourselves, either individually or collectively, which is at once liberating and full of challenge”.
The instruction in Nitzavim is given to the collective, affirming that our shared spiritual life depends on us moving beyond a consumer mindset and embracing the role of co-creators.
Of course, such a movement does not come without its risks. The process of becoming a rabbi involves years of full-time study and the intellectual acquisition of tools to interpret Jewish texts and traditions. Moving the decision-making process completely away from rabbinic leadership would be as much of a mistake as it would be to concentrate all the power in rabbinic hands.
Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, an Orthodox authority, diagnosed the two extremes we must avoid. He found two opposing assumptions equally unpalatable: the first, that laypeople should have no authority because the rabbis always know best, which he called "blatantly patronising and paternalistic." The second, that rabbis should have no authority in communal policy outside of narrow legal rulings. He found this position "unconscionable" because it reduces the rabbi to a mere legal specialist and implies that anything not explicitly forbidden by Jewish law is beyond the scope of rabbinic judgment—a notion he called "morally and religiously abhorrent." [3]
I would like us at Bet David to consider a different path, one adopted by what Rabbi Jacob Staub called “living, vital, exciting, voluntarily-joined communities”—what he also termed “participatory decision-making communities.” [4] Building upon the experience of the Reconstructionist movement, to which we are related through the World Union for Progressive Judaism, Rabbi Staub offered a specific example. If the community is determining a policy on dietary laws, it is not something "that a rabbi decides," but something the community "studies and talks about for a year or two and comes up with a consensus decision." He details that members must "study the rules, the laws. You study the midrash, the interpretations.... and then you come to a decision that then gets brought... to the whole congregation, to ratify." This ensures people have ownership because "it is their community."
This focus on shared responsibility is rooted in our understanding of covenant. Rabbi Deborah Waxman urges us to see covenant on a "horizontal axis," shifting away from a hierarchical model and focusing on relationship building. She defines this as "voluntarily choosing to co-create communities where we agree to a set of values and then work to articulate norms that prioritise our interdependence over our individuality."
The core challenge, then, is to ensure that reclaiming our inner authority does not devolve into a free-for-all, based only on gut instinct—on our kishkes. Our passion must be rooted in an educated mind, one that engages thoughtfully with tradition and with the arguments both for maintaining and for changing it. This principle is captured perfectly in the Progressive credo, often attributed to Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan: "Tradition has a vote, but not a veto." We must listen to the voice of tradition, we study it, but we are not obligated to practise things the same way, retaining the freedom to reinterpret and redefine our practices—based on knowledge, not on prejudice.
This model of partnership in communal life extends, of course, to our personal lives as well. While I am more than happy to talk to you about the individual ethical challenges each one of you is facing, bringing Jewish perspectives for you to consider, it is critical that this process is not seen as "moral outsourcing"—you are, and you must remain, the master of your own ethical behaviour.
Parashat Nitzavim places an immense challenge before us. It challenges us to stop waiting for clarity from the heavens or the sea, and instead to locate wisdom in ourselves and in our community.
This path requires courage: the courage to embrace our individual agency, the courage to commit to a co-created community built on a horizontal covenant, and the courage to wrestle with tradition.
As we stand here today, committed to this Progressive vision in Johannesburg, let us remember that the tools for flourishing are not distant. The wisdom to choose, the capacity to act justly, and the power to co-create our sacred future are not beyond reach.
The Instruction, the capacity for an ethical and vital Jewish life with your full participation, is "very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to observe it". May we step up, take ownership, and realise the depth of the partnership we share.
Shabbat Shalom and Shanah Tovah!
[1] Deut. 30:11–14.
[2] https://evolve.reconstructingjudaism.org/covenantal-community-and-classical-reconstructionism/
[3] Aharon Lichtenstein, “Communal Governance, Lay and Rabbinic: An Overview” in Suzanne Last Stone (ed), Rabbinic and Lay Communal Authority, 19–52.
[4] https://www.reconstructingjudaism.org/article/what-makes-reconstructionist-congregation-different/
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