45 & 46 : Va'etchanan & Eikev
Parsha Va'etchanan & Eikev (Deuteronomy 3:23–11:25)
TLDR:
And… we’re back with another double header. Don’t worry, Moses is still giving his speech and still recounting the past, so little happened aside from the usual vacillating scolding and praising. Devarim continues to be perfectly suited for everyone who naps for the first 30 minutes of the Rabbi’s sermon.
In Va’etchanan, Moses jumps between the present and past:
Moses pleads with God to enter Israel with the people, but God refuses him and Moses is understandably salty.
Moses tells the Israelites to follow the laws when they enter the land, pointing to their commitment at Mt. Sinai. He warns that bad things will happen if they don’t, and good things if they do.
Out of context, Moses describes the three cities you can go to for protection if you kill a man.
Now Moses ramps the rhetoric ahead of the ten commandments. “Not with our fathers did the Lord seal this covenant but with us - we who are here today, all of us alive. Face-to-face did the Lord speak with you…” It is a brilliant display of inter-generational connection and goosebumps.
As a reminder of these commandments, the Israelites are instructed to bind them on their hand and forehead and retell the story of Passover.
So far so good. But you should know by now it’s a double edged sword in Eikev:
Moses again gives a Gratitude 101 lesson, telling the Israelites to follow the laws and not to forget God ahead of entering the land.
They are not going to conquer their land because of “their merit” but because of the wickedness of the nations they’re conquering and the commitment God made to their forefathers.
In the “Did you win because the other team was bad, or you were good?” debate, this is clearly in the former camp. It’s a somewhat demotivating perspective ahead of battle…
…and naturally flows into a recounting of the Golden Calf episode from Moses’ perspective on top of the mountain.
Alas, there’s still time for Moses to re-assure the people. Moses again charges the Israelites to seize the land with God’s support.
Question:
One of the arguments that Moses makes to convince the Israelites to follow the laws is that “the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” Strangely, does that presuppose the Israelites’ belief in other Gods? It reads like the entire point of God being a jealous God (or at least described as one) is so that the Israelites can rationalize why they can’t also pray to other Gods. If they did, God, the all-powerful one, would get jealous and bad things would happen! Why else might God have been described as jealous, and where does God do things that displays jealousy in the previous four books?
Alter highlights a great contradiction. How is it that this all-knowing, powerful, and universal God chooses this specific people to love? In Moses’ words, despite being the “God of Heavens”, “only your fathers [referring to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob] did the Lord desire to love them”. Does the Torah attempt to explain this? How so?
As an aside, Tefillin and Mezuzas make so much sense in this context. What better way to remember commandments than to literally wear them? It’s the ultimate nudge.