Ekeiv
**Summary**
The entire Parsha is under
the title Ekev.
Ekev has three possible
interpretations:
a) Because, in order to, for
this, so that
b) In the end,
ultimately
c) By detours, with effort,
incidentally, with twists and turns
Let’s look at the themes
that appear in the Parsha:
1. A great, comprehensive
blessing:
A. For the
conquest of the land, encouragement and spiritual strengthening, a reminder of
all that HaShem has done for us since the ten plagues.
B.
Encouragement and admonition, a blessing for life in the land of Israel if we
keep the Torah.
2. A reminder of the trials
overcome and specific miracles like the manna, the clouds, and the water
source.
3. The essential unity of
land, people, Temple, and God as the goal of all creation.
4. Eretz Yisroel is the most
noble land in the world. It has everything the people need to live, and it is
under HaShem’s direct guidance and watch, always.
5. A warning for humility:
We receive the land not because of the people’s spiritual greatness or merits,
but out of pure grace and in the name of our holy forefathers.
6. A promise of punishment
and exile if we despise the Torah.
7. Detailed instructions
regarding the idols and their servants in the land. Prohibition on profiting
from idols or their parts.
8. A reminder of the sins,
especially the golden calf, and Moshe’s efforts to obtain forgiveness and the
second tablets; and the spies and their consequences.
9. A great, poetic call and
declaration of what HaShem wants from His people: that they fear Him, love Him,
and revere Him, and learn and keep His Torah. This is because it is the best
thing that can happen to a person in this world, as HaShem only wants good for
us.
10. The second part of the
Shema prayer: the whole thing briefly and cryptically reiterated.
Ekev: The ultimate goal of
creation is that all of Israel, of their own free will and with understanding
love—as far as a human is capable of understanding—serves HaShem, thereby
illuminating all of humanity and ultimately ushering in the glorious end times,
which are actually the beginning of the eternal world.
However, since humans must
have free will, there must be the possibility to do evil, meaning to act
“against the Creator’s will,” to stray from the sweet path of the Torah onto
the many crooked paths of idolatry and “anti-Shema, anti-God,
godlessness.”
Why “against” in quotation
marks? Because He, in His infinite goodness, and having written the overall
plan, has accounted for these possible deviations.
This means: Ultimately,
Ekev, even evil will contribute to good, no matter how much it seems to act
independently against the One, and no matter how absolutely horrific and
repulsive it appears to us now. But one should not err and say, “Oh, then
everything is fine, it’s all just an illusion, suffering is good, it’s not
real, everything is predetermined.”
This is not the
view.
The horror is real, the
suffering is unnecessary, and the wicked will be punished.
For they too have free will,
and at any point in human history, there is the possibility to do good,
eliminate evil, and immediately bring about the coming world!
Thus, Ekev: By detours, and
ultimately indeed.
---
**Details**
(ל)
בַּצַּ֣ר לְךָ֔ וּמְצָא֕וּךָ כֹּ֖ל הַדְּבָרִ֣ים הָאֵ֑לֶּה בְּאַחֲרִית֙
הַיָּמִ֔ים וְשַׁבְתָּ֙ עַד־יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ וְשָׁמַעְתָּ֖ בְּקֹלֽוֹ׃
דברים ז':י"ב
(יב)
{פרשת עקב} וְהָיָ֣ה׀ עֵ֣קֶב תִּשְׁמְע֗וּן אֵ֤ת הַמִּשְׁפָּטִים֙ הָאֵ֔לֶּה
וּשְׁמַרְתֶּ֥ם וַעֲשִׂיתֶ֖ם אֹתָ֑ם וְשָׁמַר֩ יְהֹוָ֨ה אֱלֹהֶ֜יךָ לְךָ֗
אֶֽת־הַבְּרִית֙ וְאֶת־הַחֶ֔סֶד אֲשֶׁ֥ר נִשְׁבַּ֖ע לַאֲבֹתֶֽיךָ׃
And the result of your
listening and obeying will be that HaShem will keep His covenant.
Alexander: Now you have no
one left to pray for you. But even if you only keep the Mishpatim, HaShem will
keep His covenant. For I am no longer here to intercede for you.
---
**Do Not Fear Seducers and False Prophets**
Rather, eradicate them
without pity.
For they have no pity
either, and otherwise, they will cause great harm.
You shall not fear him
(Deuteronomy 18:22). And it mentions all this regarding the seducer: You shall
not listen to him, nor heed him, nor shall your eye spare him, nor shall you
have pity, nor cover for him (Deuteronomy 13:9). It warns: “You shall not
listen to him” – because of his seduction; “nor shall you spare him” – because
of the pity soft-hearted people might feel for the condemned; “nor shall you
cover for him” – so that you do not remain silent due to his power or fear of
his family.
