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Not to be confused with Yaakov.

Eikev, Ekev, Ekeb, Aikev, or Eqeb (Template:Hebrew — Hebrew for “if [you follow],” the second word, and the first distinctive word, in the parashah) is the 46th weekly Torah portion (Template:Hebrew, parashah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the third in the book of Deuteronomy. It comprises Deuteronomy 7:12–11:25. The parashah is made up of 6,865 Hebrew letters, 1,747 Hebrew words, and 111 verses, and can occupy about 232 lines in a Torah Scroll (Template:Hebrew, Sefer Torah).[1]

Jews generally read it in August.

The parashah tells of the blessings of obedience to God, directions for taking the land, the incident of the Golden Calf, Aaron’s death, the Levites’ duties, and exhortations to serve God.

The Golden Calf (watercolor circa 1896–1902 by James Tissot)

Readings

In traditional Sabbath Torah reading, the parashah is divided into seven readings, or Template:Hebrew, aliyot. In the masoretic text of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), Parashah Eikev has six "open portion" (Template:Hebrew, petuchah) divisions (roughly equivalent to paragraphs, often abbreviated with the Hebrew letter Template:Hebrew (peh), roughly equivalent to the English letter “P”). Parashah Eikev has several further subdivisions, called "closed portions" (Template:Hebrew, setumah) (abbreviated with the Hebrew letter Template:Hebrew (samekh), roughly equivalent to the English letter "S") within the open portion (Template:Hebrew, petuchah) divisions. The first open portion (Template:Hebrew, petuchah) divides the first reading (Template:Hebrew, aliyah). The second open portion (Template:Hebrew, petuchah) goes from the middle of the first reading (Template:Hebrew, aliyah) to the middle of the second reading (Template:Hebrew, aliyah). The short third open portion (Template:Hebrew, petuchah) is contained within the second reading (Template:Hebrew, aliyah). The fourth open portion (Template:Hebrew, petuchah) starts in the second reading (Template:Hebrew, aliyah) and contains all of the third reading (Template:Hebrew, aliyah). The fifth open portion (Template:Hebrew, petuchah) corresponds to the fourth reading (Template:Hebrew, aliyah). And the sixth open portion (Template:Hebrew, petuchah) spans the fifth, sixth, and seventh readings (Template:Hebrew, aliyot). A closed portion (Template:Hebrew, setumah) corresponds to the fifth reading (Template:Hebrew, aliyah). The sixth reading (Template:Hebrew, aliyah) is divided into two closed portion (Template:Hebrew, setumah) divisions. And the short seventh reading (Template:Hebrew, aliyah) corresponds to a final closed portion (Template:Hebrew, setumah).[2]

The Gathering of the Manna (watercolor circa 1896–1902 by James Tissot)

First reading

In the first reading (Template:Hebrew, aliyah), Moses told the Israelites that if they obeyed God’s rules, God would faithfully maintain the covenant, would bless them with fertility and agricultural productivity, and would ward off sickness.[3] Moses directed the Israelites to destroy all the peoples whom God delivered to them, showing no pity and not worshiping their gods.[4] A closed portion (Template:Hebrew, setumah) ends here.[5]

Moses told the Israelites not to fear these nations because they were numerous, for the Israelites had but to recall what God did to Pharaoh and the Egyptians and the wonders by which God liberated them.[6] God would do the same to the peoples whom they feared, and would send a plague against them, too.[7] God would dislodge those peoples little by little, so that the wild beasts would not take over the land.[8] Moses directed the Israelites to burn the images of their gods, not to covet nor keep the silver and gold on them, nor to bring an abhorrent thing into their houses.[9] The first open portion (Template:Hebrew, petuchah) ends here with the end of the chapter.[10]

God made the Israelites travel the long way in the wilderness for 40 years to test them with hardships to learn what was in their hearts and whether they would keep God’s commandments.[11] God subjected them to hunger and then gave them manna to teach them that man does not live on bread alone, but on what God decrees.[12] Their clothes did not wear out, nor did their feet swell for 40 years.[13] God disciplined them as a man disciplines his son.[14] Moses told the Israelites that God was bringing them into a good land, where they might eat food without end, and thus when they had eaten their fill, they were to give thanks to God for the good land that God had given them.[15] The first reading (Template:Hebrew, aliyah) ends here.[16]

Second reading

In the second reading (Template:Hebrew, aliyah), Moses warned the Israelites not to forget God, not to violate God’s commandments, and not to grow haughty and believe that their own power had won their wealth, but to remember that God gave them the power to prosper.[17] The second open portion (Template:Hebrew, petuchah) ends here.[18]

Moses warned that if they forgot God and followed other gods, then they would certainly perish like the nations that God was going to displace from the land.[19] The third open portion (Template:Hebrew, petuchah) ends here with the end of the chapter.[20]

Moses warned the Israelites that they were to dispossess nations greater than they, but God would go before them as a devouring fire to drive out the land’s inhabitants.[21] The second reading (Template:Hebrew, aliyah) ends here.[22]

The Golden Calf (illustration from a Bible card published 1907 by the Providence Lithograph Company)
Moses with the Tablets of the Law (1659 painting by Rembrandt)

Third reading

In the third reading (Template:Hebrew, aliyah), Moses warned the Israelites not to believe that God had enabled them to possess the land because of their virtue, for God was dispossessing the land’s current inhabitants because of those nations’ wickedness and to fulfill the oath that God had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.[23] Moses exhorted the Israelites to remember how they had provoked God to anger in the wilderness.[24] At Horeb they so provoked God that God was angry enough to have destroyed them.[25] Moses ascended the mountain, stayed for 40 days and nights, and consumed no bread or water.[26] At the end of the 40 days, God gave Moses two stone tablets that God had inscribed with the covenant that God had addressed to the Israelites.[27] God told Moses to hurry down, for the people whom Moses brought out of Egypt had acted wickedly and had made a molten image.[28] God told Moses that God was inclined to destroy them and make of Moses a nation far more numerous than they.[29] Moses started down the mountain with the two tablets in his hands, when he saw how the Israelites had made themselves a molten calf.[30] Moses smashed the two tablets before their eyes, and threw himself down before God, fasting another 40 days and nights.[31] God gave heed to Moses.[32] God was angry enough with Aaron to have destroyed him, so Moses also interceded for Aaron.[33] Moses burned the calf, ground it into dust, and threw its dust into the brook that came down from the mountain.[34]

In the continuation of the reading, Moses reminded the Israelites how they provoked God at Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah.[35] And when God sent them from Kadesh-barnea to take possession of the land, they flouted God’s command and did not put their trust in God.[36] When Moses lay prostrate before God those 40 days, because God was determined to destroy the Israelites, Moses prayed to God not to annihilate God’s own people, whom God freed from Egypt, but to give thought to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and ignore the Israelites’ sinfulness, else the Egyptians would say that God was powerless to bring them into the land that God had promised them.[37] The third reading (Template:Hebrew, aliyah) and the fourth open portion (Template:Hebrew, petuchah) end here with the end of the chapter.[38]

Moses Receiving the Tablets of the Law (1868 painting by João Zeferino da Costa)

Fourth reading

In the fourth reading (Template:Hebrew, aliyah), God told Moses to carve out two tablets of stone like the first, come up the mountain, and make an ark of wood.[39] God inscribed on the tablets the Ten Commandments that were on the first tablets that Moses had smashed, and Moses came down from the mountain and deposited the tablets in the Ark.[40]

In the continuation of the reading, the Israelites marched to Moserah, where Aaron died and was buried, and his son Eleazar became priest in his stead.[41] From there they marched to Gudgod, and on to Jotbath.[42] God set apart the Levites to carry the Ark of the Covenant, to stand in attendance upon the Tabernacle, and to bless in God’s Name, and that was why the Levites were to receive no portion of the land, as God was their portion.[43] The fourth reading (Template:Hebrew, aliyah) and the fifth open portion (Template:Hebrew, petuchah) end with Deuteronomy 10:11.[44]

Pharaoh's Army Engulfed by the Red Sea (1900 painting by Frederick Arthur Bridgman)

