Shlomo's Thoughts on the Torah

Just because someone disagrees with us does not make them evil. It might make them wrong. Evil people commit evil acts. Mistaken people are wrong.

We have blessings and curses this week. The blessings will come to us if we strive to keep the commandments. The curse is that we will be a normal nation and will be treated as a normal nation. We have to strive for holiness, it does not come naturally.

The fact that we can choose to obey the Torah or not means that we have free will. Something no other creature has. Also, according to Jewish thought, do angels. Only we can choose to do good or evil.

We are commanded to bring the first fruits to the Temple. When we do we have to recite a passage that is a historical review of our history. This is to teach us to remember our history and to learn from it.

We are required to show gratitude to God for His Hand in our success. We need to work for our prosperity but, in the final state, we prosper with divine aid.

Our enemies want us to doubt our arguments. This is moral equivalency. When we are sure about our morality and their evil, then we cannot lose.

The Torah admonishes us to build our communities. To be active. To remember that there are those who want to tear down what has been built but have no intention of rebuilding.

Two of the commandments in this week's Torah portion play a pivotal role in the Book of Ruth. Levirate marriage and allowing the poor to pick up the gleanings of the field.

We are responsible for our actions. We need to be aware of how what we do and say affects others. And any damage caused by our actions are our responsibility.

We have to determine if the enemy that we are facing is evil or not. In most wars we are facing an enemy that disagrees with us, but we can deal with them. When it comes to Amalek there is no negotiation. He wants to kill us. When faced with such an enemy the rules change.

The Torah stresses the importance of respecting private property. All successful societies share this in common. Without it we will not be able to advance as a society.

The Torah warns against the danger of corruption and abuse of power. This is the reason that it was quoted at the American Constitutional Convention.

We are commanded to seek justice. We know that we cannot attain it in all cases. This does not mean that we should just give up.

As we enter the month of Elul we start to get ready to be judged by God on Yom Kippur. Before we can ask God for forgiveness we have to go to our fellow man and ask for his/her forgiveness.

We are told that we should not copy the other nations, especially their ideas of morality. We have to be true to the values in the Bible, not popular whim.

To be united does not mean that we agree on everything but that we are in agreement on our national goals. We can debate with one another on issues but we must never lose site of the fact that we are one people.

We are all for social justice, but it has to be in harmony with the commandments. If someone tells us that we do not have to obey the commandments then they are a false prophet.

The Torah gives the option of determining our fate. While we can't control everything in life, we can follow the commandments and change the world.

The Torah never mentions our rights. It talks about our obligations to God and society. When we concentrate on our obligations, we can be happy with little. But when we concentrate on our entitlements we will never be satisfied.

We are told that we will receive blessings and curses depending on our behavior. The Torah is pointing out that God will treat us as adults. It admonishes us to treat others as adults.

We are asked if God is on our side. The important question, to paraphrase President Lincoln, are we on God's side.

We know that society has obligations to us but we frequently forget that we have obligations to society. We can't just do whatever we feel like. We have to fit into societal norms.

The Torah has commandments of our actions between man and God as well as between man and man. Both are important since one without the other will lead to both being forgotten.

We are taught that we are in a partnership with God. We follow His way and He will make sure that our work is not in vain. If we don't then we will lose everything.

In this week's Torah reading we see that God is making a deal with the Jews. If you want a good and successful life, then you have to follow the commandments. If you want to be a normal people you will get what a normal people get.