One verse, five voices. Edited by Nina Litvak and Salvador Litvak, the Accidental Talmudist
The hidden things belong to the Lord, our God, but the revealed things apply to us and to our children forever: that we must fulfill all the words of this Torah.
– Deuteronomy 29:28
Gilla Nissan
Author, Teacher, SeekAleph.com
Secrets want to be revealed. Not every secret, and not at any time. There will always be a hiddenness that belongs to the mystery of Hashem alone. But some things are hidden because their time has not yet come. They wait for the right person, the right generation, the right articulation, the right opening. And when their time arrives, what belongs to the hidden crosses the threshold into the known. Esoteric knowledge attracts whoever is ready — not many, but enough to make a difference.
Perhaps that is why the paragraph chosen for this parsha does not end with knowledge, but with action: “to do all the words of this Torah.” The purpose of revelation is not simply that we should know more. It is that what becomes known should change the way we live and be grounded in the “world of deeds.” Why? Because we are here to sanctify the physical world. Not because all of creation is not already holy, but because an ongoing creation needs us as vessels and messengers, continually carrying the sacred flow of life into our physical world.
And this is very close to the biblical idea of revelation. Revelation is not merely receiving information. It is something concealed becoming accessible because the human being, the generation, or the historical moment has become capable of receiving it. As the new year approaches, we pray: “A new light You will spread on Zion.” May something truly new be revealed and bring us ever closer to Torat Emet. Amen.
Lou Shapiro
Criminal Defense Attorney/Legal Analyst
Rashi explains that we are not responsible for the secret sins of others. We cannot be held accountable for something we could not possibly know. But when wrongdoing is known, we have a responsibility to address it. This reflects the principle that Jews are responsible for one another. Simply put, we are not responsible for what is hidden from us; we are responsible for what we know and have the ability to address.
I heard from Eli Stefansky of Merkaz Daf Yomi another beautiful way to understand this pasuk. Our mitzvot have to be sincere and cannot just be for show. What is happening inside of us, our relationship with Hashem, and the sincerity behind what we do are enormously important. But there also has to be a revealed part, especially for our children. Our children need to see us doing mitzvot.
They need to see us davening, learning Torah, making Shabbat important, giving tzedakah, and making time for mitzvot even when life is busy. Our relationship with Hashem may be deeply personal, but when it comes to transmitting Torah to the next generation, sincerity alone isn’t enough. Hashem knows what is in our hearts, but our children learn from what they see.
Rabbi Brett Kopin
Executive Director, The Six11 Project
While the classical commentators read this verse in its specific context, referring to the idolatry mentioned in the preceding verses, the dynamic of concealed versus revealed Torah plays a deeply prominent role in the unfolding journey of Torah study itself. As we approach the end of the Torah and turn back to the opening of Bereshit, we begin to anticipate the joy that comes with starting again from those first verses. We understand, as a people who have read the Torah cyclically for millennia, that beginning again means uncovering secrets and subtle details we did not notice in previous cycles. Perhaps even the smallest detail will reframe something entirely, casting the Torah, and the wisdom of the tradition, in new light. When this happens, the Torah is revealed again, as if we were standing once more at Sinai. Jewish continuity depends on this unfolding revelation, the understanding that the journey continues, and that our generation has a role to play in the ongoing story of our people. The hidden things are the eternally flowing wellspring that waters the community, generation after generation. But the verse does not leave us only with mystery; it insists that the revealed things are “for us and our children forever” to act on. Each new layer deepens our love for Torah and mitzvot, strengthens our connection to God, and renews our joy as a people, year after year, precisely because what is revealed always calls us back to the words we are commanded to fulfill.
Rabbi Ari Averbach
Temple Etz Chaim, “Moral Courage” Podcast
As someone who grew up watching classic films, I read almost everything as if it were a scene from a movie. I imagine how different directors would approach this scene. For this week’s quote, we have a moment that feels like noir – a character about to do something naughty looks out through slatted blinds to make sure no one saw them enter the building, then turns the blinds to complete their evil task in mere shadow. We know, as voyeurs, watching the scene, that this character is nefarious. But we also know that no other character will be able to pin the crime on them.
The Torah tells us – reminds us – how inappropriate it is to do something evil, thinking it doesn’t affect the world around us. Every one of these selfish acts, even if no one else sees, might just change the world.
And what if someone sees? What if it is done overtly? Then it is the community’s responsibility to say something, to stand up for what is right. Which is easy on paper, when the characters are vague and faceless, but difficult in real life, when the perpetrators are loved ones, politicians, celebrities we admire. Can we see the evil they do and call it out?
What’s on the line is the world we want to create. The world we want to live in. The world as our Creator envisioned it. All God needs is our help in making it come to fruition.
Yehudit Garmaise
Associate Marriage and Family Therapist
What is hidden to all but Hashem in this passage? Sins done in private and Jews who are so assimilated that they are hidden to all but Hashem, who promises to include every Jew, no matter how hidden, in our nation when Moshiach comes, says Rashi. What is absolutely the most hidden to all but Hakadosh Baruch Hu, however, is His essential nature.
In Otzrot Chaim or “Treasures of Life,” Rabbi Chaim Vitale describes the existence before Creation. “At the origin of everything, all of existence was just a singular simple light that is referred to as Ein Sof: without limit. And there was no vacant space whatsoever. Nor was there any empty air. Rather everything was just the infinite light.”
Torah and Chassidus reawaken in us an idea of Hashem that is as familiar and intuitive as “an ancient echo that feels more familiar than anything can possibly be,” in Rabbi Joey Rosenfeld’s translation. As finite beings with finite minds, however, we can only begin to grasp Hashem when we finally accept His essential ungraspability.
The paradox of Jewish existence is that while we can easily seek and reach Hashem who is everywhere and everything, at the same time the infinite essence of Hakadosh Baruch Hu remains unnamable, ungraspable, and unthinkable. While we can discuss G-d’s qualities, such as infinitude, light or presence, Hashem’s Absolute Essence is simply unknowable. Perhaps we can better “coronate Hashem as our King” when we accept that Hashem is something infinitely far beyond human comprehension.
