Aikev: How the world works

Aikev, this weeks parsha  is about the Big Deal, the deal between Gd and people, the descendants of Yaakov ( derived from Aikev)  in particular.   The parsha starts with a deal: that is  based upon the Aikev:

וְהָיָה עֵקֶב תִּשְׁמְעוּן, אֵת הַמִּשְׁפָּטִים הָאֵלֶּה, וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם וַעֲשִׂיתֶם
2 And it shall come to pass, because ye hearken to these ordinances, and keep, and do them, that the LRD thy Gd shall keep with thee the covenant and the mercy which He swore unto thy fathers,

JPS translates Aikev as because, but the word means heel! Perhaps the point  is that the heel is the fulcrum for the walking (holech, halachah) person. Perhaps this deal will require a maximally cushioned area to absorb the shocks that are to come as a consequence of it. 

Part of the special deal with Israel is that 
 כִּי הָאָרֶץ, אֲשֶׁר אַתָּה בָא-שָׁמָּה לְרִשְׁתָּהּ--לֹא כְאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם הִוא,
For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou didst sow thy seed, and didst water it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs;

 In the land of Egypt constant human intervention was necessary.  The miracle of sustenance was obscured by the human effort. 

We are trading that in for 

2 a land which the LRD thy Gd careth for; the eyes of the LRD thy Gd are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year. {S} 

It will now be clearer that  Divine intervention is a major component of life.  We will depend upon the rains, not the river.  Instead of drawing water, we must now pray.  The model of cause and effect is altered.  It is not the work (alone) that brings success,  every achievement is a gift from Gd. 

Thus we have the second paragraph of the shema: 

  וְהָיָה, אִם-שָׁמֹעַ תִּשְׁמְעוּ אֶל-מִצְו‍ֹתַי, אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מְצַוֶּה אֶתְכֶם, הַיּוֹם

Love and serve Gd, everything will be OK.  Otherwise you will starve.  

Like any deal, The devil is in the details. 

Ve'ethchanan: One

Ve'ethchanan: One

The Talmud starts with the question of when one says the Shema in the evening.   there is an assumption that here is an obligation to recite the Shema in the evening (and the morning).  That mitzvah seems to come from this weeks parsha., 

 וְדִבַּרְתָּ בָּם, בְּשִׁבְתְּךָ בְּבֵיתֶךָ וּבְלֶכְתְּךָ בַדֶּרֶךְ, וּבְשָׁכְבְּךָ וּבְקוּמֶךָ.

and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

The pasuk is taken very literally

 וְהָיוּ הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה

And these words,

It is taken to mean the very paragraph that commands talking in them is the paragraph used to fulfill the obligation.  I would have thought that the obligation could be fulfilled with any Torah ( and the talmud gives some support to this position), but ultimately  with such a strong commandment, couched in so many cautionary remarks about keeping the commandments,  we play it safe.  How can we go wrong reciting this particular paragraph of Torah?

The paragraph begins with a very obscure statement about the nature of Hashem: 

Listen Israel! Hashem is our gd,  Hashem is One

This statement is made at least twice every day, it is inside the mezuzah and tefillin, I am supposed to say it when I am about to die....What does it mean?

Shema Yisroel: Listen ( Hear) (O) Israel:  

This means I am taking up the role of spreading the (good) news. I have something to say to the people of Israel, they should listen to me.  

Hashem is our gd:

 Elohim is not necessarily kodesh.  It is the word used to refer to the gds of other nations, to idols. Elohim seems to mean the great power, perhaps the human conception of Gd as the most powerful, however one might conceive of that. 

For Israel, our most powerful entity is Hashem. 

Hashem is One: 

One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do. 

One is the integer - Gd has integrity   

One is indivisible ( with liberty and justice for all).  

One is the opposite of zero - Gd exists. 

Every part contains the whole (holographic) and there are no parts. 

Gd is unbreakable.

 There is only one Gd, Gd is special. 

 There is no appeal to another equal or greater authority. 

 GD is One powerful being!

Dvarim: Things

The word dvarin is confusing.  It means sayings, but it also means things, like in the Bobby Darin 1962 song. Perhaps it means both. 

This parsha reads like a memoir. The perspective shines through.  This remembrance of things past focuses on the ultimate achievement, the conquest of  the land. The first  fact recalled is how close Mt Sinai is to the border of the Promised Land, an 11 day journey.  It took forty years.  The journey did not have much of  a physical impedance, the block was in another realm. 

The memoir has elements of regret.  Moshe should have acted better, vetoed the spies. 

It has elements of self justification: Moshe recognized that the task of leading this large people with so many mediocre intellects  was too great for any single man. 

It has elements of ambivalence: The children of Lot and Esau had conquered their lands from aboriginal peoples and now their claims were to be respected.  Hence the Hebrews justify their conquests. 

The parsha humanizes Moshe. 

Thinkin' 'bout the things we used to do. 

Mathoth-Masei: art of the deal

Matoth-Masei: art of the deal

The story of Torah ends with this weeks double parsha.  The first return to the Land of the Patriarchs begins. The leadership is transferred.  But some issues have to be cleaned up. 

The division of the land  by lot seems to have appropriately ascribed the newly conquered Transjordanian lands to the Hebrew Texans - the cattlemen of Reuben and Gad.  Their role in the conquest  of the remaining Promise needs to be defined.  When the contract is drafted, it is made a win-win deal.  If the lone star tribes stay with the Confederacy of tribes, they will retain their claim to the appended land.  Therefore, allowing them to have this extraterritorial claim does not diminish from the holdings of the the remaining 9 1/2 tribes, in fact it adds to the total territory to be divided.  But if they do not keep the bargain, the 2 1/2 tribes  that are on their apportionment will lose that,  and inherit  a portion in the main land, thus diminishing ( at least by the inconvenience of distance) the stake of their cousins.  Thus, everyone is motivated to join the deal.   Moshe the lawyer. 

Breaking up is hard to do. 

Moshe saw a way to make the best of it.