[Avodah] What Makes Us a Nation

[Prof. Levine]

RSRH writes the following in his commentary on Devarim 27: 9.

9 Thereupon Moshe and the priests, the Levi’im, 
spoke to all of Israel [saying]: Pay attention 
and hear, O Israel: On this day you have become a people to God, your God!

Today you have become a people! Your common
responsibility to the Torah, which now devolves on all of you, without
exception; your common guardianship of the Torah, to which you all
have been assigned — these are the things that make you a nation. Today:
Not the impending possession of the Land, but the common possession
of the Torah — that is what makes you a nation. You may vanish from
the Land, just as now you are about to take possession of it, but the Torah
and your eternal commitment to it will remain the everlasting, inalienable
bond that will keep you united as a nation.

This fact sets Israel apart from all other nations, and in this fact lies
the secret of the immortality of the Jewish people. This basic fact, with
all its implications for Israel’s future, is what gives momentous import
to the sentence “HaYom hazeh niyaasah l'am la Shem Elokecha .”

Too bad that those who are not observant and are 
searching for ways to strengthen the connection 
to Judaism of Jewish youth do not seem to be 
cognizant of what Rabbiner Hirsch wrote regarding 
Torah observance being the core of the Jewish nation.  YL
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