In memory of Father, Yosef Ben Zelig.
March 25th 1911 - May 2nd 2008

In memory of Mother, Nechama Bas Tzvi Hirsh.
June 9th 1925 - April 16th 2003

In memory of Uncle, Moshe Binyamin Ben Tzvi Hirsh.
December 12 1929 - February 2nd 2010

In Loving Memory of Moreinu Horav Shmuel Yaacov Weinberg, Rosh HaYeshiva Ner Yisroel

Nitzavim (Deuteronomy 29-30)

29:11 To bring you into the covenant of Hashem your G-D and His oath that Hashem your G-D is establishing today.

29:12 To establish you today as a nation and that He will be a G-D to you as He told you and as He swore to your forefathers, to Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to Yaakov (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob).

Rashi explains that G-D promised our ancestors that He will never replace the Jewish people with another nation. The covenant and oath were established to ensure that this will never happen.

The words of the covenant are the ninety-eight dreadful curses that are enumerated in last week's Torah reading (28:49).

We know that G-D is all merciful and that if punishment is required, He will always favor that which is least painful and destructive.

We must therefore say that to be relieved of our responsibilities and mission and be replaced by another nation is more dreadful than all the suffering we will ever experience as a result of these curses.

This brings the notion that our having an eternal bond with G-D has nothing to do with our behavior.

When we make the right choices, we contribute directly to maintaining the bond. We are even rewarded for it.

Heaven forbid if we make wrong choices, we contribute indirectly to maintaining this bond, for the resulting suffering that we bring upon ourselves is in place of any dissolution.

In no way is our painful history any indication whatsoever that G-D has abandoned us.

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