Nitzavim

"You are standing today, all of you, before the LORD your God" — heads and tribes, elders and officers, every man of Israel, the children, the women, the stranger in the camp, from woodchopper to water-drawer — to enter the covenant and its oath. And not with this generation alone: "not with you only do I make this covenant... but with him who stands here with us today, and with him who is not here with us today."

The warning is against the quiet root: the one who hears the oath and blesses himself in his heart, "I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart." A later generation, and the foreigner from afar, will see the land like the overthrow of Sodom, and the nations will ask, "Why has the LORD done thus to this land?" — and the answer given: because they forsook the covenant. "The hidden things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, to do all the words of this Torah."

Then the turn, the promise of return: when the blessing and the curse have come, and you take it to heart among the nations, and return to the LORD with all your heart — He will return your captivity and gather you from all the peoples, "even if your outcasts are at the ends of the heavens." The LORD will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, to love Him with all your heart and soul, and you will live. "For this commandment... is not too wonderful for you, nor is it far off. It is not in heaven... nor beyond the sea... the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it." The portion closes with the choice set plainly: "I have set before you today life and good, death and evil... I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day: I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your offspring — to love the LORD your God, to listen to His voice, and to cleave to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days."