Parshas Nitzavim: 5785

“For this mitzvah that I command you today… is very near to you in your mouth and in your heart….” (Devarim 30:11–14)

Mefarshim tell us that this pasuk refers to the mitzvah of teshuvah. Teshuvah is accomplished through “your mouth and your heart.” Yet it seems that the order is listed backward here. Shouldn’t teshuvah begin in the heart with feelings of remorse and only afterward should one confess his sins with his mouth? Why does the Torah place the mouth before the heart? (Rabbi Shlomo Caplan, Mishulchan Shlomo)

“C’mon, I’m also tired, but I’m still moving. There’s no excuse for you to be sitting here immobile.”

Lest you think that sounds like I’m chastising my teenager, I was actually rebuking my cranky washing machine. I talk to inanimate objects.

“You can do it!” I encourage my old car as it gathers the power to make it up a hill. I’ve also been known to have long one-sided conversations with other cars on the street even though my windows are closed and they can’t hear me.

But mostly I talk to myself. “It’s okay, Faigele,” I tell myself when I’m so tired I feel like I’m going to implode. “Soon you’ll go to sleep. Right now, just push a little bit further.”