Questions on Parshas Nitzovim to think about and discuss:

1. When does Parshas Nitzovim take place during Moshe’s lifetime?
2. How is this bris, covenant, different to all the previous ones? Why the need for an additional bris?
3. Which words in Parshas Nitzovim have dots over their letters in the Chumash and why?
4. Where is the month of Elul alluded to in Parshas Nitzovim?
5. Why is Parshas Nitzovim always read as the last week of the year preceding Rosh Hashana?
6. The possuk (30:12) says that Torah is not in Heaven. What is this telling us as surely this is obvious?
7. At the end of each parsha it says the number of pesukim and a word as a siman. What is it by Parshas Netzovim?
8. Rashi (29:10) brings that the job given to converts were to be wood choppers and water drawers. Why single them out for these particular jobs?
9. We say about the Torah לא בשמים היא, “it is not in heaven” – what does this mean?
10. The covenant of Parshas Nitzovim comes with curses called אלה. What is the difference between the different hebrew words for curses – ארור, אלה, קללה?
11. Are curses actually a bad thing?
12. What was the point of also bringing the children to hear Parshas Nitzovim?
13. How can the bris of Parshas Nitzovim be binding on the future generations who were not alive then?
14. Which letter is different in Parshas Nitzovim from the others and why?

Ideas for answers on the general parsha:

1. Rashi (29:9) brings that Parshas Nitzovim was said on the day of Moshe’s death – namely the 7th of Adar.
2. The Ohr Hachaim (29:11) brings that this additional bris of Nitzovim was in order to bring the idea of Arvus. Not only is everyone liable for their own actions but now they are also responsible for each others’ actions.
3. It is the words of “Lonu Ulvoveinu” (29:28). These words come to teach us that for sins committed openly all Jews are responsible and are required to punish the sinners appropriately. The dots on these words minimize this obligation to only starting after crossing the Yarden into Eretz Yisroel.
4. The Baal Haturim (30:6) points out that it is alluded to in the pesukim that discuss teshuva in the first letters of the words את לבבך ואת לבב.
5. Perhaps this is because we are required to hear the toichocha of Parshas Ki Sovoi before Rosh Hashana to end the curses with the year (Gemora Megilla 31b). Yet, we have another parsha of Nitzovim before Rosh Hashana? Rashi (29:12) brings Midrash Agada that the Jews were scared when they heard this rebuke and therefore Moshe with Parshas Nitzovim came to comfort them (before the end of the year).
6. We find this possuk quoted many times in the Gemora (e.g. Bava Metzia 59b) to express that even if there are proofs or halachos that are said in Heaven they can be overridden with the final determining words by the Rabbis in this world.
7. There are forty pesukim and the siman is levovoi. Perhaps this is to allude to this time of year where we have the forty days of Yimei Rotzoin when Moshe went up to the mountain to get the second Luchos. Levovoi meaning his heart alludes to the cause of sin is found in the heart and this needs to be rectified. (This is why we hit our hearts when we say that we have sinned.)
9. There are many Gemoras where this phrase is used to express how the Torah has been given to man. This means that the Chachomim have the power to rule the halocho even if it is refuted and said differently in Heaven. (e.g. see Gemora Bava Metzia 59b with the argument between R’ Eliezer and R’ Yehoshua.)
11. When the curses happen they look bad. However, they really are for our benefit. The mere threat itself can help prevent people sinning and even if people do sin that these curses come as an atonement. Ultimately they are for the good and for our benefit.
12. The Ramban brings that (like Hakhel) it was in order to give a reward to the parents for bringing their children. It is also so that they should be present by this bris that was for all future generations.
14. It is the letter Lamed in (29:27) from the word וישלכם. The Lamed has the gematria of thirty and alludes to that after thirty generations they will be “thrown out”, meaning they would go into Golus, exile. There were fifteen generations from Avrohom until King Shlomo and then another fifteen generations until King Tzidkiyohu. This word is also missing the letter Yud alluding to the exile of the ten tribes.