Torah Study Ekev 5784

Deuteronomy 7:12 - 11:25, Isaiah 49:14 - 51:3, Matthew 16:13-20

Torah Portion D’varim/Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25

Deuteronomy 7:12–15 ““Then it will happen, as a result of your listening to these ordinances, when you keep and do them, that Adonai your God will keep with you the covenant kindness that He swore to your fathers. He will love you, bless you and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the produce of your soil, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that He swore to your fathers to give you. From all peoples, you will be blessed—there will not be male or female barren among you or your livestock. Adonai will remove all sickness from you, and He will not inflict on you any of the terrible diseases of Egypt that you knew, but will inflict them on all who hate you.”

1. Why does HaShem state “ …as a result of your listening to these ordinances, when you keep and do them...” and not “ if you believe in me... “ or “ if you declare my sovereignty...”? #1

a. This is how we believe in him and how we declare his soverignty is through obideience there is not other way.

b. RASHI And if you do obey. Literally, “if you obey the heel.” If you obey the trivial commandments, which a man is tempted to dash under his heels. The Lord your God will maintain faithfully. Literally, He will “keep” (OJPS)—His promise to you.

RASHBAM The Lord your God will maintain faithfully for you the covenant that He made on oath with your fathers. More precisely, He will “keep” it—for a generation that deserves it. If you do not observe the commandments, He will not observe the covenant, but will keep it for another generation.

IBN EZRA And if you do obey. Rather, “as a result” of your obeying. The Hebrew word implies something that will happen “ultimately,” at the far end of a situation or process; compare “I am resolved to follow Your laws to the utmost forever” (Ps. 119:112). The point is simple: You can rely on the fact that the Lord “keeps His covenant” (v. 9). He has kept His covenant with Abraham, and if you remain among those who love Him He will keep the covenant with you as well.

NAHMANIDES And if you do obey. Rather, “because” you obey: “Inasmuch as Abraham obeyed Me” (Gen. 26:5). And see Rashi’s comment, based on the literal meaning of the word ekev (“heel”). Perhaps the intent was to emphasize that the less consequential rules, such as technical rules about financial transactions, are not to be disdained. The commentators say that the Hebrew word implies something that will happen as an ultimate reward: “Your servant pays them heed; in obeying them there is much reward” (Ps. 19:12). This is to say that God’s maintaining the covenant would be a consequence of your obeying the rules. It is certainly true that Hebrew refers to the beginning of something as the “head”: “Your word is true from the beginning” (Ps. 119:160); the same idiom is used for something that is first in rank or quality. Similarly, the end of something can be called the “heel”; both metaphors take their sense from the image of a human body, which begins at the head and ends at the heel. (“The Lord will make you the head, not the tail” of 28:13 uses a comparable image but based on an animal body.) Onkelos translates “in recompense” for your obedience, using a word that essentially implies that such recompense is a “result” of the obedience. And this explains it well; “in return the Lord your God will bless you” (15:10) says much the same thing. Our word too refers to getting something “in return” or to how things will “turn” out; in my opinion, every word from this root implies “twisting” or “turning” or “circling.” Notice how 33:5 turns Jacob (from our ekev root) into Jeshurun (from yashar, “straight”): “the crooked [akov] shall be made straight [mishor]” (Isa. 40:4). Even the meaning “heel” comes from this (because it is curved). These rules. Better, “rulings.” It was simply impossible to expect that such a numerous people would obey all the commandments and never sin at all. But court rulings establish the Torah, as in the case of the son who is a glutton and a drunkard; when he is punished, “all Israel will hear and be afraid” (21:21). People would often be reluctant to stone a sinner to death and thereby “sweep out evil from your midst” (again 21:21), so Deuteronomy frequently warns us to “show no pity” (e.g., v. 16 of this chapter). Similarly, people are likely to be afraid of the powerful or of those who lead the masses astray. So the Torah warns with regard to the mighty, “Hear out low and high alike. Fear no man, for judgment is God’s” (1:17), and with regard to the false prophet, “do not stand in dread of him” (18:22). The paragraph about the enticer, 13:7–12, uses all these expressions.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS If you do obey these rules. Remember that “the Lord favored you”—literally, “loved” you (OJPS)—“and kept the oath He made to your fathers” (v. 8) even before giving you these rules (Bekhor Shor). This verse is obviously a continuation of what precedes it, but our Sages wished to begin the weekly portion with this blessing. As far as calling them “rules,” this indeed can be a general word for all the commandments in the Torah, standing here for all three terms in v. 11. Alternatively, Moses was sure that the Israelites would respect the divine laws but thought they might take the sensible rules lightly, assuming that they were no better than those of any other nation (Abarbanel). The Lord your God will maintain faithfully for you the covenant. Rather, He will maintain “the covenant and the kindness” (compare OJPS). The good things that God does for the righteous in this world are acts of kindness, not rewards for their deeds (Sforno).

