RABBI DONIEL FRANK | Director, M.A.P. Seminars, Inc., Marriage and Family Therapist

Click here to download PDF transcript for Nitzavim

When we face a challenge that we believe is beyond our abilities, many of us tend to walk away without even trying.

This week’s parsha addresses that tendency in relation to keeping Torah. It says:

“For this mitzvah that I command you today – it is not hidden from you and it is not distant. It is not in heaven.. nor is it across the sea… Rather, the matter is very near to you – in your mouth and your heart – to perform it.â€

There’s a debate as to which mitzvah these pesukim refer. For our purposes, and the way it seems from the gemara in Eruvin, we’ll go with the opinion that it’s the mitzvah of knowing and fulfulling the Torah. There the gemara emphasizes the importance of using all of our ingenuity and resources to keep that mitzvah because, since Torah is so essential to life, there are no excuses not to keep it. The way Rashi puts it is that “even if the Torah was in Heaven, we’d have to find someone to get it for us.†That’s how important it is.

But, of course, the Torah makes it clear that there’s no need for such an expedition. The pesukim reassure us that the Torah is not in the heavens and it’s not across the sea.

But what’s the reason for the redundancy? We get the point with either the reassurance that it’s not in the heaven or that it’s not across the sea. Why the need for both?

This goes to the heart of the performance gap we’ve described. And that is, that there are two reasons why someone would think he can’t succeed: either the goal is inherently unattainable, or that he doesn’t have the ability to attain it.

According to the Maharsha, the Torah addresses both of these concerns in these pesukim.

On the one hand, people can think that the Torah is so other-worldy, so lofty, that its mastery is unattainable. At the same time, people can see themselves as being incapable, and that even if they were assured that the Torah was attainable by people, they are sure that they cannot attain it.

So the Torah bridges this gap by giving us two reassurances. First, the Torah is not in the heavens. That means that it is relevant and, therefore, it is attainable. And, concerning our abilities, the Torah is not across the sea, set apart from you and your abilities, but it lives within our hearts and mouths. In other words, Torah is not only attainable, we are also able to attain it.

These pesukim specifically address the challenge of upkeeping the Torah. But the strategy can also work in other areas of our lives. It’s true that there are tasks that are inherently unattainable, and there are attainable tasks that we, specifically, cannot attain. But before we resign and retreat, we have to revisit the equation and ask: “Is the gap truly as wide as we think that it is, or are we creating it in our minds by overstating the task, underselling ourselves, or both?†That is the question to consider when we try to close the performance gap and gain the confidence to take on challenges that we never thought we could.

DEDICATED TO A REFUAH SHELAIMA FOR YITZCHAK ben DEVORAH

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