Fifth reading

In the fifth reading (Template:Hebrew, aliyah), Moses exhorted the Israelites to revere God, to walk only in God’s paths, to love God, to serve God with all their heart and soul, and to keep God’s commandments.[45] Moses noted that although heaven and earth belong to God, God was drawn to love their fathers, so that God chose the Israelites from among all peoples.[46] Moses described God as supreme, great, mighty, and awesome, showing no favor and taking no bribe, but upholding the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and befriending the stranger.[47] Moses thus instructed the Israelites to befriend the stranger, for they were strangers in Egypt.[48] Moses exhorted the Israelites to revere God, worship only God, and swear only by God’s name, for God was their glory, who performed for them marvelous deeds, and made them as numerous as the stars.[49] Moses exhorted the Israelites to love God and always keep God’s commandments.[50] Moses asked the Israelites to note that they themselves witnessed the signs that God performed in Egypt against Pharaoh, what God did to Egypt’s army, how God rolled upon them the waters of the Sea of Reeds, what God did for them in the wilderness, and what God did to Dathan and Abiram when the earth swallowed them.[51] Moses instructed them therefore to keep all the law so that they might have the strength to enter and possess the land and long endure on that land flowing with milk and honey.[52] The fifth reading (Template:Hebrew, aliyah) and a closed portion (Template:Hebrew, setumah) end here.[53]

Sixth reading

In the sixth reading (Template:Hebrew, aliyah), Moses extolled the land as a land of hills and valleys that soaks up its water from the rains, a land that God looks after.[54] A closed portion (Template:Hebrew, setumah) end here.[55]

Then Moses told them words now found in the Shema prayer:[56] If the Israelites obeyed the commandments, loving God and serving God with heart and soul, God would grant the rain in season and they would gather their grain, wine, and oil.[57] God would provide grass for their cattle and the Israelites would eat their fill.[58] Moses warned them not to be lured away to serve other gods, for God’s anger would flare up against them, God would suspend the rain, and they would soon perish from the land.[59] Moses urged them to impress God’s words upon their heart, bind them as a sign on their hands, let them serve as a symbol on their foreheads, teach them to their children, and recite them when they stayed at home and when they were away, when they lay down and when they got up.[60] Moses instructed them to inscribe God’s words on the doorposts of their houses and on their gates, so that they and their children might endure in the land that God swore to their fathers as long as there is a heaven over the earth.[61] The sixth reading (Template:Hebrew, aliyah) and a closed portion (Template:Hebrew, setumah) end here.[62]

Seventh reading

In the seventh reading (Template:Hebrew, aliyah), which is also the concluding maftir (Template:Hebrew) reading, Moses promised that if the Israelites faithfully kept the law, loving God, walking in all God’s ways, and holding fast to God, then God would dislodge the nations then in the land, and every spot on which their feet tread would be theirs, and their territory would extend from the wilderness to Lebanon and from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean Sea.[63] Parashah Eikev and a closed portion (Template:Hebrew, setumah) end here.[64]

In ancient parallels

The parashah has parallels or is discussed in these ancient sources:

Deuteronomy chapter 9

Numbers 13:22 and 28 refer to the “children of Anak” (Template:Hebrew, yelidei ha-anak), Numbers 13:33 refers to the “sons of Anak” (Template:Hebrew, benei anak), and Deuteronomy 1:28, 2:10–11, 2:21, and 9:2 refer to the “Anakim” (Template:Hebrew). John A. Wilson suggested that the Anakim may be related to the Iy-‘anaq geographic region named in Middle Kingdom Egyptian (19th to 18th century BCE) pottery bowls that had been inscribed with the names of enemies and then shattered as a kind of curse.[65]

Jeroboam's Idolatry (illustration from a Bible card published 1904 by the Providence Lithograph Company)

In inner-Biblical interpretation

The parashah has parallels or is discussed in these Biblical sources:[66]

Deuteronomy chapter 9

1 Kings 12:25–33 reports a parallel story of golden calves. King Jeroboam of the northern Kingdom of Israel made two calves of gold out of a desire to prevent the kingdom from returning to allegiance to the house of David and the southern Kingdom of Judah.[67] In Exodus 32:4, the people said of the Golden Calf, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” Similarly, in 1 Kings 12:28, Jeroboam told the people of his golden calves, “You have gone up long enough to Jerusalem; behold your gods, O Israel, that brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” Jeroboam set up one of the calves in Bethel, and the other in Dan, and the people went to worship before the calf in Dan.[68] Jeroboam made houses of high places, and made priests from people who were not Levites.[69] He ordained a feast like Sukkot on the fifteenth day of the eighth month (a month after the real Sukkot), and he went up to the altar at Bethel to sacrifice to the golden calves that he had made, and he installed his priests there.[70]

In Deuteronomy 9:27 and Exodus 32:13, Moses called on God to remember God’s covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to deliver the Israelites from God’s wrath after the incident of the Golden Calf. Similarly, God remembered Noah to deliver him from the flood in Genesis 8:1; God promised to remember God’s covenant not to destroy the Earth again by flood in Genesis 9:15–16; God remembered Abraham to deliver Lot from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19:29; God remembered Rachel to deliver her from childlessness in Genesis 30:22; God remembered God’s covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to deliver the Israelites from Egyptian bondage in Exodus 2:24 and 6:5–6; God promised to “remember” God’s covenant with Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham to deliver the Israelites and the Land of Israel in Leviticus 26:42–45; the Israelites were to blow upon their trumpets to be remembered and delivered from their enemies in Numbers 10:9; Samson called on God to deliver him from the Philistines in Judges 16:28; Hannah prayed for God to remember her and deliver her from childlessness in 1 Samuel 1:11 and God remembered Hannah’s prayer to deliver her from childlessness in 1 Samuel 1:19; Hezekiah called on God to remember Hezekiah’s faithfulness to deliver him from sickness in 2 Kings 20:3 and Isaiah 38:3; Jeremiah called on God to remember God’s covenant with the Israelites to not condemn them in Jeremiah 14:21; Jeremiah called on God to remember him and think of him, and avenge him of his persecutors in Jeremiah 15:15; God promises to remember God’s covenant with the Israelites and establish an everlasting covenant in Ezekiel 16:60; God remembers the cry of the humble in Zion to avenge them in Psalm9:13; David called upon God to remember God’s compassion and mercy in Psalm 25:6; Asaph called on God to remember God’s congregation to deliver them from their enemies in Psalm 74:2; God remembered that the Israelites were only human in Psalm 78:39; Ethan the Ezrahite called on God to remember how short Ethan’s life was in Psalm 89:48; God remembers that humans are but dust in Psalm 103:14; God remembers God’s covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in Psalm 105:8–10; God remembers God’s word to Abraham to deliver the Israelites to the Land of Israel in Psalm 105:42–44; the Psalmist calls on God to remember him to favor God’s people, to think of him at God’s salvation, that he might behold the prosperity of God’s people in Psalm 106:4–5; God remembered God’s covenant and repented according to God’s mercy to deliver the Israelites in the wake of their rebellion and iniquity in Psalm 106:4–5; the Psalmist calls on God to remember God’s word to God’s servant to give him hope in Psalm 119:49; God remembered us in our low estate to deliver us from our adversaries in Psalm 136:23–24; Job called on God to remember him to deliver him from God’s wrath in Job 14:13; Nehemiah prayed to God to remember God’s promise to Moses to deliver the Israelites from exile in Nehemiah 1:8; and Nehemiah prayed to God to remember him to deliver him for good in Nehemiah 13:14–31.

Deuteronomy chapter 10

Deuteronomy 10:8 assigns the Levites the duties of bearing the Ark of the Covenant, to stand before God to minister to God, and to bless in God’s name. The Hebrew Bible also assigns to the Levites the duties of judging,[71] teaching the law,[72] and ministering before the Ark,[73] singing,[74]

In classical Rabbinic interpretation

The parashah is discussed in these Rabbinic sources from the era of the Mishnah and the Talmud:

Deuteronomy chapter 7

A Midrash likened the second word of Deuteronomy 7:12, Template:Hebrew, eikev (“if” or “because”) to the word Template:Hebrew, akeivai (“footsteps”) in Psalm 49:6, which the Midrash interpreted to mean: “Why should I fear in the days of evil? The iniquity of my footsteps encompasses me.” The Midrash taught that people sometimes fail to observe minor commandments, thus trampling those commandments beneath their heels. The Midrash thus taught that the Psalmist feared the day of judgment because he may have trampled minor commandments.[75]

Balaam Blessing the Israelites (illustration from the 1728 Figures de la Bible)

Another Midrash played on two possible meanings of the second word of Deuteronomy 7:12, Template:Hebrew, eikev, “as a consequence” and “the end.” Israel asked God when God would grant reward for the observance of commandments. God replied that when people observe commandments, they enjoy some fruits now, but God will give them their full reward in the end, after death.[76]

Another Midrash played on two possible meanings of the second word of Deuteronomy 7:12, Template:Hebrew, eikev, “as a consequence” and “heel.” The Midrash interpreted the words “upon Edom I cast my shoe” in Psalms 60:10 and 108:10 to mean that God says that when Israel repents, then God will tread with God’s heel, so to speak, on Israel’s enemy Edom. And the Midrash taught, in the words of Deuteronomy 7:12, that “it shall come to pass, because (eikev) you hearken.”[77]

