Nitzavim: Heartbreak Some of our Jewish sources get right into it. Moses says to the people in Deuteronomy 10:16: “circumcise the foreskin of your hearts, stiffen your necks no longer.” (Deuteronomy 10:16). This always shocks me – how graphic it is. But that’s really how it feels – isn’t it? My friend Greg calls it scaffolding, Moshe calls it foreskin – but there is no denying something is in the way. Something is causing an obstruction between us and being open to life. What’s fascinating, however, is that although Moses in these lines is telling us to take the action of circumcising ourselves – later on we’re given a different idea regarding who is doing the circumcising. In Deuteronomy 30:6, Moshe says: 6 And the Lord, your God, will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, [so that you may] love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, for the sake of your life.
וּומָל י ְהֹוָה אֱֹלהֶיָך אֶת ְל ָבבְָך ְואֶת ְלבַב ז ְַרעֶָך לְַא ֲהבָה אֶת י ְהֹוָה אֱֹלהֶיָך ְּבכָל ְל ָבבְָך ּו ְבכָל :נַ ְפׁשְָך ְל ַמעַן ַחּי ֶיָך
In this verse, God, godself, -- the mysterious unfolding – will circumcise our hearts for us, will take down our scaffolding, will open us up to love. So why does Moshe say earlier we have to do it? Perhaps it’s a partnership. Perhaps we partner with the divine to allow our hearts to crack open. But what’s interesting about the language of “circumcising” if you really think about it, is that upon first hearing it, it sounds like it’s saying either we, or the Divine unfolding, will remove a layer of covering over the heart. Whoever is the Mohel or Mohelet in this case will take off a boundary between our hearts and the divine. Beautiful. BUT, a circumcision – the traditional kind- actually removes a piece of the body! Maybe an unnecessary piece, but it pierces the body and takes a piece. It creates a wound – again, perhaps a minor one – but it breaks us in order to bind us to the Divine. It causes us to open a part of ourselves to let holiness in.
1