Not In Heaven — Nitzavim

Sunset over a valley with a meandering riverWe read:

back to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your being.  For this command which I charge you today is not too wondrous for you, nor is it distant.  It is not in the heavens, to say, “Who will go up for us to the heavens and take it for us and let us hear it, that we may do it?” And it is not beyond the see, to say “Who will cross over for us beyond the sea and take it for us and let us hear it, that we may do it?” But the word is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.

You don’t have to journey far, or take on exotic practices to find God. What you need is as close as your mouth and heart.

Rabbi Sacks powerfully repeats this teaching and confesses that as a rabbi he has not done enough to help people connect with God.

Read Rabbi Sacks’s commentary