Rabbi Samuel bar Nahmani interpreted the words “that the Lord your God shall keep for you” in Deuteronomy 7:12, teaching that all the good that Israel enjoys in this world results from the blessings with which Balaam blessed Israel, but the blessings with which the Patriarchs blessed Israel are reserved for the time to come, as signified by the words, “that the Lord your God shall keep for you.”[78]

Rabbi Bibi ben Giddal said that Simeon the Just taught that the law prohibited a Jew from robbing a non-Jew, although a Jew could take possession of a non-Jew’s lost article. Rav Huna read Deuteronomy 7:16 to prohibit a Jew from robbing a non-Jew, because Deuteronomy 7:16 provided that the Israelites were to take from the enemies that God would deliver to them in time of war, thus implying that the Israelites could not take from non-Jews in time of peace, when God had not delivered them into the Israelites’ hands.[79]

the oriental hornet

In Exodus 23:28, God promised to “send the hornet (Template:Hebrew) before you, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before you,” and in Deuteronomy 7:20, Moses promised that “the Lord your God will send the hornet (Template:Hebrew) among them.” But a Baraita taught that the hornet did not pass over the Jordan River with the Israelites. Rabbi Simeon ben Lakish reconciled the two sources, explaining that the hornet stood on the eastern bank of the Jordan and shot its venom over the river at the Canaanites. The venom blinded the Canaanites’ eyes above and castrated them below, as Amos 2:9 says, “Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above and his roots from beneath.” Rav Papa offered an alternative explanation, saying that there were two hornets, one in the time of Moses and the other in the time of Joshua. The former did not pass over the Jordan, but the latter did.[80]

Chapter 3 of tractate Avodah Zarah in the Mishnah, Jerusalem Talmud, and Babylonian Talmud interpreted the laws of not deriving benefit from idols in Deuteronomy 7:25–26.[81]

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah) (1863 painting by Simeon Solomon)

The Rabbis told the story that God, Daniel, and Nebuchadnezzar conspired to keep Daniel out of the fiery furnace. God said: “Let Daniel depart, lest people say that Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were delivered through Daniel’s merit instead of their own.” Daniel said: “Let me go, so that I will not become a fulfillment of the words (in Deuteronomy 7:25), ‘the graven images of their gods you shall burn with fire.’” And Nebuchadnezzar said: “Let Daniel depart, lest people say that the king has burned his god in fire.”[82]

The Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael used Deuteronomy 7:25 to help interpret the commandment not to covet in Exodus 20:13 (20:14 in NJSP). The Mekhilta asked whether the commandment not to covet in Exodus 20:13 (20:14 in NJSP) applied so far as to prohibit merely expressing one’s desire for one’s neighbor’s things in words. But the Mekhilta noted that Deuteronomy 7:25 says, “You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourself.” And the Mekhilta reasoned that just as in Deuteronomy 7:25 the word “covet” applies only to prohibit the carrying out of one’s desire into practice, so also Exodus 20:13 (20:14 in NJSP) prohibits only the carrying out of one’s desire into practice.[83]

The Gemara deduced from the command of Deuteronomy 7:26, “you shall not bring an abomination into your house, lest you be a cursed thing like it,” that whatever one might bring into being out of an idolatrous thing would have the same cursed status.[84]

Rabbi Johanan in the name of Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai noted the word “abomination” in common in both Deuteronomy 7:26 and Proverbs 16:5 and deduced that people who are haughty of spirit are as though they worshiped idols.[85]

The Seven Species

Deuteronomy chapter 8

The Mishnah taught that first fruits were brought only from the Seven Species (Shiv'at Ha-Minim) that Deuteronomy 8:8 noted to praise the Land of Israel: wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olive-oil, and date-honey. But first fruits could not be brought from dates grown on hills, or from valley-fruits, or from olives that were not of the choice kind.[86]

Rabbi Awira told — sometimes in the name of Rabbi Ammi, and sometimes in the name of Rabbi Assi — that the angels asked God whether God was not showing favor to Israel. And God asked the angels how God could not show favor to Israel, when Deuteronomy 8:10 required them to bless God when they had eaten and were satisfied, but the Israelites bless God even when they have eaten only the quantity of an olive or an egg.[87]

Rabbi Johanan deduced from Deuteronomy 8:14 that people who are haughty of spirit are as though they had denied the fundamental principle of God’s existence. And Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak found in Deuteronomy 8:14 a prohibition for haughtiness of spirit. For Rabbi Abin said in the name of Rabbi Ilai that wherever it is stated “Beware, lest” (as it does in Deuteronomy 8:11) the reference is to a prohibition.[88]

In Deuteronomy 8:14, the heart becomes proud. A Midrash catalogued the wide range of additional capabilities of the heart reported in the Hebrew Bible. The heart speaks,[89] sees,[90] hears,[91] walks,[92] falls,[93] stands,[94] rejoices,[95] cries,[96] is comforted,[97] is troubled,[98] becomes hardened,[99] grows faint,[100] grieves,[101] fears,[102] can be broken,[103] rebels,[104] invents,[105] cavils,[106] overflows,[107] devises,[108] desires,[109] goes astray,[110] lusts,[111] is refreshed,[112] can be stolen,[113] is humbled,[114] is enticed,[115] errs,[116] trembles,[117] is awakened,[118] loves,[119] hates,[120] envies,[121] is searched,[122] is rent,[123] meditates,[124] is like a fire,[125] is like a stone,[126] turns in repentance,[127] becomes hot,[128] dies,[129] melts,[130] takes in words,[131] is susceptible to fear,[132] gives thanks,[133] covets,[134] becomes hard,[135] makes merry,[136] acts deceitfully,[137] speaks from out of itself,[138] loves bribes,[139] writes words,[140] plans,[141] receives commandments,[142] acts with pride,[143] makes arrangements,[144] and aggrandizes itself.[145][146]

Moses Smashing the Tables of the Law (engraving by Gustave Doré from the 1865 La Sainte Bible)

In Deuteronomy 18:15, Moses foretold that “A prophet will the Lord your God raise up for you . . . like me,” and Rabbi Johanan thus taught that prophets would have to be, like Moses, strong, wealthy, wise, and meek. Strong, for Exodus 40:19 says of Moses, “he spread the tent over the tabernacle,” and a Master taught that Moses himself spread it, and Exodus 26:16 reports, “Ten cubits shall be the length of a board.” Similarly, the strength of Moses can be derived from Deuteronomy 9:17, in which Moses reports, “And I took the two tablets, and cast them out of my two hands, and broke them,” and it was taught that the tablets were six handbreadths in length, six in breadth, and three in thickness. Wealthy, as Exodus 34:1 reports God’s instruction to Moses, “Carve yourself two tablets of stone,” and the Rabbis interpreted the verse to teach that the chips would belong to Moses. Wise, for Rav and Samuel both said that 50 gates of understanding were created in the world, and all but one were given to Moses, for Psalm 8:6 said of Moses, “You have made him a little lower than God.” Meek, for Numbers 12:3 reports, “Now the man Moses was very meek.”[147]

Worshiping the Golden Calf (illustration from a Bible card published 1901 by the Providence Lithograph Company)

Deuteronomy chapter 9

Rabbi Tanhuma taught that Moses prostrated himself before the Israelites and said to them the words of Deuteronomy 9:1, “You are to pass over the Jordan,” noting that he would not. Moses gave the Israelites the opportunity to pray for him, but they did not. The Midrash compared this to a king who had many children by a noble lady. The lady was undutiful to him and he decided to divorce her. He told her that he was going to marry another wife. She asked who, and he told her. She summoned her children and told them that their father intended to divorce her and marry the other woman, and asked the children if they could bear being subjected to her. She thought that perhaps they would understand what she meant and would intercede with their father on her behalf, but they did not understand. As they did not understand, she commanded them only for their own sake to be mindful of the honor of their father. So it was with Moses. When God told him in Deuteronomy 3:27, “You shall not go over this Jordan,” Moses spoke to the Israelites and stressed the words in Deuteronomy 9:1, “You are to pass over.”[148]

A Baraita taught that because of God’s displeasure with the Israelites, the north wind did not blow on them in any of the 40 years during which they wandered in the wilderness. Rashi attributed God’s displeasure to the Golden Calf, although the Tosafot attributed it to the incident of the spies in Numbers 13.[149]

Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai taught that because the generation of the Flood transgressed the Torah that God gave humanity after Moses had stayed on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights (as reported in Exodus 24:18 and 34:28 and Deuteronomy 9:9–11, 18, 25, and 10:10), God announced in Genesis 7:4 that God would “cause it to rain upon the earth 40 days and 40 nights.”[150]

