Weekly Parsha

Pray for Refuah Sheimah: Yossefa bat Sharon and Rafael ben Gladis.

Continue Praying: Mariana bat Zulay, Heidi bat Sarah and Yosefa bat Sharon.

Mazal Tov to Rabbi Tank's daughter: Shaina Elisa Tank  for her birthday.

Ekev

Deuteronomy 7:12 -11:25

Eikev or Ekev עֵקֶב‎ — Hebrew for "if [you follow]," the second word, and the first distinctive word in the parashah is the 46th weekly Torah portion ( פָּרָשָׁה‎, parashah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the third in the Book of Deuteronomy.

Moshe continues his discourse guaranteeing the Jewish people prosperity and good health if they follow the mitzvot, the commandments. He reminds us to look at our history and to know that we can and should trust in G-d. However, we should be careful so that we are not distracted by our material success, lest we forget and ignore God.

Moshe warns us against idolatry (the definition of idolatry is the belief that anything other than G-d has power) and against self-righteousness -- "Do not say because of my virtue that G-d brought me to possess this land ... but because of the wickedness of these nations that G-d is driving them out before you." (Deut. 9:5). He then details our rebellions against G-d during the 40 years in the desert and the giving of the Second Tablets (Moshe broke the first Tablets containing the Ten Commandments during the sin of the Golden Calf.)

This week's portion dispels a common misconception. People think that "Man does not live by bread alone" means that a person needs additional foods beyond bread to survive. The quotation in its entirety is, "Man does not live by bread alone ... but by all that comes out of God's mouth" (Deut. 8:3).

The Torah then answers a question which every human being has asked of himself: What does G-d want of you? "Only that you remain in awe of G-d your Lord, so that you will follow all His paths and love Him, serving G-d your Lord with all your heart and with all your soul. You must keep G-d's commandments and decrees ... so that all good will be yours" (Deut. 10:12).

* * *

"For if you shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you to do them, to love the Lord, your G-d, to walk in all His ways and to cleave to Him..." (Deuteronomy 11:22).

How does one "cleave to the Almighty?"

The Torah tells us that even someone who observes all of the commandments and has attained the attribute of loving G-d, must emulate G-d ("to walk in all His ways") in order to cleave to Him. Emulating G-d means being compassionate and bestowing kindness on others. He is merciful so we should be merciful, He bestows kindness, so we should bestow kindness.

One might think that a person who loves G-d need only devote himself to prayer and Torah study and by this means he will cleave to G-d. We see from this verse, however, that an essential ingredient in cleaving to G-d is caring about our fellow human being.

And if we care about our fellow human being, we wouldn't gratuitously speak negatively about him, would we?

People won't care what you say unless they know that you care!

Shabbat Shalom!

Rav Tank

Online Learning

Rabbi Tank is a professor at the American Jewish College of New York where he teaches classes on Talmud, Chassidism, Jewish History, Contemporary Jewish Law and Jewish Music. Rabbi Tank is dedicated to finding modern usefulness and meaning in ancient wisdom texts, providing spiritual, cultural, social and educational programming for communities around the world.

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The wise man seizes the opportunity to do mitzvot" (King Solomon). The lazy person says -- someday I'll do it.