Parshat Nitzavim, the first of the two portions we read this week, is replete with the message of teshuvah (repentance). Teshuvah is most often associated with our return to God. This portion also speaks of a different form of teshuvah—the return of God.  

Note the sentence “V’shav Hashem…et shevutkhah” which is often translated “then the Lord your God will bring back your captivity." (Deuteronomy 30:3) The term used here is not "ve-heishiv" which means God will "bring back" your captivity, rather it is "ve-shav" which literally means that God "will return with" your captivity. The message according to the Midrash is clear. When we are in captivity God is in exile with us. (Rashi, Deuteronomy 30:3) Thus, when we return, God returns with us as He, too, has been exiled.  

Similarly, God first appears to Moshe in a burning bush telling him to lead the Jewish people out of Egypt. (Exodus 3:2) The Midrash points out that God purposely appears in the lowly bush to teach that He felt the pain of the Jewish people enslaved in Egypt. As we were lowly, so did God feel that lowliness. God is one in our suffering, empathizing with our despair. (Rashi, Exodus 3:2)  

This idea teaches an important message. God is a God of love who cares deeply for His people. Hence, when we are cast aside, God suffers with us and is cast aside as well.  

This concept finds expression in the mourning process. When leaving someone sitting shiva, we recite the formula of "ha-Makom yenahem etkhem - may God comfort you." But suppose there is only one mourner? Should we use the word etkhem (you, plural) rather than otkha or otakh (you, singular).  

Many rabbis insist that we still use the plural form. According to this view, it can be suggested that even when one mourns alone, one is not alone. God feels our loss to the extent that He is sitting shiva with us, hence etkhem. From this perspective, God is the comforter and the comforted. And so we recite, may God comfort you-with the you including God.  

No wonder then, when reciting kaddish, we begin with "Yitgadel, ve-yitkadesh" which means "may God become great, and may God become holy." With the death of a human being, with a family in bereavement, God, as it were, is not fully great and holy as He suffers with us. Thus, these words are in the future tense. Indeed, the kaddish may be interpreted as our words of comfort to God Himself.  

As we participate in the teshuvah process on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur this idea teaches that God is one with us, caring, leading and carrying us from step to step, higher and higher. As we return to God, God returns to us.  


Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Avi Weiss