Parashat - Va'etchanan | ואתחנן | "I pleaded "

Va'etchanan | ואתחנן | "I pleaded "

| Moses Views Canaan from Pisgah

| Moses Commands Obedience

| Cities of Refuge East of the Jordan

| Transition to the Second Address

| The Ten Commandments

| Moses the Mediator of God's Will

| The Great Commandment

| Caution against Disobedience

| A Chosen People

“anything that is removed from the framework that the Torah established and set up independently becomes idolatry, even if this entity seems like something inherently holy or positive.” - Excerpt From: Adin Steinsaltz. “Talks on the Parasha.” iBooks. https://itun.es/us/BsmT9.l

Excerpt From: Adin Steinsaltz. “Talks on the Parasha.” iBooks. https://itun.es/us/BsmT9.l

“One can be totally committed to some matter; but when it is a commitment to one thing only, it is liable to become what psychologists call monomania: an obsession with one thing.” - Excerpt From: Adin Steinsaltz. “Talks on the Parasha.” iBooks. https://itun.es/us/BsmT9.l

“For example, a man once wrote an entire five hundred-page book about lice. The problem with lice is that they can live only on human beings; if put on mice or on monkeys, they die. So in order to research the lice, the author grew them on his own flesh. Here we see that, for the sake of research, one can sometimes go to incredible lengths. And if a person can have such commitment for louse eggs, it is no wonder that there can also be commitment to Torah study or to the Land of Israel. But so long as a person is crazy about one thing – he is crazy, regardless of what that thing is. This is not to say that raising lice is equal in value to the love of the Land or to Torah study, but it is essentially the same phenomenon. The test of the legitimacy of such devotion is whether the object of one’s obsession is an element within a greater system, or whether it has assumed supreme importance in itself.” - Excerpt From: Adin Steinsaltz. “Talks on the Parasha.” iBooks. https://itun.es/us/BsmT9.l

Excerpt From: Adin Steinsaltz. “Talks on the Parasha.” iBooks. https://itun.es/us/BsmT9.l

Excerpt From: Adin Steinsaltz. “Talks on the Parasha.” iBooks. https://itun.es/us/BsmT9.l

“In 1977, the bbc produced a documentary television series called The Long Search, whose purpose was to cover all religions. To introduce the show, representatives from each religion were invited to speak for three or four minutes about their religion. I was asked to speak about Judaism, and through this experience I discovered how difficult that task is.

Excerpt From: Adin Steinsaltz. “Talks on the Parasha.” iBooks. https://itun.es/us/BsmT9.l

When one speaks about Christianity, one can effectively and accurately summarize the essence of the religion in two or three sentences. Even Islam and Buddhism can be summarized in a few sentences. But how can one summarize Judaism? To be sure, we believe in one God, but that does not set us apart from the other monotheistic religions. We of course believe that people must fulfill mitzvot, but that, too, does not truly set us apart. We believe in all sorts of things – the problem is that there seems to be no one element that fundamentally defines our belief system. One can say that Judaism is belief in God, belief that He chose the Jewish people and gave them the Torah and the obligation to fulfill it – but this, too, is merely a superficial definition.” - Excerpt From: Adin Steinsaltz. “Talks on the Parasha.” iBooks. https://itun.es/us/BsmT9.l

“There was once a large fire that broke out in a town. A Jew stood beside the fire, crying, dancing, clapping his hands, and declaring with great fervor, “Blessed are You, O God…who has not made me a heathen.” The other townsfolk asked the man, “What does this blessing have to do with your dancing beside the fire?” He answers, “If I were a heathen, my god would be consumed in the fire as well. So I am thankful that my God remains alive and well.” The man was right: When one reduces one’s entire faith to one pillar, what happens when that pillar suddenly falls apart and collapses under him? What does one do when his whole world falls apart?

It is hard to be a Jew, because Judaism requires of me to be at once extreme and moderate, calm and wild, to dance and to crawl. This is the complex nature of life that we must accept, even though the evil urge constantly knocks on the door, tempting us to reduce it all to one thing.” - Excerpt From: Adin Steinsaltz. “Talks on the Parasha.” iBooks. https://itun.es/us/BsmT9.l

Excerpt From: Adin Steinsaltz. “Talks on the Parasha.” iBooks. https://itun.es/us/BsmT9.l

Excerpt From: Adin Steinsaltz. “Talks on the Parasha.” iBooks. https://itun.es/us/BsmT9.l