Do you ever stand together with your class in school?  Or maybe at assemblies? How do you feel at those times? When I am standing together with a group doing something or saying something together I feel very connected to everyone in the group. I feel like they are all my friends. Maybe I feel connected because there are no desks and chairs separating us. Connected because I can move around and be near someone I am not normally near. In this weeks parsha, Moshe had all the Jewish people stand together. We can only imagine how they must of felt in that huge group standing together.

And what were they doing? They were all promising to Moshe that they would keep the Torah.  Moshe wanted everyone to stand together and shout out all at once that they promised to always keep the Torah.  He wanted them to stand so that they would feel like one nation and one person. They should feel connected to each other.  And that is also why he brought together not just the adults but also the children. All Jewish people no matter their age are part of the Jewish nation.  Moshe wanted the whole nation with one heart like one person to promise to keep God’s Torah because he knew that he was going to die soon and would not be there anymore to remind the people to keep the Torah. Only their promise would be left to remind them.

Has someone ever promised you something or told you that if you do something he will do something for you – and then he did not do what he said he would?  A person can feel pretty angry and frustrated when that happens. Your brother promised to play Legos with you if you would play checkers with him first.  And then after the game, he decided not to play Legos with you.  You were excited to play Legos with your brother and now you feel cheated.  It is not fair. Promises must be kept.  So you get angry and tell him you are never going to play with him again.  And you are still sad. So it did not really help. But since we know how bad we feel when people break promises to us, we should always keep our promises to others.

I bless you and me that we should always keep our promises – our promises to each other, our promises to God –  our promises to ourselves.

Shabbat Shalom

-Nachum