Parashat Ekev
Deuteronomy 7:12 – 11:32

Topics (click on any link)
Synopsis of the Torah portion
Spiritual insights into Parashat Ekev
Key verses
Creative Midrash for Parashat Ekev

Chapter 8
Moses asks the Israelites to remember the hardships they endured during the journey of the last forty years. These burdens were tests to find out about their strength, whether they had the stamina to keep God’s commandments. Moses reminded them that they endured hunger, thirst and other necessities, but during those years God provided for all their needs. God tested the Israelites to see if they were worthy of entering the land He promised to their fathers, a land that will provide for everything they require. But do not forget, he implored them, to keep God’s commandments particularly when all the food and necessities are satisfied and you become arrogant and complacent. For if you fail to heed God’s commandments, the Lord will cause you to perish.

Chapter 9
Moses is making clear to the Israelites that they are not crossing over into the land that they are being given because of their own virtues, but because of the sinfulness of the nations that God is driving out.  Moses wants the Israelites to understand what a stiff-necked people they are, and how they provoked God during these past forty years in the wilderness. Moses proceeds to recount the story of the golden calf and how God wanted to destroy them for their wickedness; but Moses interceded with passionate prayer in their behalf. He tells about when God told them to go up and occupy the land, but they refused, failing to have trust in God’s command.

Chapter 10
Now Moses decides to retell the story to the Israelites of how he stayed up on the mountain for forty days and forty nights and God inscribed the tablets of law that he smashed, after the incident with the golden calf. Moses remembered how he was instructed to make an ark of acacia wood to deposit the tablets after he came down from the mountain. It was then that the Lord assigned the duties of the Ark to the Levites and to bless His name, as is still the case. “And now Israel”, Moses asks, “What does the Lord your God demand of you? Only this: to revere the Lord your God, to walk, only in his paths, to love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and soul, keeping the Lords commandments and laws, which I enjoin upon you today, for your good”.  Moses implores them to cut away the thickening of your hearts and refrain from stiffening your necks.

Chapter 11
Moses adds a strange remark on to his chronology of the events in the desert when he tells the Israelites that is was not your children who experienced the lesson of the Lord your God, but it was you who saw with your own eyes all the miracles that God had performed. Next he tells the people that the land that you are about to occupy is not like the land of Egypt; there the grain you sowed had to be watered like a garden, but in the land of Canaan, a land of hills and valleys, the rain comes from heaven where God looks after the vegetation.
Parshat Ekev concludes with another reminder to faithfully keep all God’s commandments in two detailed paragraphs that are found as the second and third paragraphs of the Shema—If, then, you obey the commandments that I enjoin upon you this day…and the perennial warning not to be lured by other gods otherwise the Lord’s anger will flare up against you and He will shut up the skies so there would be no rain.

Spiritual insights into Parashat Ekev              return to top of page

The first paragraph of Eikev contains this well-known line, “The Lord will ward off from you all sickness; He will not bring upon you any of the dreadful diseases of Egypt, about which you know, but will inflict them upon all your enemies” (Deut:7:15).  The parashah actually explains the benefits to the Israelites for observing the commandments. God tells them that they are about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and more populous than you. They are to destroy the people living in the land of Canaan as a measure of purification to prepare the land for the fledgling Israelite nation. The question that was presented to us back in Genesis comes to the forefront once more, which is whether the Promised Land is a geographic location or the spiritual landscape that exist in each and every one of us. If you think it is spiritual in nature then that explains the need for war and the destruction of its present inhabitants.

Eikev then introduces the second paragraph of the Sh’ma which explains the advantages and disadvantages of following God’s law. It is presented here in its entirely: “If, then, you obey the commandments that I enjoin upon you this day, loving the Lord your God and serving Him with all your heart and soul, I will grant the rain for your land in season, the early rain and the late. You shall gather in your new grain and wine and oil  I will also provide grass in the fields for your cattle — and thus you shall eat your fill. Take care not to be lured away to serve other gods and bow to them.  For the Lord's anger will flare up against you, and He will shut up the skies so that there will be no rain and the ground will not yield its produce; and you will soon perish from the good land that the Lord is assigning to you” ( Deut 11: 13-17)

Key verses                                          return to top of page
This page is not a commentary on the text, but a chance for you to express your own comments and feelings in order to gain deeper insight into your own life.

