Re’eh Drash v 2

Obliterate their names

This week in the Parchat Re’eh, which means to see, HaShem gives a very direct and specific Mitzvah. Starting in Devarim Chapter 12 verse 2 & 3 we read:

2You must utterly destroy all the places where the nations that you will dispossess served their gods—on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. 3You are to tear down their altars, smash their pillars, burn their Asherah poles in the fire and cut down the carved images of their gods, and you are to obliterate their name from that place.

We see this Mitzvah is applied to the places and things the nations had worshiped their gods in Israel. As well read at the end of Chapter 12 versus 30 & 31:

30be careful not to be trapped into imitating them after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations serve their gods? I will do the same.’ 31You are not to act like this toward Adonai your God! For every abomination of Adonai, which He hates, they have done to their gods—they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.

This Mitzvah is to not worship HaShem in the ways the nations worshiped their gods.

While today I do not live in Israel and certainly do not have the authority to go destroy anything in Israel, these Mitzvot still apply in very direct and perhaps even more personal ways. A common phrase used in Judaism is AM Yisrael! If this is true, then it is important for me to analyze where I am failing to live out these Mitzvot.

If I consider the high mountains a metaphor for my soul and the hills as my heart or mind and the green trees as my body, the question becomes have I torn down the alters, smashed the pillars, burned the Asherah poles and cut down the carved images of their gods from me? Have I obliterated the names of the false gods from me?

Do I go to places I should not go? Physically most assuredly no, but what about mentally and emotionally? How often do I look to the internet or depend upon agencies of men for information or answers before I even pray? Have I allowed myself to think that my own wisdom comes from Hashem when it does not? Have I allowed fantasies of success and financial security to comfort me? Am I depending upon money, land and power for my families future? Is there SIN I am willing to commit if pressure gets bad enough? If I answer yes then Idols remain in my life and the Mitzvah says to obliterate even their names from that place. If I should not even utter the names of the false gods and idols how much more so should their artifices be removed?

As well we have the 2nd Mitzvah in this set that is also very directing and keeps us from fooling ourselves in thinking that we are OK. HaShem says, to not even inquire about the gods of the nations including do not act like this toward HaShem our God.

Where in my life have I allowed the excuse or really the delusion that I am serving HaShem, when I serve him as the nations have served their gods? Has my behavior changed or am I doing the same thing as before only now it is in the name of HaShem? Is there things I do or follow because it is expected according to culture, community or even family, that is counter to the what HaShem has said? To put it another way is my so called patriotic duty, career responsibilities, and expectations of my family coming before my relationship with my heavenly father? If I am truly removing worldly or idolatrous influences from me but my actions have not changed are they really removed?

I must be cautious. It is easy to say for the sake of peace, for the sake of love or for the sake of influence do I do something. Does it sound acceptable to replace those phrases with for the sake of worshiping HaShem I do this thing? If not then I might be fooling myself in to thinking I am serving HaShem by doing some things, yet in reality and at best I am serving him in a way that is not acceptable to him and at worse and more likely I am serving an idol or false god. If I am honest most often that false god or idol is myself.

So I pray and ask every day that HaShem will help me to remove the idols, altars, and names of the false gods that still exist in me. That I will truly serve him as he wants me to serve him and not as I want to serve him.