Questions for thought:
What would you say to those you love, not in the last moment, but in the moment of the last lesson / the last piece of advice you would be able to give them?
Would your words be idealized or realistic?
(12) And if you do obey these rules and observe them carefully, your God יהוה will maintain faithfully for you the covenant made on oath with your fathers: (13) [God] will favor you and bless you and multiply you—blessing your issue from the womb and your produce from the soil, your new grain and wine and oil, the calving of your herd and the lambing of your flock, in the land sworn to your ancestors to be assigned to you. (14) You shall be blessed above all other peoples: there shall be no sterile male or female among you or among your livestock.
Questions for thought:
Why make a statement with a reward that will so quickly and obviously be proved false / shame the people?
What is the power of idealized vs. realistic language?
A person's life is lived on two planes. One lives privately within the circle of their family, and one lives as a member of society, and must interact with such society in greater or lesser measure. The good one does must be divided then between the good one does within the family circle, and the good one does by contributing to the well being of the community they live in. One will receive rewards for both their good deeds within the family circle and for the good deeds performed as part of society. To the extent that the good performed as part of society benefits everyone in that society equally, the reward can be collective. Since every member of that society benefitted equally by the input of good, so the reward is the kind that lets everyone benefit equally. Output is commensurate with input. The promise of the Jewish people living together in security, enjoying economic prosperity etc., is a reward for such good deeds performed by dint of being part of a certain society. It is a reward for the physical part of humanity, but it is allocated on a collective basis. Reward for the spiritual part of the input of everyone involved, is based on the degree of dedication that each person's contribution represents. It is in the nature of things that every individual brings a different degree of kavanah, intent, dedication to the performance of their mitzvoth. That is why our sages say that in the world to come everyone will occupy a level of their own. Since there are many commandments which can be fulfilled only collectively, the building of the temple for instance, the reward for such mitzvot, spiritual though it may be, will be collective.
Questions for thought:
What is the difference between our personal and communal actions?
What is the difference between our personal and communal rewards?
How are they connected?
Tangentially, the Gemara cites an additional statement by Rabbi Ḥanina concerning principles of faith. And Rabbi Ḥanina said: Everything is in the hands of Heaven, except for fear of Heaven. A person has free will to serve God or not, as it is stated: “And now Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you other than to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all of God's ways, to love the Divine and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deuteronomy 10:12). The Lord asks people to perform these matters because ultimately, the choice is in their hands.
Everything is in the Divine's control - Everything that is given to a person is under Divine control, whether one is tall or short, poor or rich, wise or a fool, white or black, everything is in the hands of the Divine. But, whether one is righteous or wicked is not in the hands of the Divine, rather this was given over to the hands of each person, with two paths placed before us, and a person choose for themselves to have awe of the Divine.
(5) Thorns and snares are in the path of the crooked;
One who values their life will keep far from them.
Questions for thought:
Do you connect more with the positive, “God gave us the ability to do good” or the negative, “God put thorns and snares for us to avoid” concept of free will as described in these texts?
Why?
By Naftali. Posted on August 7, 2020
In Parshas Eikev Moshe is continuing his goodbye speech to Klal Yisrael. He cautions us to guard all of the mitzvos, even the ones that seem minor and one could figuratively trample with their Eikev – a heel. He then continues his review of the events of the Jewish nation’s 40 years in the desert. Exposing and showing the lessons we are to learn from each and every incident. One pasuk highlights something unprecedented Moshe did and until now Moshe himself never said anything about it. “[Moshe said to the Jews ‘When I saw that you made a golden calf,] I grasped the two luchos and hurled them from my two hands, shattering them before our eyes” (9:17)
What is higher, The Torah or the Jewish people?
When Moshe looked down and saw Klal Yisrael worshipping a golden cow, just a month after the revelation at Har Sinai, he had two choices. He looked down, saw the Jews – his people whom he loved. He looked up and saw Hashem, saw the luchos – the Torah he was holding in his arms like a father holding his newborn son.
Here, he had to pick one or the other for if he were to pick the Torah he would lose his people, they would surely be destroyed because of their sin. Yet if he chose his people he would have to figuratively drop the Torah. Without hesitation not only did he figuratively drop the Torah, he literally “grasped the two luchos and hurled them”. Moshe saved his people. His action shows that there has to be something about a Jew, something that is present within a Jew even when he is committing the worst of sins. This something makes the Jew more valuable than the ultimate of God’s wisdom, the Holy Torah itself. It would seem that the soul of a single Jew is greater than the Torah that allows it to shine. Yet how do we know this to be true? How do we even know the value of a human life? Only because the Torah tells us this story. Without the Torah we would never know the value and greatness of a Jewish soul and people. So we now have a bit of a weird contradiction: the soul would never know its greatness without the Torah and the Torah could not even be contemplated in real depth until it was shattered for the sake of the people. Therefore the ultimate Torah, as God truly wanted it to be received, could only enter once Moshe had sacrificed the Torah for his people. That is the key, Moshe sacrificed it for us to live. This is why the pasuk says “[Moshe] grasped the Luchos…” he was already holding onto it, so what need was there to grasp the Torah in order to break it. Rather, Moshe “grasped” the luchos as a gesture of ownership; he wanted to acquire them as his own personal property in order to take the full blame for breaking them. We see here Moshe’s selfless devotion to the Jewish people. Not only did he break the luchos in order to destroy the “evidence” of the Jewish peoples covenant with God that they had just broken by worshipping the eigel. Not only was he willing to give his own life to save the Jewish nation – he even took all the blame for breaking the luchos, as if Klal Yisrael had done nothing wrong!
Moshe’s example is a lesson to all of us. For each one of us is a leader. We are all responsible for each other, whether it be in the circles of our family, our friends, our coworkers, of the Jewish people, or all of humanity. We should be ready and willing to give up whatever necessary; our resources, our reputation, our being, in order to ensure the survival of the Jewish people. This sacrifice is what allowed the Torah to be established. Effectively bonding the ever powerful and intrinsically holy Jewish soul to the vast Torah. Thus transforming the world and our souls into God’s true home.