“And if you do pobey these rules and observe them faithfully, the Lord will maintain for you the gracious covenant that He made on oath with your fathers.”
Deuteronomy 7:12
We have seen the word, “Eikev” or, “heel” for which this parashah is named before in the Torah. Its Hebrew letters form the root of the name of our patriarch Jacob, who was born clutching the heel of his brother Esau. It means, “on the heel of”, “as the result of,” or more simply “if”.
The Book of Deuteronomy is supposed to be Moses’ last speech to the Israelites, exhorting them to go forth with courage, conquer the Promised Land, and behave well when they settle there. That’s a tall order and Moses, or whoever wrote the Book, knows it, so he, or they, feel that it is imperative to promise a reward in return.
Those of us who are parents know how risky it is to promise your child that if he eats all his dinner, we will go to the beach tomorrow. What happens if it rains? What happens if the child wakes up with a fever? On the other hand, what if the child doesn’t eat his dinner but the whole family wants to go to the beach the next day? He knows, and you do too, that you are not leaving him home or punishing the other children by staying home, so you don’t promise.
At the beginning, the results that Moses promises look good: God will bless the fruit of the land and “the fruit of the womb,” in other words, “You will have many children and they will have plenty to eat.” Furthermore, people will not be infected with the diseases that they experienced in Egypt as slaves.
But there’s a catch. The people have to slaughter all the inhabitants of the land because the people are idol-worshippers, and Moses fears that the Israelites will be tempted to adopt their idolatrous ways. Moses assures them that God will be with them and lead them to victory. These people, only forty years out of slavery, are charged with annihilating other people.
The promise that started this parashah turns out to have big strings attached. The people are going to a land flowing with milk and honey – but possibly also with blood. In order to create a new society, they are charged with destroying an old one. And Moses assures them that God will support this venture.
The Book of Deuteronomy poses a lot of questions, not the least of which is who really wrote it. I have never believed that Moses wrote all of it, including the description of his own death. It seems to me that it was written by men struggling with some harsh realities — the land was never entirely in the possession of the Israelites. Bad things happened — bad rulers, occupation, exile — so Israel must have been punished for something they did. We know this is not necessarily true — bad things do happen to good people, and vice versa.
As modern people, we know that we should behave in an ethical manner without thought of a reward. But the writers of this Book are still trying to make sense of a world that does not always make sense. It’s a fascinating peek at our history, but it does not give us words to live by. Let us read it, think about it, and move on.
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Commentary on Parashat Eikev
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By Bettijane Eisenpreis
“And if you do pobey these rules and observe them faithfully, the Lord will maintain for you the gracious covenant that He made on oath with your fathers.”
Deuteronomy 7:12
We have seen the word, “Eikev” or, “heel” for which this parashah is named before in the Torah. Its Hebrew letters form the root of the name of our patriarch Jacob, who was born clutching the heel of his brother Esau. It means, “on the heel of”, “as the result of,” or more simply “if”.
The Book of Deuteronomy is supposed to be Moses’ last speech to the Israelites, exhorting them to go forth with courage, conquer the Promised Land, and behave well when they settle there. That’s a tall order and Moses, or whoever wrote the Book, knows it, so he, or they, feel that it is imperative to promise a reward in return.
Those of us who are parents know how risky it is to promise your child that if he eats all his dinner, we will go to the beach tomorrow. What happens if it rains? What happens if the child wakes up with a fever? On the other hand, what if the child doesn’t eat his dinner but the whole family wants to go to the beach the next day? He knows, and you do too, that you are not leaving him home or punishing the other children by staying home, so you don’t promise.
At the beginning, the results that Moses promises look good: God will bless the fruit of the land and “the fruit of the womb,” in other words, “You will have many children and they will have plenty to eat.” Furthermore, people will not be infected with the diseases that they experienced in Egypt as slaves.
But there’s a catch. The people have to slaughter all the inhabitants of the land because the people are idol-worshippers, and Moses fears that the Israelites will be tempted to adopt their idolatrous ways. Moses assures them that God will be with them and lead them to victory. These people, only forty years out of slavery, are charged with annihilating other people.
The promise that started this parashah turns out to have big strings attached. The people are going to a land flowing with milk and honey – but possibly also with blood. In order to create a new society, they are charged with destroying an old one. And Moses assures them that God will support this venture.
The Book of Deuteronomy poses a lot of questions, not the least of which is who really wrote it. I have never believed that Moses wrote all of it, including the description of his own death. It seems to me that it was written by men struggling with some harsh realities — the land was never entirely in the possession of the Israelites. Bad things happened — bad rulers, occupation, exile — so Israel must have been punished for something they did. We know this is not necessarily true — bad things do happen to good people, and vice versa.
As modern people, we know that we should behave in an ethical manner without thought of a reward. But the writers of this Book are still trying to make sense of a world that does not always make sense. It’s a fascinating peek at our history, but it does not give us words to live by. Let us read it, think about it, and move on.
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