---
**An Apparent Contradiction**
And the lessons from it
דברים ז':כ'
(כ)
וְגַם֙ אֶת־הַצִּרְעָ֔ה יְשַׁלַּ֛ח יְהֹוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ בָּ֑ם עַד־אֲבֹ֗ד
הַנִּשְׁאָרִ֛ים וְהַנִּסְתָּרִ֖ים מִפָּנֶֽיךָ׃
And also the hornet (wasp)
will HaShem your God send against them, until the remaining and hidden ones are
destroyed before you.
(כא)
לֹ֥א תַעֲרֹ֖ץ מִפְּנֵיהֶ֑ם כִּֽי־יְהֹוָ֤ה אֱלֹהֶ֙יךָ֙ בְּקִרְבֶּ֔ךָ אֵ֥ל
גָּד֖וֹל וְנוֹרָֽא׃
Do not fear them, for HaShem
your God is among you, a great and awesome God.
(כב)
וְנָשַׁל֩ יְהֹוָ֨ה אֱלֹהֶ֜יךָ אֶת־הַגּוֹיִ֥ם הָאֵ֛ל מִפָּנֶ֖יךָ מְעַ֣ט מְעָ֑ט
לֹ֤א תוּכַל֙ כַּלֹּתָ֣ם מַהֵ֔ר פֶּן־תִּרְבֶּ֥ה עָלֶ֖יךָ חַיַּ֥ת הַשָּׂדֶֽה׃
And HaShem your God will
drive out these nations slowly, slowly before you; He cannot destroy them
quickly, lest the wild animals multiply against you in the empty
land.
This seems like a
contradiction: He sends the hornet, but cannot prevent the wild animals from
them?
We learn an important
principle here. Verses 20 and 22 contradict each other
diametrically:
20: And also the hornet will
HaShem your God send against them, until the remaining and hidden ones are
destroyed.
22: And HaShem will drive
out these nations slowly, slowly before you; He cannot destroy them quickly,
lest the wild animals multiply in the uninhabited land.
What now? The Almighty
Creator, who controls everything and against whom no power in the world can
stand, can control the hornets but not the wild animals on uninhabited
land?
Surely not!
We learn (Ralbag on this
verse, and Maharal, Malbim, Ramban, Rambam, Rashi, and many others elsewhere):
HaShem performs miracles only when necessary. Generally, He created the world
to function naturally. Open, supernatural miracles are reserved for specific
interventions. Both Malbim and Maharal, Ramban, provide beautiful
categorizations of miracles, ranging from the miracle of creation-nature as the
basis, through “accumulated coincidences,” to completely supernatural events
like the splitting of the Red Sea and the plague of the firstborn.
One of the beautiful, small
miracles (which I call “miracles of affection and encouragement”) are moments
when you search for a text, and the book opens exactly to the right page
without flipping.
Ramban cites Sifrei, which
states:
HaShem drives out, not flesh
and blood. “All these nations” – I might understand literally, but the text
specifies “these,” so it includes their supporters. They will become many and
increase, while they (the enemies) diminish and fade, as it says (Exodus
23:30): “Little by little I will drive them out,” and (Exodus 23:29): “I will not
drive them out in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild animals
multiply against you.” Rabbi Yaakov said in the name of Rabbi Elazar ben
Azaria: If Israel were righteous, why would they fear wild animals? For it says
(Job 5:23): “For you shall be in league with the stones of the field.” But if
you say, why did Joshua exert all that effort? It is because Israel sinned, so
it was decreed: “Little by little I will drive them out.”
This means: HaShem knew they
would sin and not be righteous. Yet He still let them conquer the land, though
with greater effort.
We learn: There are many
levels of divine providence. The nobler a person becomes, the more miracles the
Almighty performs for them.
And this is not a
contradiction to what was said above. For the world is created such that humans
cannot exist at all without the Almighty’s protection.
---
**Scheketz – The Abominable**
The command is clear: Do not
make your souls abominable. A very harsh formulation, especially in light of
the great efforts the holy scriptures usually take to rephrase and avoid
negative formulations. Here, it is absolutely direct, like a sword.
The word and its root appear
in exactly two contexts, which are essentially one: the purity and impurity of
the soul for the service of HaShem.
And service to HaShem is our
sole purpose for existence!
The overwhelming majority of
the 14 verses the Torah dedicates to this topic are connected to Kashrut, i.e.,
food.
See also “HaMotzi – for
life” for a detailed exposition.
Then there are these few
verses dealing with idolatry—specifically, with idols and their
materials.
Here too, there is a
connection to abomination, showing that the blood, the seat of the Nefesh, the
life force of the body and the part of the soul closest to the physical, can
apparently be defiled even through indirect contact via the skin. How? No idea,
not even Ramban knows.
