Ever since I watched Rabbi Dov Huff teach a new song to our eighth graders at our weekly kumsitz several years ago, there is a phrase in Parshat Netzavim, and on our lips this time of year, that I have loved:

כִּי קָרוֹב אֵלֶיךָ הַדָּבָר מְאֹד, בְּפִיךָ וּבִלְבָבְךָ לַעֲשֹׂתוֹ

For the matter is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.

Moshe is telling the Jewish people that Torah, meaning, growth, and a relationship with G-d are not impossibly distant. לא בשמים היא, they are not somewhere up in heaven. ולא מעבר לים היא, they are not waiting for us on the other side of the sea. They are, in fact, already close.

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z”l pointed out that we often have exactly the opposite instinct. We imagine that real spirituality must be found somewhere else, someplace more exotic, more dramatic, or more extraordinary than in our own lives. But as Rabbi Sacks wrote, “the beauty of Jewish spirituality is precisely that in Judaism, G-d is close.” G-d is found in prayer, in Torah study, around a Shabbat table and in a bowl of matza ball soup, in the relationships and rituals that are already part of our........

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