This is the day, now is the time!

In this week’s Torah portion, Ki Tavo, Moses declares to the nation, “This day, the Lord, your G-d, is commanding you to fulfill these statutes and ordinances” (Deuteronomy 26:16). Yet “this day” when Moses spoke these words was in the 40th year of the nation’s wandering in the desert, and G-d had commanded the fulfillment of the mitzvos 40 years earlier when He gave the Torah on Mount Sinai. What does Moses mean when he says “this day”?

Rashi quotes the Midrash which states that Moses says “this day” to teach the people that “every day, you shall regard the commandments as if they are brand new, as though you are just today being commanded regarding them.” In other words, G-d did not merely communicate with us at some point in the distant past, but rather He speaks to us daily. On the simple level, the implication here is that G-d is always present and that Torah is as relevant and precious to us today as it was to our ancestors thousands of years ago. But there is a deeper message here as well which applies particularly to these days of Elul in which this portion is always read.

As the year approaches its end and we prepare for Rosh Hashana and the succeeding Days of Awe, there is an urgency that grips us and a renewed sense of the preciousness of time.Throughout the majority of the year, we may tend to ignore the ticking of the clock and the passing of the days. There will be plenty of time to fulfill our responsibilities and to correct our lapses or errors. What’s the rush? There’s always tomorrow. But suddenly, the Day of Judgment is only weeks away, and we need to get to work NOW rather than later.

The sages teach that the word “now” refers to teshuvah – “ein v’attah ela teshuvah/and now is nothing other than teshuvah” (Breishis Rabba 21:6). This is gleaned from G-d’s response to Adam’s eating of the forbidden fruit: “G-d said, Behold man has become like one of us, having the ability of knowing good and evil, AND NOW, lest he stretch forth his hand and take also from the Tree of Life and eat and live forever” (Genesis 3:22). Rabbi Abba bar Kahana questions the inclusion of the seemingly superfluous words “and now,” and states “this teaches that the Holy One blessed be He opened for him an opportunity for teshuvah. (For) ‘and now’ is nothing other than teshuvah” (ibid).

What does the word “now” have to do with teshuvah? On the simple level, it is explained that one should always do teshuvah now because he may not have the opportunity or the inclination to do so later. But on a deeper level, the mystics explain that NOW is the essence of teshuvah, and it is only when we are “living in the now” that we can truly engage in teshuvah.

Teshuvah means “return,” and it is the process of returning to the state of pure goodness and G-dliness that we come from and that we ultimately are. What is it that stops us from doing so? It is either that we are living in the past – falsely believing that we cannot possibly rectify all of our former errors – or living in the future – convincing ourselves that we cannot possibly maintain the requisite level of righteousness and holiness going forward so what is the use in pretending to be something we are not.

When we free ourselves from both our past and our future, we can experience the infinite present. NOW, we can be who we are, not what we were or what we might be later. NOW we are pure G-dliness, infinite and eternal. Time is merely a construct to which our G-dly essence is not subject or bound. We can transcend time (and space) simply by closing our eyes and reminding ourselves that “Hashem echad/G-d is One.” If so, then He did not merely communicate with us three and a half millennia ago on Mount Sinai, but rather He speaks to us, as Moses states, “this day,” every day, and indeed every single moment.

This is the day that we have been waiting for. Now is the time for us to step out of our accustomed, habitual program and to finally see and be what we truly are.

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