לעינין שקצ
1. ויקרא ז':כ"א (מקראות גדולות)
וְנֶפֶשׁ כִּי תִגַּע בְּכׇל טָמֵא בְּטֻמְאַת אָדָם אוֹ
בִּבְהֵמָה טְמֵאָה אוֹ בְּכׇל שֶׁקֶץ טָמֵא וְאָכַל מִבְּשַׂר
זֶבַח הַשְּׁלָמִים אֲשֶׁר לַי"י וְנִכְרְתָה הַנֶּפֶשׁ הַהִוא מֵעַמֶּיהָ.
2. ויקרא י"א:י' (מקראות גדולות)
וְכֹל אֲשֶׁר אֵין לוֹ סְנַפִּיר וְקַשְׂקֶשֶׂת בַּיַּמִּים
וּבַנְּחָלִים מִכֹּל שֶׁרֶץ הַמַּיִם וּמִכֹּל נֶפֶשׁ הַחַיָּה אֲשֶׁר
בַּמָּיִם שֶׁקֶץ הֵם לָכֶם.
3. ויקרא י"א:י"א (מקראות גדולות)
וְשֶׁקֶץ יִהְיוּ
לָכֶם מִבְּשָׂרָם לֹא תֹאכֵלוּ וְאֶת נִבְלָתָם תְּשַׁקֵּצוּ.
4. ויקרא י"א:י"ב (מקראות גדולות)
כֹּל אֲשֶׁר אֵין לוֹ סְנַפִּיר וְקַשְׂקֶשֶׂת
בַּמָּיִם שֶׁקֶץ הוּא לָכֶם.
5. ויקרא י"א:י"ג (מקראות גדולות)
וְאֶת אֵלֶּה תְּשַׁקְּצוּ מִן הָעוֹף לֹא
יֵאָכְלוּ שֶׁקֶץ הֵם אֶת הַנֶּשֶׁר וְאֶת הַפֶּרֶס וְאֵת
הָעׇזְנִיָּה.
6. ויקרא י"א:כ' (מקראות גדולות)
כֹּל שֶׁרֶץ הָעוֹף הַהֹלֵךְ עַל אַרְבַּע שֶׁקֶץ הוּא
לָכֶם.
7. ויקרא י"א:כ"ג (מקראות גדולות)
וְכֹל שֶׁרֶץ הָעוֹף אֲשֶׁר לוֹ אַרְבַּע רַגְלָיִם שֶׁקֶץ הוּא
לָכֶם.
8. ויקרא י"א:מ"א (מקראות גדולות)
וְכׇל הַשֶּׁרֶץ הַשֹּׁרֵץ עַל הָאָרֶץ שֶׁקֶץ הוּא
לֹא יֵאָכֵל.
9. ויקרא י"א:מ"ב (מקראות גדולות)
כֹּל הוֹלֵךְ עַל גָּחוֹן וְכֹל הוֹלֵךְ עַל אַרְבַּע עַד
כׇּל מַרְבֵּה רַגְלַיִם לְכׇל הַשֶּׁרֶץ הַשֹּׁרֵץ עַל הָאָרֶץ לֹא תֹאכְלוּם
כִּי שֶׁקֶץ הֵם.
10. ויקרא י"א:מ"ג (מקראות גדולות)
אַל תְּשַׁקְּצוּ אֶת נַפְשֹׁתֵיכֶם בְּכׇל
הַשֶּׁרֶץ הַשֹּׁרֵץ וְלֹא תִטַּמְּאוּ בָּהֶם וְנִטְמֵתֶם בָּם.
11. ויקרא כ':כ"ה (מקראות גדולות)
וְהִבְדַּלְתֶּם בֵּין הַבְּהֵמָה הַטְּהֹרָה לַטְּמֵאָה
וּבֵין הָעוֹף הַטָּמֵא לַטָּהֹר וְלֹא תְשַׁקְּצוּ אֶת
נַפְשֹׁתֵיכֶם בַּבְּהֵמָה וּבָעוֹף וּבְכֹל אֲשֶׁר תִּרְמֹשׂ הָאֲדָמָה אֲשֶׁר
הִבְדַּלְתִּי לָכֶם לְטַמֵּא.
12. דברים ז':כ"ו (מקראות גדולות)
וְלֹא תָבִיא תוֹעֵבָה אֶל בֵּיתֶךָ וְהָיִיתָ חֵרֶם
כָּמֹהוּ שַׁקֵּץ תְּשַׁקְּצֶנּוּ וְתַעֵב תְּתַעֲבֶנּוּ כִּי
חֵרֶם הוּא.
13. דברים כ"ט:ט"ז (מקראות גדולות)
וַתִּרְאוּ אֶת שִׁקּוּצֵיהֶם וְאֵת
גִּלֻּלֵיהֶם עֵץ וָאֶבֶן כֶּסֶף וְזָהָב אֲשֶׁר עִמָּהֶם.
יא" פאמים בקשר לאוכל ולדם, ובספר דברים
פתאום בקשר לע"ז!
יצא מזה שאלה מה כשר בנ ע"ז לדם ולאכילה?
2024
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