Moses Destroys the Tables of the Ten Commandments (watercolor circa 1896–1902 by James Tissot)

Noting that in Deuteronomy 9:9, Moses said, “And I sat (Template:Hebrew, va-eisheiv) on the mount,” and in Deuteronomy 10:10, Moses said, “And I stood in the mount, Rav taught that Moses stood when he learned (from God) and sat while he reviewed what he had learned (by himself). Rabbi Hanina taught that Moses neither sat nor stood, but bowed. Rabbi Johanan taught that “sat” (Template:Hebrew, va-eisheiv) here meant only “stayed,” as it does in Deuteronomy 1:46, which says, “And you stayed (Template:Hebrew, teshbu) in Kadesh many days.” Rava taught that Moses learned the easy things standing and the hard ones sitting.[151]

Moses Casts Down the Two Tablets (woodcut by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld from the 1860 Bible in Pictures)

A Midrash explained why Moses broke the stone tablets. When the Israelites committed the sin of the Golden Calf, God sat in judgment to condemn them, as Deuteronomy 9:14 says, “Let Me alone, that I may destroy them,” but God had not yet condemned them. So Moses took the tablets from God to appease God’s wrath. The Midrash compared the act of Moses to that of a king’s marriage-broker. The king sent the broker to secure a wife for the king, but while the broker was on the road, the woman corrupted herself with another man. The broker (who was entirely innocent) took the marriage document that the king had given the broker to seal the marriage and tore it, reasoning that it would be better for the woman to be judged as an unmarried woman than as a wife.[152]

A Midrash recounted how at first (after the incident of the Golden Calf), God pronounced a decree against Aaron, as Deuteronomy 9:20 says, “The Lord was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed (Template:Hebrew, le-hashmid) him.” And Rabbi Joshua of Siknin taught in the name of Rabbi Levi that “destruction” (Template:Hebrew, hashmadah) means extinction of offspring, as in Amos 2:9, which says, “And I destroyed (Template:Hebrew, va-ashmid) his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.” But, as Rabbi Joshua ben Levi taught, prayer effects half atonement. So when Moses prayed on Aaron’s behalf, God annulled half the decree. Aaron’s two sons Nadab and Abihu died, and Aaron’s two other sons remained. Thus Leviticus 8:1–2 says, “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ‘Take Aaron and his sons’” (implying that they were to be saved from death).[153]

Deuteronomy chapter 10

Reading the words, “which you broke, and you shall put them,” in Deuteronomy 10:2, Rav Joseph noted that the verse employs superfluous words to describe the Tablets. Rav Joseph reasoned that the two mentionings of the Tablets teaches that both the Tablets and the fragments of the Tablets that Moses broke were deposited in the Ark.[154] Rav Joseph deduced from this that a scholar who has forgotten his learning through no fault of his own (through old age, sickness, or trouble, but not through willful neglect) is still due respect (by analogy to the broken pieces of the tablets that the Israelites nonetheless treated with sanctity).[155]

Resh Lakish deduced from the interjection of the apparently parenthetical words, “which you broke,” in Deuteronomy 10:2 that God was thereby saying to Moses that Moses did well to break them.[156]

Rabbi Hanina deduced from Deuteronomy 10:12 that everything is in the hand of Heaven except the fear of Heaven, for Deuteronomy 10:12 says: “What does the Lord your God ask of you, but only to fear the Lord your God.” The Gemara asked whether the fear of Heaven was such a little thing that Deuteronomy 10:12 says “only.” Rabbi Hanina said in the name Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai that God has in God’s treasury nothing but a store of the fear of Heaven, as Isaiah 33:6 says: “The fear of the Lord is His treasure,” and thus the fear of Heaven must be a great thing. The Gemara responded that for Moses, the fear of Heaven was a small thing, for he had it. Rabbi Hanina illustrated with a parable: If a man is asked for a big article and he has it, it seems like a small article to him; if he is asked for a small article and he does not have it, it seems like a big article to him.[157]

Rav Awira (or some say Rabbi Joshua ben Levi) taught that the Evil Inclination has seven names. God called it “Evil” in Genesis 8:21, saying, “the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” Moses called it “the Uncircumcised” in Deuteronomy 10:16, saying, “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart.” David called it “Unclean” in Psalm 51:12; Solomon called it “the Enemy” in Proverbs 25:21–22; Isaiah called it “the Stumbling-Block” in Isaiah 57:14; Ezekiel called it “Stone” in Ezekiel 36:26; and Joel called it “the Hidden One” in Joel 2:20.[158]

Jeremiah (fresco circa 1508–1512 by Michelangelo)
Daniel (fresco circa 1508–1512 by Michelangelo)

Rabbi Joshua ben Levi said that the men of the Great Assembly were so called because they restored the crown of the divine attributes — the enumeration of God’s praise — to its ancient completeness. For in Deuteronomy 10:17, Moses called God “the great, the mighty, and the awesome.” Then when Jeremiah saw foreigners despoiling the Temple, he asked where God’s awesome deeds were, and thus in Jeremiah 32:18, he omitted “awesome.” And then when Daniel saw foreigners enslaving the Israelites, he asked where God’s mighty deeds were, and thus in Daniel 9:4, he omitted the word “mighty.” But the men of the Great Assembly came and said that these circumstances showed God’s mighty deeds, because God suppressed God’s wrath, extending longsuffering to the wicked. And these circumstances showed God’s awesome powers, for but for the fear of God, how could the single nation of Israel survive among the many nations. The Gemara asked how Jeremiah and Daniel could alter words established by Moses. Rabbi Eleazar said that since Jeremiah and Daniel knew that God insists on truth, they did not want to ascribe false attributions to God.[159]

Rabbi Eliezer the Great taught that the Torah warns against wronging a stranger in 36, or others say 46, places (including Deuteronomy 10:18–19). The Gemara went on to cite Rabbi Nathan’s interpretation of Exodus 22:20, “You shall neither wrong a stranger, nor oppress him; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt,” to teach that one must not taunt one’s neighbor about a flaw that one has oneself. The Gemara taught that thus a proverb says: If there is a case of hanging in a person’s family history, do not say to the person, “Hang up this fish for me.”[160]

Reading the words, “love the stranger, in giving him food and clothing,” in Deuteronomy 10:18, Akilas the proselyte asked Rabbi Eliezer whether food and clothing constituted all the benefit of conversion to Judaism. Rabbi Eliezer replied that food and clothing are no small things, for in Genesis 28:20, Jacob prayed to God for “bread to eat, and clothing to put on,” while God comes and offers it to the convert on a platter. Akilas then visited Rabbi Joshua, who taught that “bread” refers to the Torah (as in Proverbs 9:5, Wisdom — the Torah — says, “Come, eat of my bread”), while “clothing” means the Torah scholar’s cloak. A person privileged to study the Torah is thus privileged to perform God's precepts. Moreover, converts’ daughters could marry into the priesthood, so that their descendants could offer burnt-offerings on the altar. The Midrash offered another interpretation: “Bread” refers to the showbread, while “clothing” refers to the priestly vestments. The Midrash offered yet another interpretation: “Bread” refers to challah, while “clothing” refers to the first shearings of the sheep, both of which belong to the priests.[161]

The Numbering of the Israelites (19th-century engraving by Henri Félix Emmanuel Philippoteaux)

The Gemara deduced from Deuteronomy 10:20 that it is a positive commandment to fear God.[162]

A Midrash taught that the Israelites were counted on ten occasions:[163] (1) when they went down to Egypt (as reported in Deuteronomy 10:22), (2) when they went up out of Egypt,[164] (3) at the first census in Numbers,[165] (4) at the second census in Numbers,[166] (5) once for the banners, (6) once in the time of Joshua for the division of the Land of Israel, (7) once by Saul,[167] (8) a second time by Saul,[168] (9) once by David,[169] and (10) once in the time of Ezra.[170]

Deuteronomy chapter 11

Already at the time of the Mishnah, Deuteronomy 11:13–21 constituted the second part of a standard Shema prayer that the priests recited daily, following Deuteronomy 6:4–9 and preceding Numbers 15:37–41.[171] The first three chapters of tractate Berakhot in the Mishnah, Jerusalem Talmud, and Babylonian Talmud and the first two chapters of tractate Berakhot in the Tosefta interpreted the laws of the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4–9 and 11:13–21.[172]

Rabbi Joshua ben Korhah taught that the Shema prayer puts Deuteronomy 6:4–9 before Deuteronomy 11:13–21 so that those who say the prayer should first accept upon themselves the yoke of Heaven’s sovereignty and then take upon themselves the yoke of the commandments. And Deuteronomy 11:13–21 comes before Numbers 15:37–41 because Deuteronomy 11:13–21 applies both day and night (since it mentions all the commandments), whereas Numbers 15:37–41 is applicable only to the day (since it mentions only the precept of the fringes, which is not obligatory at night).[173]

