8-Nitsavim -- Cycles of karma

See the corresponding song-sheet (if your browser can view PDFs)

Dueteronomy Chapter 29

יג וְלֹא אִתְּכֶם, לְבַדְּכֶם--אָנֹכִי, כֹּרֵת אֶת-הַבְּרִית הַזֹּאת, וְאֶת-הָאָלָה, הַזֹּאת
13 Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath;

יד כִּי אֶת-אֲשֶׁר יֶשְׁנוֹ פֹּה, עִמָּנוּ עֹמֵד הַיּוֹם, לִפְנֵי, יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ; וְאֵת אֲשֶׁר אֵינֶנּוּ פֹּה, עִמָּנוּ הַיּוֹם
14 but with him that standeth here with us this day before the LORD our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day

Chapter 30
א וְהָיָה כִי-יָבֹאוּ עָלֶיךָ כָּל-הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה, הַבְּרָכָה וְהַקְּלָלָה, אֲשֶׁר נָתַתִּי, לְפָנֶיךָ; וַהֲשֵׁבֹתָ, אֶל-לְבָבֶךָ, בְּכָל-הַגּוֹיִם, אֲשֶׁר הִדִּיחֲךָ יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ שָׁמָּה
1 And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt bethink thyself among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee

We see in verses 29:13-14 that this covenant, which invokes both the blessings and the curses presented by Moshe, applies throughout time, not just to the particular population that was about to enter the Promised Land.

Then in verse 30:1, when describing some of these curses that will occur if they sin, Moshe concludes that eventually the people will mend their ways and 'return to G!d'.

It seems a bit unclear to me whether the 'if' of 'if you sin' really carries the force of 'when'. Later, in Chapter 31, both G!d and Moshe seem to clearly say 'when'. In retrospect, of course, history does include sin and subsequent exile.

We can combine the notion of (a) virtue giving way to sin -- i.e., breaking the covenant -- and then back to virtue, with the notion of (b) this covenant, i.e., this potential for virtue/sin, for blessing/curse, applies throughout time, down through the generations. The result suggests a cyclical view of virtue and sin, of good and bad karma. Our straying and returning happens over and over again.

We can hope for and work toward the goal that these cycles behave more like upward spirals. Here might be a reconciliation of free-will, as in verse 30:19's "so choose Life", with a sense of the inevitability of sin. We keep failing, and then improving. Our 'choosing Life' amounts to working to prolong the periods of karmic success, striving to make these periods longer and longer, and eventually (perhaps it has happened already) to end the cyclic regression to sin and the consequent curses, holding on instead to blessing -- for us and the whole world.

In the accompanying song, the arpeggio's in the first part hint at the karmic cycles. The second part expresses longing for more prevalence of the positive parts of these cycles.