Deuteronomy 7:15
The Lord will ward off from you all sickness; He will not bring upon you any of the dreadful diseases of Egypt, about which you know but will inflict them upon all your enemies.
Food for thought:
1. What is the Torah talking about? Is it for spiritual healing only? Does it include physical healing?
2. What diseases is the Torah talking about? Is the Torah referring to the Ten Plagues?
3. Do you think that this verse provides a basis for Jewish healing?

Deuteronomy 8:3
He subjected you to the hardship of hunger and then gave you manna to eat, which neither you nor your fathers had ever known, in order to teach you that man does not live on bread alone, but that man may live on anything that the Lord decrees.
Food for thought:
1. What do you think we learned as a result of the hardship of hunger? Is there a lesson to gather from receiving the manna, after we were subjected to hunger?
2. What does it mean, “that man does not live on bread alone”? What is it we should live on?
3. What is it that would give man sustenance from anything the Lord decrees?

Deuteronomy 9:6
Know, then, that it is not for any virtue of yours that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to occupy; for you are a stiff-necked people.
Food for thought:
1. Moses’ speech makes it clear that the reason God is giving this land is more about the other nation’s imperfections. How do you think the Israelites would feel after listening to a statement like that?
2. How would you feel if you were to be given something and than told you don’t deserve it?
3. Later on Moses accuses the Israelites of being stiff necked and closed hearted. Is that a quality that you deal with personally? In what ways does it hold you back from living the life you would like?

Deuteronomy 10:12
And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God demand of you? Only this: to revere the Lord your God, to walk only in His paths, to love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and soul, keeping the Lords commandments and laws, which I enjoin upon you today, for your good.
Food for thought:
1. Do you think that “only this” is a rather tall order?
2. Can you fulfill these demands? Can you understand what it means to walk only in His paths, to love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and soul?
3. Do you think that keeping the Lord’s commandments is contrary to living a modern life?

Deuteronomy 11:10-12
For the land that you are about to invade and occupy is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come. There the grain you sowed had to be watered by your own labors, like a vegetable garden; but the land you are about to cross into and occupy, a land of hills and valleys, soaks up its water from the rains of heaven. It is a land which the Lord your God looks after, on which the Lord your God always keeps His eye, from year’s beginning to year’s end.
Food for thought:
1. Why do you think the Torah would make a statement here about water? Isn’t there other matters of worth in the land that bears so much importance to the Israelites?
2. When the Torah speaks of  “rains of heaven”, do you think its referring to something other than water?
3. Is the Torah perhaps alluding to water as a universal blessing?

Additional questions to ponder:
1. What is it about the story, a verse, a word that seems to resonate with some aspect of your life?
2. Is there something about the story that rings a bell?
3. Can you recall experiences in your life when you have experienced something similar to this story?
4. How would you describe the characters in the story? Who do you know who's like them?
5. Can you personally identify with any one of the characters in the story? Which one?
6. Can you find a similarity between yourself and all the characters in the story?

Reflections:
The Rabbis of old would meditate on such questions, sometimes for weeks at a time, to help find deeper meaning in the
verses.
You may wish to contemplate just one or a few of these questions at a time, rather than tackling them
all.
In what ways we any of your responses to the questions personally meaningful?

Suggestion:
Some of the questions here are of a personal nature which in some cases could be emotionally upsetting. If so, try
relaxing your body as much as possible and takes long slow breaths of air. That usually helps to relieve anxiety.

We would like to know if you find this method of Torah study particularly helpful to you. Click here to let us know

Creative Midrash on Parashat Ekev      return to top of page

Deuteronomy 9:16
I saw how you sinned against the Lord your God; you had made yourself a molten calf; you had been quick to stray from the path that the Lord had enjoined upon you.

The Rabbis of old would create parables, stories and narrative connections around such selected verses. What do you see between the lines, the sentences and the letters. The following questions can provide a launch pad upon which to create your own meanings of the Torah.

This verse is part of the review of the events that transpired during the forty years in the wilderness. Why would you think that the Torah devotes much of the book of Deuteronomy to reviewing? What’s the value of Moses retelling the stories that had taken place? Is it for the sake of the Israelites, or is it for our sake today? What do we learn by listening to the retelling? What do you learn from listening to the events of your own life? Isn’t retelling what we do with family and friends? Isn’t that what we do in psychotherapy? Is there any better cure for our ailments that to review and tell our stories? What happens to us when we remember event from our own past?