The Gemara reported a number of Rabbis’ reports of how the Land of Israel did indeed flow with “milk and honey,” as described in Exodus 3:8 and 17, 13:5, and 33:3, Leviticus 20:24, Numbers 13:27 and 14:8, and Deuteronomy 6:3, 11:9, 26:9 and 15, 27:3, and 31:20. Once when Rami bar Ezekiel visited Bnei Brak, he saw goats grazing under fig trees while honey was flowing from the figs, and milk dripped from the goats mingling with the fig honey, causing him to remark that it was indeed a land flowing with milk and honey. Rabbi Jacob ben Dostai said that it is about three miles from Lod to Ono, and once he rose up early in the morning and waded all that way up to his ankles in fig honey. Resh Lakish said that he saw the flow of the milk and honey of Sepphoris extend over an area of sixteen miles by sixteen miles. Rabbah bar bar Hana said that he saw the flow of the milk and honey in all the Land of Israel and the total area was equal to an area of twenty-two parasangs by six parasangs.[174]

The Rabbis in a Baraita questioned what was to be learned from the words of Deuteronomy 11:14: “And you shall gather in your corn and wine and oil.” Rabbi Ishmael replied that since Joshua 1:8 says, “This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate therein day and night,” one might think that one must take this injunction literally (and study Torah every waking moment). Therefore Deuteronomy 11:14 directs one to “gather in your corn,” implying that one should combine Torah study with a worldly occupation. Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai questioned that, however, asking if a person plows in plowing season, sows in sowing season, reaps in reaping season, threshes in threshing season, and winnows in the season of wind, when would one find time for Torah? Rather, Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai taught that when Israel performs God’s will, others perform its worldly work, as Isaiah 61:5–6 says, “And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, aliens shall be your plowmen and vine-trimmers; while you shall be called ‘Priests of the Lord,’ and termed ‘Servants of our God.’” And when Israel does not perform God’s will, it has to carry out its worldly work by itself, as Deuteronomy 11:14 says, “And you shall gather in your corn.” And not only that, but the Israelites would also do the work of others, as Deuteronomy 28:48 says, “And you shall serve your enemy whom the Lord will let loose against you. He will put an iron yoke upon your neck until He has wiped you out.” Abaye observed that many had followed Rabbi Ishmael’s advice to combine secular work and Torah study and it worked well, while others have followed the advice of Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai to devote themselves exclusively to Torah study and not succeeded. Rava would ask the Rabbis (his disciples) not to appear before him during Nisan (when corn ripened) and Tishrei (when people pressed grapes and olives) so that they might not be anxious about their food supply during the rest of the year.[175]

Rav Judah taught in the name of Rav that one is forbidden to eat before giving food to one’s animals, as Deuteronomy 11:15 says, “And I will give grass in your fields for your cattle,” and only after that does Deuteronomy 11:15 say, “you shall eat and be satisfied.”[176]

The Rabbis taught in a Baraita that Deuteronomy 11:18 says of the Torah, “So you fix (Template:Hebrew, ve-samtem) these My words in your heart and in your soul.” The Rabbis taught that one should read the word samtem rather as sam tam (meaning “a perfect remedy”). The Rabbis thus compared the Torah to a perfect remedy. The Rabbis compared this to a man who struck his son a strong blow, and then put a compress on the son’s wound, telling his son that so long as the compress was on his wound, he could eat and drink at will, and bathe in hot or cold water, without fear. But if the son removed the compress, his skin would break out in sores. Even so did God tell Israel that God created the Evil Inclination (yetzer hara), but also created the Torah as its antidote. God told Israel that if they occupied themselves with the Torah, they would not be delivered into the hand of the Evil Inclination, as Genesis 4:7 says: “If you do well, shall you not be exalted?” But if Israel did not occupy themselves with the Torah, they would be delivered into the hand of the Evil Inclination, as Genesis 4:7 says: “sin couches at the door.” Moreover, the Rabbis taught, the Evil Inclination is altogether preoccupied to make people sin, as Genesis 4:7 says: “and to you shall be his desire.” Yet if one wishes, one can rule over the Evil Inclination, as Genesis 4:7 says: “and you shall rule over him.” The Rabbis taught in a Baraita that the Evil Inclination is hard to bear, since even God its Creator called it evil, as in Genesis 8:21, God says, “the desire of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” Rav Isaac taught that a person’s Evil Inclination renews itself against that person daily, as Genesis 6:5 says, “Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil every day.” And Rabbi Simeon ben Levi (or others say Rabbi Simeon ben Lakish) taught that a person’s Evil Inclination gathers strength against that person daily and seeks to slay that person, as Psalm 37:32 says, “The wicked watches the righteous, and seeks to slay him.” And if God were not to help a person, one would not be able to prevail against one’s Evil Inclination, for as Psalm 37:33 says, “The Lord will not leave him in his hand.”[177]

Rabban Gamaliel cited Deuteronomy 11:21 as an instance where the Torah alludes to life after death. The Gemara related that sectarians asked Rabban Gamaliel where Scripture says that God will resurrect the dead. Rabban Gamaliel answered them from the Torah, the Prophets (Template:Hebrew, Nevi'im), and the Writings (Template:Hebrew, Ketuvim), yet the sectarians did not accept his proofs. From the Torah, Rabban Gamaliel cited Deuteronomy 31:16, “And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Behold, you shall sleep with your fathers and rise up [again].’” But the sectarians replied that perhaps Deuteronomy 31:16 reads, “and the people will rise up.” From the Prophets, Rabban Gamaliel cited Isaiah 26:19, “Your dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust: for your dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out its dead.” But the sectarians rejoined that perhaps Isaiah 26:19 refers to the dead whom Ezekiel resurrected in Ezekiel 27. From the Writings, Rabban Gamaliel cited Song 7:9, “And the roof of your mouth, like the best wine of my beloved, that goes down sweetly, causing the lips of those who are asleep to speak.” (As the Rabbis interpreted Song of Songs as a dialogue between God and Israel, they understood Song 7:9 to refer to the dead, whom God will cause to speak again.) But the sectarians rejoined that perhaps Song 7:9 means merely that the lips of the departed will move. For Rabbi Johanan said that if a halachah (legal ruling) is said in any person’s name in this world, the person’s lips speak in the grave, as Song 7:9 says, “causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak.” Thus Rabban Gamaliel did not satisfy the sectarians until he quoted Deuteronomy 11:21, “which the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them.” Rabban Gamaliel noted that God swore to give the land not “to you” (the Israelites whom Moses addressed) but “to them” (the Patriarchs, who had long since died). Others say that Rabban Gamaliel proved it from Deuteronomy 4:4, “But you who did cleave to the Lord your God are alive every one of you this day.” And (the superfluous use of “this day” implies that) just as you are all alive today, so shall you all live again in the world to come. [178]

Interpreting the words “to walk in all His ways” in Deuteronomy 11:22, the Sifre taught that to walk in God’s ways means to be (in the words of Exodus 34:6) “merciful and gracious.”[179] Similarly, Rabbi Hama son of Rabbi Hanina asked what Deuteronomy 13:5 means in the text, “You shall walk after the Lord your God.” How can a human being walk after God, when Deuteronomy 4:24 says, “[T]he Lord your God is a devouring fire”? Rabbi Hama son of Rabbi Hanina explained that the command to walk after God means to walk after the attributes of God. As God clothes the naked — for Genesis 3:21 says, “And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife coats of skin, and clothed them” — so should we also clothe the naked. God visited the sick — for Genesis 18:1 says, “And the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre” (after Abraham was circumcised in Genesis 17:26) — so should we also visit the sick. God comforted mourners — for Genesis 25:11 says, “And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed Isaac his son” — so should we also comfort mourners. God buried the dead — for Deuteronomy 34:6 says, “And He buried him in the valley” — so should we also bury the dead.[180]

Commandments

According to Sefer ha-Chinuch, there are 6 positive and 2 negative commandments in the parashah.[181]

  • Not to derive benefit from any ornamentation of an idol[182]
  • Not to take any object from idolatry into our possession, to derive benefit from it[183]
  • The precept of blessing the Almighty for the food we receive[184]
  • The precept of love for converts to Judaism[185]
  • The precept of reverent awe for the Eternal Lord[186]
  • The precept of prayer to the Almighty[187]
  • The mitzvah of associating with Torah scholars and adhering to them[188]
  • That whoever needs to take an oath should swear by the Name of the Eternal Lord[189]
A page from a 14th-century German Haggadah

In the liturgy

In the Blessing after Meals (Birkat Hamazon), Jews sometimes quote Deuteronomy 8:10, the Scriptural basis for the Blessing after Meals, immediately before the invitation (zimun), and quote it again at the close of the second blessing (for the Land of Israel).[190]

The opening sentence of the Amidah quotes Moses’s characterization of God in Deuteronomy 10:17 as “the great, the mighty, and the awesome.”[191]

The Passover Haggadah, in the magid section of the Seder, quotes Deteronomy 10:22.Template:Bibleverse with invalid book[192]

Deuteronomy 11:13–21 is the second of three blocks of verses in the Shema, a central prayer in Jewish prayer services. Jews combine Deuteronomy 6:4–9, Deuteronomy 11:13–21, and Numbers 15:37–41 to form the core of K’riat Shema, recited in the evening (Template:Hebrew, Ma’ariv) and morning (Template:Hebrew, Shacharit) prayer services.[193]

Isaiah (1509 fresco by Michelangelo)

Haftarah

The haftarah for the parashah is Isaiah 49:14–51:3. The haftarah is the second in the cycle of seven haftarot of consolation after Tisha B'Av, leading up to Rosh Hashanah.

