I’m Still Standing

I’m Still Standing |Parashat Nitzavim

23 Elul 5786/September 4, 2026

By Rabbi Maurice A. Salth

Tonight I want to talk about…today. And by today, I am not talking about today, Friday, September 4th. I am talking about the Hebrew word hayom, which translates into English as the word “today.” Why am I speaking about hayom, today, tonight?

Okay, enough Abbott and Costello.
“Third base”
Ok, really, I mean it, that’s it.

This week’s Torah portion, Nitzavim, begins with Moses saying these words to the Israelites:

אַתֶּם נִצָּבִים הַיּוֹם

Atem nitzavim hayom.

“You stand here today, all of you, before the Eternal your God.”

Your tribal heads, your elders, your officials—the entire body of Israel. Your children, your wives, even the stranger within your camp, from the woodchopper to the water drawer. Everyone is standing there. And Moses tells them that they are entering into a covenant with God today.

And then Moses says:

“I make this covenant, with its sanctions, not with you alone, but both with those who are standing here with us today before the Eternal our God and with those who are not with us here today.”

In these opening verses, Moses repeats the word hayom, “today,” five times. And he doesn't stop there. The word hayom continues to appear throughout the portion. When our Sages encounter a word that is repeated again and again, they tell us to stop and pay attention. So what is Moses trying to tell us with this repeated word: hayom? The great commentator Rashi gives us several possibilities. One is that Moses uses the word “today” because Moses knows that his death is imminent and he wants to leave the Israelites with words that will stay with them long after he is gone. I can imagine Moses taking some comfort in knowing that we are still speaking of them today.

Rashi gives us another explanation for why Moses uses the word hayom. This is connected to what happened in last week's Torah portion when Moses recited ninety-eight curses that would befall the Israelites if they failed to follow God's commandments.

And according to Rashi, this terrified the Israelites. They were pale-faced. They were horrified. They were thinking, “Who could possibly stand before these curses? How can we possibly go forward?” And Moses sees their fear.

And so Nitzavim begins with Moses saying:

Atem nitzavim hayom. You are standing here today.

Look at yourselves.

After everything you have heard, after everything that has happened, you are still standing. And Rashi imagines Moses adding something beautiful, that God may become angry and God's anger will not last forever.  Moses says: “think of the curses like nighttime. Night comes and then morning arrives. The night does not eliminate the day, it just interrupts it, and then the day returns.” And this calms the Israelites’ fears.

Perhaps hayom is repeated multiple times in this portion for all of us, especially those of us who like the Israelites may be wondering with all that has happened to us and all that I have done in this past year, how can I go forward? It reminds all of us that we are here. We have made it. We are still standing.

And if we are still standing, there are still choices we can make.

Later in Nitzavim, Moses says:
“See, I place before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.”
And then Moses tells us: Choose life.

Notice his key words: Hayom. Today. Choose life.

This is an important message as we approach Rosh Hashanah and the New Year ahead; Pertinent for those of us who feel like those Israelites at the beginning of Nitzavim.

We come to this season carrying the entirety of the past year. Things we are proud of. Things we regret. We carry relationships that have grown stronger, and relationships that have become more difficult. This and we know so much more.

And each year the week before Rosh Hashanah parashat Nitzavim comes along and says: Atem nitzavim hayom. You stand here today.

And because I am still standing, I can still choose. I can choose to look honestly at myself. I can choose to take better care of myself. I can choose to apologize for something I have done wrong. I can choose to reach out to someone I have been avoiding. I can choose to take better care of the people who are dearest to me. I can choose to repair something that has been broken. I can choose life; And I can start, hayom.

Shabbat Shalom.