Individual Covenant

            Our parasha presents the Covenant of the Plains of Moav which renewed the covenant, prior to the Children of Israel crossing the River Jordan to enter the Holy Land.

            Our Sages [Midrash Tanḥuma, Nitzavim 3] question the necessity of this covenant, in light of the Covenant of Sinai, made less than forty years earlier.

            Alshikh explains that the Covenant of Sinai was made with the klal (the totality of Israel). He notes that the Torah consistently uses the plural in describing the Covenant of Sinai. [Exodus 19:5; 24:8] Hence, Moses addresses the Children of Israel in the plural: "you (plural) stand ... before your (plural) God..." [Deuteronomy 29:9]

            Verse 11 switches to the singular, in order to invoke the covenant upon each individual, which Alshikh suggests is the innovation at the Plains of Moav.

       Alshikh’s approach indicates the appropriate order: one should see him/herself first as part of the klal and then as an individual. Perhaps, more accurately, the lesson is that one can fully develop his/her individuality only as part of the klal.

            The unbounded value of the individual is expressed in verse 12, which is addressed entirely in the singular:

That  He may  raise you up  today for a people to Himself, and that He may be unto you a God …