Further reading

The parashah has parallels or is discussed in these sources:

Biblical

Pliny

Early nonrabbinic

Josephus

Classical rabbinic

  • Mishnah: Berakhot 1:1–3:6; Bikkurim 1:3; Sotah 7:8; Avodah Zarah 1:9, 3:1–10; Tamid 5:1. Land of Israel, circa 200 C.E. Reprinted in, e.g., The Mishnah: A New Translation. Translated by Jacob Neusner, 3–7, 167, 458–59, 662, 664–67, 869. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988. ISBN 0-300-05022-4.
  • Sifre to Deuteronomy 37:1–52:1. Land of Israel, circa 250–350 C.E. Reprinted in, e.g., Sifre to Deuteronomy: An Analytical Translation. Translated by Jacob Neusner. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1987. ISBN 1-55540-145-7.
  • Tosefta: Berakhot 1:1–2:21; 4:15; 6:1; Sotah 7:17; 8:10; Avodah Zarah 3:19; 5:6; 6:13; Zavim 5:6. Land of Israel, circa 300 CE. Reprinted in, e.g., The Tosefta: Translated from the Hebrew, with a New Introduction. Translated by Jacob Neusner, 1:3–13, 25, 36, 864, 871; 2:1273, 1280, 1285, 1898. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 2002. ISBN 1-56563-642-2.
Talmud
Rashi

Medieval

  • Rashi. Commentary. Deuteronomy 7–11. Troyes, France, late 11th Century. Reprinted in, e.g., Rashi. The Torah: With Rashi’s Commentary Translated, Annotated, and Elucidated. Translated and annotated by Yisrael Isser Zvi Herczeg, 5:83–118. Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 1997. ISBN 0-89906-030-7.
  • Judah Halevi. Kuzari. 1:97; 2:14, 47–48, 56. Toledo, Spain, 1130–1140. Reprinted in, e.g., Jehuda Halevi. Kuzari: An Argument for the Faith of Israel. Intro. by Henry Slonimsky, 68–69, 89, 111–12, 119. New York: Schocken, 1964. ISBN 0-8052-0075-4.
  • Benjamin of Tudela. The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela. Spain, 1173. Reprinted in The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela: Travels in the Middle Ages. Introductions by Michael A. Singer, Marcus Nathan Adler, A. Asher, 91. Malibu, Calif.: Joseph Simon, 1983. ISBN 0-934710-07-4. (Anak).
Hobbes
  • Zohar 3:270a–. Spain, late 13th Century. Reprinted in, e.g., The Zohar. Translated by Harry Sperling and Maurice Simon. 5 vols. London: Soncino Press, 1934.

Modern

  • Thomas Hobbes. Leviathan, 2:26; 3:40; 4:45. England, 1651. Reprint edited by C. B. Macpherson, 319, 504–05, 672, 676–77. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Classics, 1982. ISBN 0-14-043195-0.
  • Moshe Chaim Luzzatto Mesillat Yesharim, introduction. Amsterdam, 1740. Reprinted in Mesillat Yesharim: The Path of the Just, 9–13. Jerusalem: Feldheim, 1966. ISBN 0-87306-114-4. (Interpreting Deuteronomy 10:12).
  • Samson Raphael Hirsch. Horeb: A Philosophy of Jewish Laws and Observances. Translated by Isidore Grunfeld, 35–43, 47–50, 175–80, 187–89, 376–77, 406–16, 448–52, 471–78, 525–30, 544–47, 565–67. London: Soncino Press, 1962. Reprinted 2002 ISBN 0-900689-40-4. Originally published as Horeb, Versuche über Jissroel’s Pflichten in der Zerstreuung. Germany, 1837.
Hirsch
  • Abraham Isaac Kook. The Moral Principles. Early 20th Century. Reprinted in Abraham Isaac Kook: the Lights of Penitence, the Moral Principles, Lights of Holiness, Essays, Letters, and Poems. Translated by Ben Zion Bokser, 176. Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press 1978. ISBN 0-8091-2159-X.
  • Thomas Mann. Joseph and His Brothers. Translated by John E. Woods, 788. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005. ISBN 1-4000-4001-9. Originally published as Joseph und seine Brüder. Stockholm: Bermann-Fischer Verlag, 1943.
  • Abraham Joshua Heschel. Man's Quest for God: Studies in Prayer and Symbolism, 36. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1954.
  • Bob Dylan. “Gates of Eden.” In Bringing It All Back Home. Columbia Records, 1965. (“Aladdin and his lamp sits with Utopian hermit monks side saddle on the Golden Calf”).
  • Martin Buber. On the Bible: Eighteen studies, 80–92. New York: Schocken Books, 1968.
Dylan
  • Moshe Weinfeld. Deuteronomy 1-11, 5:357–455. New York: Anchor Bible, 1991. ISBN 0-385-17593-0.
  • Joel Roth. “Homosexuality.” New York: Rabbinical Assembly, 1992. EH 24.1992b. Reprinted in Responsa: 1991–2000: The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative Movement. Edited by Kassel Abelson and David J. Fine, 613, 615. New York: Rabbinical Assembly, 2002. ISBN 0-916219-19-4. (interpreting the term “abhorrence”).
  • Elliot N. Dorff. “Artificial Insemination, Egg Donation and Adoption.” New York: Rabbinical Assembly, 1994. EH 1:3.1994. Reprinted in Responsa: 1991–2000: The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative Movement. Edited by Kassel Abelson and David J. Fine, 461, 462, 464. New York: Rabbinical Assembly, 2002. ISBN 0-916219-19-4. (children among life’s chief goods).
  • Neil Gillman. Sacred Fragments: Recovering Theology for the Modern Jew, xxiv-xxv. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1994. ISBN 0-8276-0352-5. (arguing that for many Jews, the traditional images that characterized Judaism are like the irreparably shattered Tablets, and modern Jews must carve out their new set of interpretations, without discarding the old).
  • Jacob Milgrom. “‘The Alien in Your Midst’: Every nation has its ger: the permanent resident. The Torah commands us, first, not to oppress the ger, and then to befriend and love him.” Bible Review. 11 (6) (Dec. 1995).
  • Jeffrey H. Tigay. The JPS Torah Commentary: Deuteronomy: The Traditional Hebrew Text with the New JPS Translation, 88–115, 438–46. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1996. ISBN 0-8276-0330-4.
  • Elliot N. Dorff. “Assisted Suicide.” New York: Rabbinical Assembly, 1997. YD 345.1997a. Reprinted in Responsa: 1991–2000: The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative Movement. Edited by Kassel Abelson and David J. Fine, 379, 380. New York: Rabbinical Assembly, 2002. ISBN 0-916219-19-4. (implications for assisted suicide of God’s ownership of the universe).
  • “Sh’ma.” In My People's Prayer Book: Traditional Prayers, Modern Commentaries: The Sh'ma and Its Blessings. Edited by Lawrence A. Hoffman. Vol. 1, at 83–116. Woodstock, Vermont: Jewish Lights Publishing, 1997. ISBN 1-879045-79-6.
Goldstein
  • Elie Kaplan Spitz. “On the Use of Birth Surrogates.” New York: Rabbinical Assembly, 1997. EH 1:3.1997b. Reprinted in Responsa: 1991–2000: The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative Movement. Edited by Kassel Abelson and David J. Fine, 529, 536. New York: Rabbinical Assembly, 2002. ISBN 0-916219-19-4. (promise of abundant offspring).
  • Suzanne A. Brody. “Fall-able.” In Dancing in the White Spaces: The Yearly Torah Cycle and More Poems, 104. Shelbyville, Kentucky: Wasteland Press, 2007. ISBN 1-60047-112-9.
  • Esther Jungreis. Life Is a Test, 18, 128, 208, 261–62. Brooklyn: Shaar Press, 2007. ISBN 1-4226-0609-0.
  • Jonathan Goldstein. “The Golden Calf.” In Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bible! 115–28. New York: Riverhead Books, 2009. ISBN 978-1-59448-367-7.

