| The Portion of Nitzavim An Eternal Covenant The portion of Nitzavim begins with the covenant involving the entire people of Israel, from the elite to the common man. Not only did this covenant include all who were present at the time but it included all who were to be born in future generations. Severe consequences await the people if the covenant is broken; the penalty is exile without the possibility of returning to the Land of Israel. And in fact the ten tribes which were exiled in the time of Sancherev to a place far, far away- Afriki (Tractate Sanhedrin 94a). And in the words of the Torah: " And the Lord uprooted them from upon their land, with fury, anger and great wrath, and He cast them to another land, as it is this day." (Deuteronomy 29l;27) The text is hard. "Vayashlichem"- and he cast them, which refers to a long exile in a far-away land. This word is written without the letter "yud" following the letter "lamed". This alludes to the exile of the Ten Tribes (the numerical value of "yud" is ten.) And the form of the letter "lamed" in the accompanying picture found in a Torah which I rescued from Holland alludes to the fact that the tribes were exiled to a far-away place. (Remazei Rabbenu Yoel)
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