Eikev: The Ask

 

Eikev:  The Ask

 

Deuteronomy Chapter 10 verse 12 is striking:

וְעַתָּה֙ יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל מָ֚ה יְ

שֹׁאֵ֖ל מֵעִמָּ֑ךְ כִּ֣י אִם־לְ֠יִרְאָ֠ה אֶת־יְ

לָלֶ֤כֶת בְּכׇל־דְּרָכָיו֙ וּלְאַהֲבָ֣ה אֹת֔וֹ וְלַֽעֲבֹד֙ אֶת־יְ

בְּכׇל־לְבָבְךָ֖ וּבְכׇל־נַפְשֶֽׁךָ׃

 

And now, Yisra᾽el, what does the Lord thy God

require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God

 to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God

with all thy heart and with all thy soul,

The Koren Jerusalem Bible

It is a long sentence that is mysterious on purpose.

Taken as a whole, this verse is problematic because the question: what does the Lord thy God ask of you, implies  a request that is easily fulfilled. The word שֹׁאֵ֖ל, translated as “require” by Koren and “ask“by Shocken, evolves to mean “borrow.” In the Talmud, it means lending an object for free. It is something that is so easy to lend, that withholding it is miserly and mean. It is the word used to borrow a pen. The lender does not profit monetarily, the gain is purely emotional and spiritual.

The answer : to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, seems to be a huge demand.  It involves an action that encompasses the entire being of the donor.

The Talmud (Megilla 25a) recognizes the inconsistency of the question and answer:

מִכְּלָל דְּיִרְאָה מִילְּתָא זוּטַרְתִּי הִיא?! אִין, לְגַבֵּי מֹשֶׁה רַבֵּינוּ מִילְּתָא זוּטַרְתִּי הִיא. מָשָׁל לְאָדָם שֶׁמְּבַקְּשִׁין הֵימֶנּוּ כְּלִי גָּדוֹל וְיֵשׁ לוֹ — דּוֹמֶה עָלָיו כִּכְלִי קָטָן. קָטָן וְאֵין לוֹ — דּוֹמֶה עָלָיו כִּכְלִי גָּדוֹל.

This proves by inference that fear of Heaven is a minor matter. Can it in fact be maintained that fear of Heaven is a minor matter? The Gemara responds: Indeed, for Moses our teacher, fear of Heaven is a minor matter. It is comparable to one who is asked for a large vessel and he has one; it seems to him like a small vessel because he owns it. However, one who is asked for just a small vessel and he does not have one, it seems to him like a large vessel.

The problem of the impact of the text is recognized.  Rabbi Chanina’s solution is a recognition of Moshe’s greatness and, by implication, the inadequacy of ordinary mortals.  This solution could make the Torah more aspirational. It tempts me to give up. Nevertheless, I respect the recognition of the problem.

 

Rashi chooses the quote from Rabbi Chanina that precedes this statement as his comment on the verse:

כי אם ליראה וגו'. וְרַבּוֹתֵינוּ דָּרְשׁוּ מִכָּאן הַכֹּל בִּידֵי שָׁמַיִם חוּץ מִיִּרְאַת שָׁמַיִם (ברכות ל"ג):

EXCEPT TO FEAR — Our Rabbis derived from this: that everything is in the hands of God except the fear of God (Berakhot 33b).

This statement of nearly complete fatalism may be a way to put the “request”  ( translated by JPS as “demand”) in context.  Throughout the chapter, we are reminded that all the good in the world, all the unexpected victories, are gifts from a Gd who has chosen to be benevolent.

הֵ֚ן לַ

הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וּשְׁמֵ֣י הַשָּׁמָ֑יִם הָאָ֖רֶץ וְכׇל־אֲשֶׁר־בָּֽהּ׃

Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens belongs to the Lord thy God, the earth also, with all that is on it.

The request Is small relative to the reward . We fear the Lrd and in return, we have everything that we have ( and a shot at everything we want).  The Bechor Shor mentions this approach.  

[This week, a friend who has become prominent in the Seattle Orthodox community, mentioned a Torah website that was unfamiliar: AlHatorah.   He called it a more learned Sefaria.  Its page on this verse prominently quotes the Bechor Shor immediately below Rashi ( the most widely accepted commentator). When I opened the Books of Jacob, Olga Tokarczuk’s novel about the Jacob Frank  heresy ( and indirect excuse for the indifference of the Polish people to the plight of the Jews in their midst)  the third paragraph caught me:

 

Yenta blinks and just barely lifts her eyelids again. She sees the agonized face of Elisha Shorr, who leans in over her. She tried to smile, but that much power over her face she can't quite summon. Elisha Shorr's brow is furrowed.

I knew I was dealing with the descendants of the Bechor Shor. ]

 

My limited exposure to Christianity makes this verse disquieting; it sounds like a source for the disciple Paul. All that is required is an act of faith.  This is not the prevailing Jewish interpretation.  Rather, the request/demand emphasizes the infinite extent  of the motivation to adhere to the commandments. It is a call to action and restraint. Faith is generally not enough ( unless it is all you have).

As I reflected on this verse, I realize that the ask is familiar. It is what a spouse asks of himself and mate. It what a parent asks of herself relative to her child.  It is the request that constitutes a dimension of love.

The first word of the verse : וְעַתָּה֙  and now, presents the problem of which now. Is it the now of the Moses speaking to the Israelites? This generates a powerful spectrum of images, but removes relevance to the current. Is the the now that is the present and the nows that will be the future?  Real events come to challenge the basis for gratitude and the manipulation of viewpoint.

What can you do when someone asks for love?

I put some additional commentaries and my previous writings into Notebook LM, a remarkable(frightening) AI explainer.

Here is a link  to a slide show and much more : https://notebooklm.google.com/notebook/9c460702-5a29-4957-9a9f-852c98d49565?artifactId=49e4686d-6b43-4684-af62-8a8e028219b1