“If you obey my commands…then I will send the rains in good time.” The Second Paragraph of the Shema implies a direct correlation between keeping God’s commandments and being rewarded with the world’s bounty and thriving. Conversely, betraying God brings about destruction and the failure of the physical world to produce food. On a rational level this does not make…
Sefer Devarim
Depopulation
There are different attitudes to be found in Devarim itself in regard towards the Canaanites. On the one hand in Chapter 7 it says that the Israelites must destroy the Seven Canaanite nations completely and not intermarry with them. Well, if you destroy them then of course you cannot intermarry. But then in Chapter8 Moshe says that God will not…
Shortcuts
“And you shall eat and be satisfied and thank the Lord.” This phrase in the Torah that we read this week is the basis of the law that we should thank God for our food. You might argue that it makes sense for thanking God after we have eaten but even then, the rabbis declared that although the Torah says…
Good and Right in the Eyes of Others
In the final speeches of Moses certain themes recur that a kind of undertone but crucial cores of being a good Jew and a good person. The two ought to go together. It is clear that he regards the Sinai Revelation as the will of God for His people. The constitution is at the core of Jewish life. But at…
Fire and Sinai/Horeb
Nine times in this speech of Moses, the Torah mentions fire in the context of what happened on Sinai or Horeb, the two names seem interchangeable. Why so much emphasis on fire? Combine this with the Pillar of Fire that symbolized the presence of God, it seems that fire was a metaphor for the experience the people were meant to…
Belief in God
The second time the Ten Commandments are mentioned, at the end of the forty years, there are some minor differences. Such as “Keep the Shabbat” instead of “Remember the Shabbat. “ Or “In order that He will be good to you” which is added in the second version of the command to honor one’s parents. “And do not commit adultery,”…