Can you feel the anticipation evoked by the name of the Torah portion, Nitzavim?  "You are standing!"  These last Torah portions are strong, imparting a sense of our place in the universe, and especially in where we locate ourselves relative to the Land of Israel and its spiritual mate, the Garden of Eden:  

 

When you go out...When you come in...You are standing...And went...

 

Vayelekh is even stronger in its connotation.  "And went" can be translated "And walked."  In the Garden of Eden were four rivers. The outer two rivers "circled" the Garden. The inner one, the Tigris, "walked." It walked the tightest path around the Tree of Life.  Adam and Eve could hear the voice of Elohim walking in the Garden before they fell out of it.  What we learn in Nitzavim, standing, is preparation for walking around the Tree of Life, where in next week's portion, we will Haazinu, or give ear, to the Song of Moses, just as Adam and Eve heard the voice in the Garden.

 

 

So what we hear as we stand in Nitzavim is related to the covenant sworn to Abraham.  Not so coincidentally, the First Mention of the verb nitzavim is found in Genesis, just after Abraham has been circumcised into the covenant.  While he's still in the natural pain of circumcision:

 

Now the LORD appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day. When he lifted up his eyes and looked, behold, three men were standing opposite him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth, and said, "My Lord, if now I have found favor in Your sight, please do not pass Your servant by. Please let a little water be brought and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree..." (Ge 18:1-4)

 

So yes, a circumcised heart guarantees that we will experience pain in this world.  Gloriously, though, when one voluntarily enters the Covenant, he begins to "lift his eyes," a phrase meaning to see into the spiritual realm, a realm concealed to the natural eye.  Once we fell from the Garden, we became blind to it.  As one surrenders to life in the Word, however, he begins to experience a Divine kiss, when his natural, painful body catches a glimpse of the Garden and the Tree of Life that hovers above him.  Two realms meet.

 

When Avraham says "rest yourselves," he uses the verb sha-an, which means "to lean on for support," such as Proverbs 3:5:

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.

 

In ancient times, a king made public appearances leaning upon his closest supporters. It was a display of trust in them and them in him.  Instead of inviting the travelers into his tent,  Avraham urges them to lean on THE tree, not under "the oaks of Mamre." Later, he stands and serves them "under the tree." Leaning is an equivalent expression to TRUSTING.  Faith.  This is the kind of faith that the children of Abraham need, the ability to lean on and serve under the Tree of Life.  To see the resurrection of the dead and restoration to the Garden, to be a people who go out, come in, stand, walk, and hear the voice of their Creator in the Garden. 

 

Prior to the standing angelic visitation in which Avraham received a "fulfill by" date on the covenant, he experienced the "Covenant Between the Pieces":

 

It came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces. (Ge 15:17)

 

The verb avar, to pass into or cross, is linked to natzav, or stand, in covenant. The Israelites are told they are standing in order to pass into the Covenant.  Natzav is also "to set, to put in place."  It is not passive, but to actively put one's self in that position.  It is to stand with intent, to make a stand for something.  When one takes a stand under the Tree of Life and leans on the Tree of Life, then he or she begins to avar, or cross over to the Garden.  Yes, Abraham demonstrates that it is possible to live today with one foot already in the Garden, for he is the first to be called a Hebrew, an Ivri, one who has passed over!

 

Being a Hebrew is not passive, but active. Faith.  It's having enough faith to lean on the Word of Adonai, the Tree of Life.  At his call to circumcision, Abraham was told: "I am God Almighty; walk before Me, and be blameless. I will establish My covenant between Me and you..." (Ge 17:1-2)

 

Circumcision is a call to perfection that requires actively choosing to place one's self "between the pieces" even in a deep sleep of death.  Since circumcision was also a prerequisite to entering the Land of Israel to inherit the Land instead of just wandering through it, it is also a call to actively seek perfection by leaning on Adonai and His Word, the Tree of Life. This is how faulty human beings can be "made to stand" (Ro 14:4) by the One who created them.  They can lean upon the Word for support.  They can serve others as they grow in perfection.

 

Abraham is promised: "I will establish (natan) My covenant..." The First Mention of natan is on the Fourth Day of Creation:

 

Then God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons (moedim) and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth"; and it was so. God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. God placed (natan) them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day. (Ge 1:14-19)

 

Okay, this is where it gets shouting good.  The prophecy of the Fourth Day of Creation involved Elohim ESTABLISHING Abraham's children, the faith-stars, even before human beings were created on the Sixth Day. Just as Moses assures the Israelites in Nitzavim that the Covenant is being established with those standing there and even those who were NOT standing there, the stars established the covenant of Abraham's children even before they were born! (Ge 15:5)  Why, you ask, did I wake up one morning and want to learn about Shabbat, the Torah, the moedim (feast days), and all those things I'd been told belonged particularly to the Jews?  Maybe you are just a wandering star being called back to stand in your orbit and to walk around the Tree.  You're the sign of the season:

 

I am the LORD, I have called You in righteousness, I will also hold You by the hand and watch over You. And I will appoint (natan) You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon and those who dwell in darkness from the prison. (Is 42:6-7)

 

Like a covenant between the pieces, in which the parties walked between two barriers, such as a halved animal, there are two barriers between which Abraham's children, a light to the nations, walk in a type of couplet:

 

"to separate day and night"

"to separate light and darkness"

 

The Creator's lights are "placed with intention," or natan, between those two pieces.  The lights in the heavens, or stars, children of Avraham, "walk between" two realms, heaven and earth.  When they walk in their proper journeys, symbolized by the twelve tribes (who are all "standing"), they bring Heaven and Earth together.  They witness that the nations who serve the gods named after the stars were instead created to witness to the One who made them. Each of those constellations of the tribes has an assigned "walk" through the Heavens.  They are a light to the nations, signs of the moedim calling the wandering stars home to the Divine kiss in the Garden of resurrection.  It is the appointed time for them to lean on the Tree of Life and serve under its shade.

 

The stars were placed with intention long ago to be witnesses to the Covenant; therefore, Israel was placed with intention long ago to be witnesses to the Covenant; now, like their Father Avraham, they must place THEMSELVES with intention between Heaven and Earth to be lights of the Covenant and break the power of darkness over the nations.

 

So how do we sit at the openings to our tents?  Do we run with intention?

 

With hospitality...seeing not the depravity of those who journey past us, but the potential of a person longing for a ray of light in the darkness.  The potential of a Heavenly visitor testing to see if it is the InTent of this person to serve under the Tree...if this is a child descended from Abraham.

 

In spite of the natural pain of placing ourselves in the Covenant, we lift our eyes to see that it is the opportunity for life and goodness that the Father has intentionally stood before us.  Sooner or later, someone will stand at our door so that we may minister to him.  Don't let him...or Him...pass us by today. Have faith.