Texts

Commentaries

Notes

  1. ^ "Devarim Torah Stats". Akhlah Inc. Retrieved July 6, 2013.
  2. ^ See, e.g., Menachem Davis. The Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Devarim / Deuteronomy, 55–78. Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 2009. ISBN 1-4226-0210-9.
  3. ^ Deuteronomy 7:12–15.
  4. ^ Deuteronomy 7:16.
  5. ^ See, e.g., The Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash, at 56.
  6. ^ Deuteronomy 7:17–19.
  7. ^ Deuteronomy 7:19–20.
  8. ^ Deuteronomy 7:22.
  9. ^ Deuteronomy 7:25–26.
  10. ^ See, e.g., The Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash, at 58.
  11. ^ Deuteronomy 8:2.
  12. ^ Deuteronomy 8:3.
  13. ^ Deuteronomy 8:4.
  14. ^ Deuteronomy 8:5.
  15. ^ Deuteronomy 8:7–10.
  16. ^ See, e.g., The Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash, at 60.
  17. ^ Deuteronomy 8:11–18.
  18. ^ See, e.g., The Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash, at 61.
  19. ^ Deuteronomy 8:19–20.
  20. ^ See, e.g., The Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash, at 62.
  21. ^ Deuteronomy 9:1–3.
  22. ^ See, e.g., The Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash, at 62.
  23. ^ Deuteronomy 9:4–6.
  24. ^ Deuteronomy 9:7.
  25. ^ Deuteronomy 9:8.
  26. ^ Deuteronomy 9:9.
  27. ^ Deuteronomy 9:10–11.
  28. ^ Deuteronomy 9:12.
  29. ^ Deuteronomy 9:14.
  30. ^ Deuteronomy 9:15–16.
  31. ^ Deuteronomy 9:17–18.
  32. ^ Deuteronomy 9:19.
  33. ^ Deuteronomy 9:20.
  34. ^ Deuteronomy 9:21.
  35. ^ Deuteronomy 9:22.
  36. ^ Deuteronomy 9:23.
  37. ^ Deuteronomy 9:25–29.
  38. ^ See, e.g., The Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash, at 67.
  39. ^ Deuteronomy 10:1.
  40. ^ Deuteronomy 10:2–5.
  41. ^ Deuteronomy 10:6.
  42. ^ Deuteronomy 10:7.
  43. ^ Deuteronomy 10:8–9.
  44. ^ See, e.g., The Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash, at 69.
  45. ^ Deuteronomy 10:12–13.
  46. ^ Deuteronomy 10:14–15.
  47. ^ Deuteronomy 10:17–18.
  48. ^ Deuteronomy 10:19.
  49. ^ Deuteronomy 10:20–22.
  50. ^ Deuteronomy 11:1.
  51. ^ Deuteronomy 11:2–7.
  52. ^ Deuteronomy 11:8–9.
  53. ^ See, e.g., The Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash, at 73.
  54. ^ Deuteronomy 11:10–12.
  55. ^ See, e.g., The Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash, at 74.
  56. ^ Deuteronomy 11:13–21.
  57. ^ Deuteronomy 11:13–14.
  58. ^ Deuteronomy 11:15.
  59. ^ Deuteronomy 11:16–17.
  60. ^ Deuteronomy 11:18–19.
  61. ^ Deuteronomy 11:20–21.
  62. ^ See, e.g., The Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash, at 77.
  63. ^ Deuteronomy 11:22–24.
  64. ^ See, e.g., The Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash, at 78.
  65. ^ Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament. Edited by James B. Pritchard, 328. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969. ISBN 0-691-03503-2.
  66. ^ For more on inner-Biblical interpretation, see, e.g., Benjamin D. Sommer. “Inner-biblical Interpretation.” In The Jewish Study Bible. Edited by Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler, pages 1829–35. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-19-529751-2.
  67. ^ 1 Kings 12:26–28.
  68. ^ 1 Kings 12:29–30.
  69. ^ 1 Kings 12:31.
  70. ^ 1 Kings 12:32–33.
  71. ^ Deuteronomy 17:9; 1 Chronicles 23:4; 26:29; 2 Chronicles 19:8–11; Nehemiah 11:16.
  72. ^ Deuteronomy 33:10; 2 Chronicles 17:8–9; 30:22; 35:3; Nehemiah 8:7–13; Malachi 2:6–7.
  73. ^ 1 Chronicles 16:4.
  74. ^ 1 Chronicles 15:16; 23:5; 2 Chronicles 5:12.
  75. ^ Midrash Tanhuma Devorim Eikev 1. 6th–7th century. Reprinted in, e.g., Metsudah Midrash Tanchuma. Translated and annotated by Avraham Davis; edited by Yaakov Y.H. Pupko, 8:54. Monsey, N.Y.: Eastern Book Press, 2006.
  76. ^ Deuteronomy Rabbah 3:1. Land of Israel, 9th century. Reprinted in, e.g., Midrash Rabbah: Deuteronomy. Translated by H. Freedman and Maurice Simon, 7:67–68. London: Soncino Press, 1939. ISBN 0-900689-38-2.
  77. ^ Deuteronomy Rabbah 3:2. Land of Israel, 9th century. Reprinted in, e.g., Midrash Rabbah: Deuteronomy. Translated by H. Freedman and Maurice Simon, 7:68–69. London: Soncino Press, 1939. ISBN 0-900689-38-2.
  78. ^ Deuteronomy Rabbah 3:4. Land of Israel, 9th century. Reprinted in, e.g., Midrash Rabbah: Deuteronomy. Translated by H. Freedman and Maurice Simon, 7:71–72. London: Soncino Press, 1939. ISBN 0-900689-38-2.
  79. ^ Babylonian Talmud Bava Kamma 113b.
  80. ^ Babylonian Talmud Sotah 36a.
  81. ^ Mishnah Avodah Zarah 3:1–10. Land of Israel, circa 200 CE. Reprinted in, e.g., The Mishnah: A New Translation. Translated by Jacob Neusner, 664–67. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988. ISBN 0-300-05022-4. Jerusalem Talmud Avodah Zarah ch. 3. Babylonian Talmud Avodah Zarah 40b–49b.
  82. ^ Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 93a.
  83. ^ Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael Bahodesh chapter 8. Land of Israel, late 4th century. Reprinted in, e.g., Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael. Translated by Jacob Z. Lauterbach, volume 2, page 337. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1933, reissued 2004. ISBN 0-8276-0678-8.
  84. ^ Babylonian Talmud Kiddushin 58a.
  85. ^ Babylonian Talmud Sotah 4b.
  86. ^ Mishnah Bikkurim 1:3. Land of Israel, circa 200 CE. Reprinted in, e.g., The Mishnah: A New Translation. Translated by Jacob Neusner, 167. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988. ISBN 0-300-05022-4.
  87. ^ Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 20b.
  88. ^ Babylonian Talmud Sotah 4b–5a. Babylonia, 6th century. Reprinted in, e.g., Talmud Bavli: Tractate Sotah. Elucidated by Avrohom Neuberger and Abba Zvi Naiman; edited by Yisroel Simcha Schorr and Chaim Malinowitz, vol. 33a, at 4b4–5a1. Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 2000.
  89. ^ Ecclesiastes 1:16.
  90. ^ Ecclesiastes 1:16.
  91. ^ 1 Kings 3:9.
  92. ^ 2 Kings 5:26.
  93. ^ 1 Samuel 17:32.
  94. ^ Ezekiel 22:14.
  95. ^ Psalm 16:9.
  96. ^ Lamentations 2:18.
  97. ^ Isaiah 40:2.
  98. ^ Deuteronomy 15:10.
  99. ^ Exodus 9:12.
  100. ^ Deuteronomy 20:3.
  101. ^ Genesis 6:6.
  102. ^ Deuteronomy 28:67.
  103. ^ Psalm 51:19.
  104. ^ Jeremiah 5:23.
  105. ^ 1 Kings 12:33.
  106. ^ Deuteronomy 29:18.
  107. ^ Psalm 45:2.
  108. ^ Proverbs 19:21.
  109. ^ Psalm 21:3.
  110. ^ Proverbs 7:25.
  111. ^ Numbers 15:39.
  112. ^ Genesis 18:5.
  113. ^ Genesis 31:20.
  114. ^ Leviticus 26:41.
  115. ^ Genesis 34:3.
  116. ^ Isaiah 21:4.
  117. ^ 1 Samuel 4:13.
  118. ^ Song of Songs 5:2.
  119. ^ Deuteronomy 6:5.
  120. ^ Leviticus 19:17.
  121. ^ Proverbs 23:17.
  122. ^ Jeremiah 17:10.
  123. ^ Joel 2:13.
  124. ^ Psalm 49:4.
  125. ^ Jeremiah 20:9.