Deuteronomy 7:25–26 ““The carved images of their gods you are to burn with fire. You are not to covet the silver or gold on them or take it for yourself—or you could be snared by it, for it is an abomination to Adonai your God. You are not to bring an abomination into your house—for you, like it, will be a banned thing. You must utterly detest and utterly abhor it, for it is set apart for destruction.”

2. What does it mean “You are not to covet the silver or gold on them or take it for yourself”? #2

a. Do not accept money for it to avoid buning it.

b. Do not accept money to create it.

c. Do not accept money to tolerate it.

d. Do not own it because it “has no connection” to what was perviously used for it is just something pretty, neat or a souviener. Ex. Buddah Statues, Mandalas, totem poles, etc.

IBN EZRA You shall not covet the silver and gold on them. Another possible meaning would be, “you shall not covet silver and gold with regard to them,” that is, you should not be willing to be paid off to leave them alone.

NAHMANIDES You shall not covet the silver and gold on them. The translations understand correctly, despite the relative pronoun that is missing in the Hebrew. The gold and silver were used to ornament the idols. The first part of the verse commands the burning of the images, that is, of the idols themselves; in this phrase their ornamentation is also forbidden.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS You shall not covet the silver and gold on them. If you keep them in order to take the silver and gold with which they are plated, you might end up worshiping them. Also: you shall not covet silver and gold “above” them, but must consign them to the fire before taking the opportunity to seek silver and gold. Also: you must not let an idolater redeem them from you by offering you silver and gold. All these are straightforward meanings of the text (Bekhor Shor). An idol worshiped by an Israelite cannot be annulled simply by selling it—and all the idols the Israelites found in Canaan were presumed to fall into this category. For at the time of the Golden Calf, when they said, “These are your gods, O Israel” (as Exod. 32:4 literally says), they wanted to have many “gods,” and since Canaan was as if being held in trust for the Israelites, all the idols there were included (Hizkuni). Should you prosper as a result of having this silver and gold, you might attribute this to the idol they came off of (Sforno).

3. What does it mean “You are not to bring an abomination into your house—for you, like it, will be a banned thing.”? #3

a. This is as a total prohibition as can be said. Do not own it for pleasure, profit, ornimenatation, furnishings or any reason at all. Not for family not for customs not for “this is the way my people used to do things”, not for any reason should an idol be present.

NAHMANIDES You must not bring an abhorrent thing into your house, or you will be proscribed like it. This forbids using any aspect of idolatry for pleasure or profit—neither the idols, nor their ornamentation, nor their furnishings, nor anything that has been offered to them.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS You must reject it as abominable and abhorrent. The silver and gold (Hizkuni).

Deuteronomy 8:5–6 “Now you know in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so Adonai your God disciplines you. So you are to keep the mitzvot of Adonai your God—to walk in His ways and to fear Him.”

4. What does it mean to “...know in your heart...”?

a. this is maturity

b. we do not need constant reminders that discipline from HaShem is because he loves us.

5. What limitations exist for verse 6? Are we limited to time, place, or events?

a. limitations that do exist role, capability, age, and lineage

b. convience, culture, and comfort are not justifications

Deuteronomy 8:11 ““Take care that you do not forget Adonai your God by not keeping His mitzvot, ordinances and statutes that I am commanding you today.”

Deuteronomy 9:5 “It is not by your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you are going in to possess their land. Rather, because of the wickedness of these nations, Adonai your God is driving them out from before you, and in order to keep the word Adonai swore to your fathers—to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”

6. What are the reasons that Yisrael is going in to posses the land?

a. to remove the wicked nations from the land.

b. to fulfill the promise to Avraham, Yitsak and Yakov.

Deuteronomy 10:16 ““Circumcise the foreskin of your heart therefore, and do not be stiff-necked anymore.”

