Nitzavim-Vayelech: How Could We Think Hashem Isn’t With Us?

“Hashem said to Moses: Behold, you are about to lie with your ancestors, and this people will rise up and stray after the foreign gods of the land into which they are going, among them. They will forsake Me and violate My covenant that I made with them. My anger will blaze against them on that day; I will forsake them and hide My face from them, and they will become prey. Many evils and troubles will find them, and on that day they will say: ‘Is it not because Hashem is not within me that these evils have found me?’ But I will surely hide My face on that day because of all the evil they have done, for they turned to other gods” (Deuteronomy 31:16–18).

At first glance, this is difficult to understand. The Children of Israel recognize that “these evils have found me because Hashem is not within me.” It sounds as though they have understood their mistake and repented. Why, then, does Hashem respond, “I will surely hide My face”?

Hashem Is Hidden, But He Has Not Left

The Sforno explains that the Children of Israel’s statement, “these evils have found me because Hashem is not within me,” is not an expression of repentance at all. Rather, it is a mistaken conclusion.

They believe that their troubles have come because Hashem has abandoned them and they are now subject to natural forces like every other nation: “Because He removed His Presence from among us, these things happened to us; and thinking this, they will not turn to pray or to repent.”

The belief that Hashem has, so to speak, left them could lead them to despair and prevent them from repenting. But Hashem tells them that they are mistaken: “But I will surely hide My face from them, not as they thought when they said that I am not among them. For in truth, wherever they may be, My Presence will be found there, as the sages of blessed memory said (Megillah 29a): Wherever Israel was exiled, the Shechinah was with them. Rather, I will hide My face from saving them.”

Hashem is always with them. He is simply hidden.

Hashem announces that there will be a period in which He hides His face, meant primarily to awaken the people to repentance. But their response will be mistaken. Instead of recognizing the concealment and searching for Hashem, they will conclude that He has departed entirely, that “Hashem is not within me” and there is no longer Divine providence.

In response, the Creator will hide His face even further.

The Sefat Emet (Vayelech, 1879) brings this same idea in the name of Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Peshischa and expands upon it: How can a Jew imagine that there is even one moment in life when Hashem is not within them?

We must not entertain the thought that our troubles come because “Hashem is not within me.” To think this is itself a serious mistake, leading to the response: “I will surely hide My face on that day,” a concealment within a concealment.

Sometimes Hashem hides His face so that we will search for Him. But there are times when He hides the concealment itself, so that people do not even realize that He is hidden. And when they do not realize He is hidden, they do not search for Him.

A Jew must never think that “Hashem is not within me.”

“I Am With Him in Distress”

In this week’s Torah portion, we find the verse: “Then Hashem, your God, will return your captivity and have compassion on you; He will return and gather you from all the nations where Hashem, your God, scattered you” (Deuteronomy 30:3).

Rashi cites the question of the sages: Seemingly, the verse should have said, “Hashem, your God, will bring back your captivity.” Why does it say, “He will return,” as though Hashem Himself is returning?

“Our rabbis learned from here that the Shechinah, so to speak, dwells with Israel in the suffering of their exile; and when they are redeemed, He describes redemption for Himself, for He will return with them.”

“Then Hashem, your God, will return.” When the people of Israel return, Hashem, so to speak, returns as well. As long as they remain in exile, Hashem too is with them in exile, as the verse says: “I am with him in distress” (Psalms 91:15).

The first time Hashem revealed Himself to Moses was at the burning bush. Why specifically a bush? Rashi explains that it was to show Moses, “I am with him in distress.” The Creator Himself, so to speak, shares in the suffering of the Children of Israel.

The Talmud in tractate Gittin (7a) says that when someone undermines another person’s livelihood and that person remains restrained and silent, “the One who dwells in the bush will judge him.”

“The One who dwells in the bush” refers to Hashem, who appeared to Moses in the burning bush. Hashem will settle accounts with the person causing the harm. But why does the Talmud specifically call Hashem “the One who dwells in the bush” in this context?

The Chatam Sofer, commenting on this passage, explains that this is precisely the point. Whenever someone is suffering and remains restrained, the Creator, so to speak, bends down toward that person and dwells with them, embodying the idea of “the One who dwells in the bush.”

A Jew must believe that in every situation, “I am with him in distress.”

Hashem Is Close, Even When We Feel Far Away

During these days of Selichot, we need to remember that Hashem is close even to the greatest sinner. There is no reality in which a person can truly say, “Hashem is not within me.”

On Rosh Hashanah, we pray: “On that day, a great shofar will be sounded, and those lost in the land of Assyria and those cast away in the land of Egypt will come and bow to Hashem on the holy mountain in Jerusalem” (Isaiah 27:13).

The Pri Tzaddik (Rosh Hashanah, chapter 15) writes that “those lost in the land of Assyria” refers to those who have gone astray in their beliefs and thoughts regarding idolatry, while “those cast away in the land of Egypt” refers to those who have gone astray in matters of forbidden relationships and other physical pursuits.

All of them can return.

Why? Because “I am with him in distress.”

Even when a person has wandered far from Hashem, Hashem has not wandered away from them. Even when His presence is hidden, He is still there. Even in exile, suffering, or spiritual distance, the Shechinah remains with the Jewish people.

Hashem is with them, waiting for them to choose goodness once again.