Shlomo's Thoughts on the Torah

The name of this week's portion is Eikev, or heel. This is remind us to be as careful of the "minor" commandments as we would the "major" ones.

The 10th Commandment stresses that we not be jealous of others. The Torah is for equality of opportunity but not of outcome. That is dependent on our abilities and willingness to use them to improve ourselves.

When Moses discusses the boundaries of the Land we realize that the Jews would be in the middle of the world. This is because God's plan is that the world is to observe how be a holy nation.

Taking God's Name in vain can have a number of meanings. One of the most important is when a religious person commits a crime. Then the secular view it as "this is what a religious person does." That is taking God's Name in vain.

Today is the 9th of Av. It is a day in which many disasters have befallen the Jewish people. The reason is that God chose us to be a light unto the nations & when we forget this then God withdraws His protection from us.

The problem with an accidental killing is that someone died. That this comes during the week of the 9th of Av teaches us that we have to be careful with how we react to commandments of man to man.

The ancients believed if they lost a war it was because their gods were weak. The Jews took the exact opposite view. We lost wars because we did not behave properly one to the other, that it was a punishment from God.

The Torah admonishes judges numerous times about being careful in judgement. That they cannot be concerned over the social or economic status of those before them pervert their judgement. They can only deal with the law.

The Torah informs us that our leaders need wisdom. Knowledge was not a prerequisite since people with knowledge but no wisdom make bad judgements. But people with wisdom know how to apply knowledge.

When Moses is recounting the wars that we had to fight he points out that we went to war to defend our people and mission. We do not go to war to conquer others. We try for peace.

Moses's recounting of the events after the Exodus is meant to remind us of our mission, which is to serve God on both a religious and moral level. He reminds us that without one the other does not work.

The bad report of the emissaries was on the 9th of Av. God declared that since we cried about nothing on that day we would have something to cry about in the future.

The Book of Deuteronomy is Moses going over the history of the Jews after leaving Egypt. He especially warns the Jews what will happen if they do not follow the laws in the Torah.

When an accidental killing occurs then the one responsible has to go to a city of refuge until the death of the High Priest. The reason, if the High Priest had done his job correctly then the accidental killing would not have occurred.

When the tribes of Reuben & Gad state that they will assist in conquering the Land but first they have to take care of their livestock and families, Moses reverses the order to show that families come first even before business.

The division of the Land takes place before the Jews get there. This is to teach us that before we embark on change, we have to have a plan what that change will bring.

The command to kill all the people of Midian seems strange to us until we realize that the entire society was evil. The Torah commands us to destroy evil. No nuance in this case.

The admonition not to make idle vows or oaths is important. If we make a vow or oath and do not keep it, we are violating the Torah. We must endeavor to keep any promise we make even if it not a vow or oath.

Right after Moses anoints Joshua to be the next leader the Torah mentions the daily offering. This is to teach that we have to be consistent in our action and that a seemingly minor act is as important as a major one.

We learn that you should teach your children to want to do the right thing. That they should not just fear the consequences of doing the wrong thing.

We read about the holidays in this week's portion. The importance of the holidays is that they remind us of what is important to us, our communities. When we are a part of our communities we have the cure for the reasons of the period of mourning.

Today is the 17th of Tamuz. It is the beginning of the 3 weeks in which we commemorate the destruction of both Temples in Jerusalem. The reason that is given for their destruction was that Jews did not behave properly one to the other.

After dealing with the internal problems the Jews were commanded to destroy the Midianite nation. Even though the evil that we visited upon the Jews happened due to their own sinfulness, it did not excuse the actions of Balak.

While Pinchas's act in killing Zimri was justified, he was disturbed that he had taken a life. The taking of a life, even if justifiable is not something to be taken lightly.

When Pinchas kills Zimri it is because he recognized the cancer within society. He realized that if he did not take action then the Jewish people would be destroyed from within.