So already in the Torah we see that concept and idea of circumcision of the heart is present. Yisrael is known as a people of circumcision, this includes the females. 7. Is circumcision of the heart the same as the circumcision of the male flesh as a sign of the covenant? #4

a. no it is not the same.

b. circumcison of the heart is a metaphorical removing of the barriers around our heart that clouds our thinking and acceptance of HaShem’s soveringty.

c. circumcision of the male flesh as a sign of the covnenant, is about being a member of Yisrael.

d. they are not the same and as a tool for teaching might be useful in comparison but as a direct relation to each other they are not.

RASHI The thickening about your hearts. Literally, its “foreskin” (OJPS), the covering that obstructs it.

IBN EZRA Cut away, therefore, the thickening about your hearts. Distance yourselves from the appetites that are as coarse and thick as a foreskin. (It may also allude to purification of the heart so that they might understand the truth.) Your necks. See my comment to Exod. 32:9. Note that Moses has just referred to the Israelites as “a stiffnecked people” (9:6).

NAHMANIDES Cut away, therefore, the thickening about your hearts. So that your heart can be open to know the truth, and not as you have done up to this day when “the Lord has not given you a mind to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear” (29:3). Stiffen your necks no more. And do not be like your fathers, “a wayward and defiant generation” (Ps. 78:8), who lived with the Egyptians and learned their habits. It was hard for them to abandon that way of life, which is why in Exod. 32:9, after the making of the calf, God calls them “a stiffnecked people.” They would not turn back from the error that had entered their hearts, which was to think that there might be some benefit in serving the angels or the heavenly host. But you must be wise enough to know and believe that …

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS Cut away, therefore, the thickening about your hearts. That is, “your minds”—meaning that they must remove all of the error that produces false beliefs (Sforno).

Deuteronomy 11:1 ““Therefore you are to love Adonai your God and keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances and His mitzvot at all times.”

8. What is time a reference to here? Example: time of day, season of life, course of actions, years, events, until the Meshiac comes?#5

a. There is no limitation of this

b. it is eternal and always.

IBN EZRA Therefore. Since He “has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven” (10:22). Always. This is added to the commandment “to love Him” of 10:12.

NAHMANIDES Always keep His charge. By fearing Him—that is, by keeping from sinning against Him. A command to love Him, at the beginning of the verse, is naturally followed by a command to fear Him, and then by a command to observe the laws. But the Hebrew phrase could be interpreted literally to mean “protect what He protects.” For He protects the stranger, is generous to the poor and needy, and “upholds the cause of the fatherless and the widow” (10:18). Presumably this is what David meant when he told Solomon, “Keep the charge of the Lord your God, walking in His ways” (1 Kings 2:3). As the Sages put it, “As He is generous and compassionate, so too must you be generous and compassionate.”

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS Always. We learn that the Torah is eternal (Gersonides).

Haftorah Portion yešǎʿyāʹhû/Isaiah 49:14-51:3

Isaiah 49:23 “Kings will be your guardians, their princesses your nurses. They will bow down to you with their face to the ground, and lick the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am Adonai— those hoping in Me will not be ashamed.”” Isaiah 49:25–26 “For thus says Adonai: “Yes, captives of the mighty will be taken and the prey of the tyrant will be freed. For I will oppose your adversary. I will save your children. I will feed your oppressors their flesh. They will be drunk with their blood as with sweet wine. Then all flesh will know that I, Adonai, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.””

9. Compare these 2 verses, What does it take for Yisrael to Know that HaShem is Lord vs what it takes for “all flesh” to know HaShem is Adonai?

a. Yisrael recieves life and justice and blessing

b. “all flesh” will consume themselves

10. What is the implication with this comparison?

a. all flesh only comes to know HaShem is Lord after the submission of all flesh to HaShem through the surving of Yisrael.

Basorah Portion Matthew 16:13-20

Matthew 16:19 “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you forbid on earth will have been forbidden in heaven and what you permit on earth will have been permitted in heaven.””

11. Who is Yeshua speaking to? ( the word for you is σύ sy and is singular or plural you.)

a. Yeshua is speaking to at least Peter but most likely the 3 that would become the authority of his followers.

b. this authority in order of authority is James, John, and Peter.

12. The word translated as whatever is ὅς hos and is more oftern translated as who, whoever, whom, and whomever. With this understanding what is Yeshua saying and what is he actually setting up?

a. Yeshua is giving the leaders authority of judgements and leadership.

b. Yeshua maybe establishing a Beit Din.