This week's section begins: "You are all standing today before God your Lord... to bring you into the covenant of God your Lord." Rashi (the father of the Torah commentators) explains it this way: "This teaches us that Moses gathered everyone before God before his passing to bring them into a covenant." On a superficial analysis, it is not clear what Rashi is adding and renewing on top of what is already clearly stated in the verse: Doesn't the Torah itself say, "You are all standing... ...to bring you into the covenant"?
Rashi wants to emphasize that "Moses gathered"—that is, a special gathering was held for the purpose of entering into a covenant with God. We might have thought that the parashah Nitzavim was recited in the same way that Moses recited the rest of the Torah, as it is written in the preceding parashah: "Moses summoned all Israel." Therefore, Rashi emphasizes that, in this case, a specific gathering was held to make the covenant.
This same principle can be observed from the words of the verse. If the words of this parashah were spoken in the same manner as the previous one, it is not appropriate to say "You are all standing firm," because they were already standing firm beforehand. Likewise, the continuation—"before God, your Lord"—is incorrect, since they were standing before Moses. From this, it is clear that "You are all standing firm" refers to a special assembly, in which Moses gathered all the people before God "to make them pass through the covenant.".
On the other hand, in light of this explanation, the word ""Nitzavím"", whose meaning is standing firm. When one makes a covenant with God, the person must be at an absolute level of subjugation and annulment, and not in a standing and firm state.
Therefore Rashi offers an additional explanation: "And the Midrash says, why were the sections put together?" Nitzavím And the curses? Because the people of Israel heard a hundred curses, etc. Moses began to comfort them: "You are all standing firm today… and you are alive before Him." According to this explanation, "You are all standing firm” expresses words of strengthening and encouragement so that the Jewish people would not be confused by the harsh words of warning and would know that God will eternally care for His people.
The section Nitzavím It is always read before Rosh Hashanah, and this is indicated by the word "today," which refers to Rosh Hashanah. Just as Moses gathered the entire Jewish people to bring them into a covenant with God, in the same way, each Rosh Hashanah creates a "covenant" of profound connection between the very essence of the Jewish people and God.
This connection is expressed through the Torah and the Mitzvot, as the Torah serves as a tool that unites the people of Israel with God. Thus, when a Jew unites with God through the Torah, a connection is generated that transcends that achieved by the Torah itself. This is the essential "covenant" between God and Israel, a covenant that also brings a flow of good things from God, both in material form in the world and in positive, revealed form.
Extracted from Shulchan Shabbat.