  126. ^ Ezekiel 36:26.
  127. ^ 2 Kings 23:25.
  128. ^ Deuteronomy 19:6.
  129. ^ 1 Samuel 25:37.
  130. ^ Joshua 7:5.
  131. ^ Deuteronomy 6:6.
  132. ^ Jeremiah 32:40.
  133. ^ Psalm 111:1.
  134. ^ Proverbs 6:25.
  135. ^ Proverbs 28:14.
  136. ^ Judges 16:25.
  137. ^ Proverbs 12:20.
  138. ^ 1 Samuel 1:13.
  139. ^ Jeremiah 22:17.
  140. ^ Proverbs 3:3.
  141. ^ Proverbs 6:18.
  142. ^ Proverbs 10:8.
  143. ^ Obadiah 1:3.
  144. ^ Proverbs 16:1.
  145. ^ 2 Chronicles 25:19.
  146. ^ Ecclesiastes Rabbah 1:36. Reprinted in, e.g., Midrash Rabbah: Ruth; Ecclesiastes. Translated by L. Rabinowitz. London: Soncino Press, 1939. ISBN 0-900689-38-2.
  147. ^ Babylonian Talmud Nedarim 38a.
  148. ^ Deuteronomy Rabbah 3:11. Land of Israel, 9th century. Reprinted in, e.g., Midrash Rabbah: Deuteronomy. Translated by H. Freedman and Maurice Simon, 7:78–81. London: Soncino Press, 1939. ISBN 0-900689-38-2.
  149. ^ Babylonian Talmud Yevamot 72a.
  150. ^ Genesis Rabbah 32:5. Land of Israel, 5th century. Reprinted in, e.g., Midrash Rabbah: Genesis. Translated by H. Freedman and Maurice Simon, 1:252. London: Soncino Press, 1939. ISBN 0-900689-38-2.
  151. ^ Babylonian Talmud Megillah 21a. Babylonia, 6th century. Reprinted in, e.g., Talmud Bavli: Tractate Megillah. Elucidated by Gedaliah Zlotowitz and Hersh Goldwurm; edited by Yisroel Simcha Schorr, vol. 20, at 21a3–4. Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 1991.
  152. ^ Exodus Rabbah 43:1. 10th century. Reprinted in, e.g., Midrash Rabbah: Exodus. Translated by S. M. Lehrman, 3:494–95. London: Soncino Press, 1939. ISBN 0-900689-38-2.
  153. ^ Leviticus Rabbah 10:5. Land of Israel, 5th century. Reprinted in, e.g., Midrash Rabbah: Leviticus. Translated by H. Freedman and Maurice Simon, 4:126–29. London: Soncino Press, 1939. ISBN 0-900689-38-2.
  154. ^ Babylonian Talmud Bava Batra 14b; Menachot 99a.
  155. ^ Babylonian Talmud Menachot 99a.
  156. ^ Babylonian Talmud Bava Batra 14b.
  157. ^ Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 33b.
  158. ^ Babylonian Talmud Sukkah 52a.
  159. ^ Babylonian Talmud Yoma 69b.
  160. ^ Babylonian Talmud Bava Metzia 59b. Reprinted in, e.g., Talmud Bavli. Elucidated by Mordechai Rabinovitch and Tzvi Horowitz; edited by Yisroel Simcha Schorr, volume 42, page 59b3. Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 1993. ISBN 1-57819-638-8.
  161. ^ Genesis Rabbah 70:5.
  162. ^ Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 56a.
  163. ^ Midrash Tanhuma Ki Sisa 9.
  164. ^ Exodus 12:37.
  165. ^ Numbers 1:1–46.
  166. ^ Numbers 26:1–65.
  167. ^ 1 Samuel 11:8.
  168. ^ 1 Samuel 15:4.
  169. ^ 2 Samuel 24:9.
  170. ^ Ezra 2:64.
  171. ^ Mishnah Tamid 5:1. Land of Israel, circa 200 CE. Reprinted in, e.g., The Mishnah: A New Translation. Translated by Jacob Neusner, 869. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988. ISBN 0-300-05022-4. Babylonian Talmud Tamid 32b.
  172. ^ Mishnah Berakhot 1:1–3:6. Land of Israel, circa 200 CE. Reprinted in, e.g., The Mishnah: A New Translation. Translated by Jacob Neusner, 3–7. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988. ISBN 0-300-05022-4. Tosefta Berakhot 1:1–2:21. Reprinted in, e.g., The Tosefta: Translated from the Hebrew, with a New Introduction. Translated by Jacob Neusner, 1:3–13. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 2002. ISBN 1-56563-642-2. Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 1a–42b. Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 2a–26a. Babylonia, 6th century. Reprinted in, e.g., Talmud Bavli. Elucidated by Gedaliah Zlotowitz; edited by Yisroel Simcha Schorr and Chaim Malinowitz, vol. 1, at 2a1–26a3. Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 1997.
  173. ^ Mishnah Berakhot 2:2. Land of Israel, circa 200 CE. Reprinted in, e.g., The Mishnah: A New Translation. Translated by Jacob Neusner, 5. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988. ISBN 0-300-05022-4. Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 13a. Babylonia, 6th century. Reprinted in, e.g., Talmud Bavli. Elucidated by Gedaliah Zlotowitz; edited by Yisroel Simcha Schorr and Chaim Malinowitz, vol. 1, at 13a3–4. Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 1997.
  174. ^ Babylonian Talmud Ketubot 111b–12a.
  175. ^ Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 35b.
  176. ^ Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 40a.
  177. ^ Babylonian Talmud Kiddushin 30b. Reprinted in, e.g., Talmud Bavli. Elucidated by David Fohrman, Dovid Kamenetsky, and Hersh Goldwurm; edited by Hersh Goldwurm, volume 36, pages 30b1–2. Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 1992. ISBN 1-57819-642-6.
  178. ^ Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 90b. Reprinted in, e.g., Talmud Bavli. Elucidated by Asher Dicker, Joseph Elias, and Dovid Katz; edited by Yisroel Simcha Schorr and Chaim Malinowitz, volume 49, pages 90b2–4. Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 1995. ISBN 1-57819-628-0.
  179. ^ Sifre to Deuteronomy 49:1. Land of Israel, circa 250–350 C.E. Reprinted in, e.g., Sifre to Deuteronomy: An Analytical Translation. Translated by Jacob Neusner, 164. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1987. ISBN 1-55540-145-7.
  180. ^ Babylonian Talmud Sotah 14a.
  181. ^ Sefer HaHinnuch: The Book of [Mitzvah] Education. Translated by Charles Wengrov, 4:304–57. Jerusalem: Feldheim Pub., 1988. ISBN 0-87306-457-7.
  182. ^ Deuteronomy 7:25.
  183. ^ Deuteronomy 7:26.
  184. ^ Deuteronomy 8:10.
  185. ^ Deuteronomy 10:19.
  186. ^ Deuteronomy 10:20.
  187. ^ Deuteronomy 10:20.
  188. ^ Deuteronomy 10:20.
  189. ^ Deuteronomy 10:20.
  190. ^ Menachem Davis. The Schottenstein Edition Siddur for the Sabbath and Festivals with an Interlinear Translation, pages 159, 165. Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 2002. ISBN 1-57819-697-3.
  191. ^ Reuven Hammer. Or Hadash: A Commentary on Siddur Sim Shalom for Shabbat and Festivals, pages 35a–b. New York: The Rabbinical Assembly, 2003. ISBN 0-916219-20-8.
  192. ^ Menachem Davis. The Interlinear Haggadah: The Passover Haggadah, with an Interlinear Translation, Instructions and Comments, page 44. Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 2005. ISBN 1-57819-064-9. Joseph Tabory. JPS Commentary on the Haggadah: Historical Introduction, Translation, and Commentary, 90. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2008. ISBN 978-0-8276-0858-0.
  193. ^ Reuven Hammer. Or Hadash: A Commentary on Siddur Sim Shalom for Shabbat and Festivals, pages 30–31, 112–13, 282–83. Menachem Davis. The Schottenstein Edition Siddur for the Sabbath and Festivals with an Interlinear Translation, pages 95–97, 331–33, 605–06.
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