פרשה: עקב · עלייה: חמישי (הוד)

ועתה ישראל…כי אם ליראה, And now, Israel, …except to revere the Lord, etc." The thrust of this verse has to be understood along the following lines. We know that there are two different levels of serving G'd, 1) to serve Him out of fear, 2) to serve Him out of love. Moses tells the people that what G'd asks is only that they serve Him out of fear. The reason that G'd is satisfied with this level of service is because fear is an all-embracing emotion. When a person is afraid of the consequences of doing wrong he will make certain that he does not do anything wrong. Moreover, fear, i.e. reverence for G'd is a forerunner of love for G'd. Moses hints at this when he prefaces the verse with the word ועתה, "and now." He means that whereas for now, initially, all that G'd asks for is for you to fear Him, there will come a time when you will do more than that, i.e. to love Him. Once we approach this verse from this angle we can also understand the rhetorical "what is it that G'd asks…only that you fear Him." To the question that fearing the Lord is surely not such an easy thing, Moses implies that once you will have advanced to serving the Lord out of love you will realise that serving Him out of fear was really something minor by comparison. In absolute terms, serving the Lord out of fear is something very great indeed; in relative terms, i.e. after graduating to serving Him out of love, it is only a minor accomplishment. This is the best way to understand what we have been taught in this connection in Megillah 25: "is then serving G'd out of fear something so minor?

This verse may also be understood as an opening for תשובה, penitence, by the person who transgresses one of G'd's commandments claiming that he simply does not understand why G'd wants him to keep such a commandment. Moses answers such a person by telling him "and now." According to Bereshit Rabbah 21,6 the word עתה always is an opening for man to repent a sin. [The verse under discussion in that Midrash is Genesis 3,22 when G'd justifies expelling Adam from the garden of Eden. Ed.] According to that approach the words ועתה מה ה׳ אלוקיך שואל מעמך mean that G'd makes it very easy for us to become penitent. All we have to do is to demonstrate fear of the Lord. When we demonstrate such an attitude towards G'd He will be pleased with us already.

Moses continues ללכת בכל דרכיו "to walk in all His paths;" this can be understood in accordance with Vayikra Rabbah 21,5 that if you have committed a string of violations try and compensate for this by performing a string of commandments. Maimonides writes in his commentary on the Mishnah at the end of tractate Makkot that a person who has not angered G'd [by transgressing any negative commandment Ed.] will acquire merit both in this world and in the Hereafter as long as he performs a single commandment. Thus far Maimonides. I have compared the matter to two servants of a king, one of whom has never caused his monarch to be angry at him, and who now visits his king bearing a relatively inexpensive gift, a young dove. The second servant has a history of offending his monarch on repeated occasions; when he visits the king he tenders an ox as a gift. One could reason that the king has reason to be pleased with the offering of the dove and to be displeased with the offering of the ox in view of the previous acts of disobedience of the servant who now offers this gift. Moses here tells the penitent sinner to walk in "all the Lord's paths" i.e. to make up for it by performance of many commandments.

On a mystical level our verse also targets the hidden connections, i.e. interactions known only to G'd whereby man's actions in our world help unify branches of sanctity in the celestial regions. The same occurs in reverse, of course. Proverbs 16,28 ונרגן מפריג אלוף, "a quarrelsome one alienates his friend," refers to the אלופו של עולם. [Just as man's sins create a chasm between him and his Creator, so his מצוה-performance can close any chasm which existed between man and G'd. Ed.] Moses hints at this interaction. In terms of sanctity, the word מה refers to the presence of G'd, שכינה, as explained by the Talmud Sotah 11 in connection with Exodus 2,4: "his sister (Moses' sister Miriam) stood from afar to know what would happen to him." Rabbi Yitzchok demonstrates there how every word in that verse can be viewed as referring to celestial powers, and he understands the verse as speaking about the שכינה. Just as the word מה in that verse is a reference to the שכינה, so the word מה in our verse refers to the שכינה.

This approach is also in accordance with what our sages said in Tanchuma Korach 12 אל תקרי מה אלא מאה, "do not read מה, but 100, a reference to the 100 benedictions a person is supposed to recite daily. [This entire fascinating passage in the Tanchuma commences already with the mystical significance of the number 100. For instance, the words לך לך at the beginning of Genesis 12 are understood in terms of their numerical value i.e. 50+50 =100. This was a hint that Abraham's son Isaac would be born when Abraham was 100 years old. Ed.] It is important to associate G'd's ineffable name (י־ה־ו־ה) with the number 100, hence we have to recite 100 benedictions using the ineffable name of G'd. Moses says that basically, this is what G'd asks of the Jewish people, i.e. to create a unity between the Jewish people and G'd and His name. The reason Moses had to say ועתה, "and now," is because this is something that man can only do in this life. Once he finds himself in the hereafter, -though he may accomplish many outstanding tasks,- he cannot perform deeds as he will be like the angels, i.e. beings without a body. We find that our sages have compared this world to שעה, "an hour," when they described the kind of people who set more value by things which occur in this life though it is so transient. The wording in Shabbat 33 is: "they ignore eternity in favour of focusing on the life comprising an hour." When you pursue this approach, the words כי אם ליראה assume the meaning of some kind of material, i.e. the "fear" Moses is speaking about is quasi something tangible. Moses means that although when looked at in terms of something abstract "fear" may be something very great, hard to attain, once we reduce it to tangible terms it becomes much smaller, even though, admittedly, one needs spiritual resources in order to attain it. Moses,' or rather, G'd's message is that the beneficial result of fearing the Lord will be proportionately far greater than the effort invested in attaining such a result.

כיום הזה, as of this day. Moses means that the Jewish people are a worthy community as he had already testified in Deut. 4,4 that "you all cleaved to G'd and stayed alive." The message is that were it not for that merit, the mere fact that they were the descendants of the patriarchs whom G'd had liked would not have helped them if they had been wicked. The best proof for the truth of this statement is the fact that Ishmael, also a son of Abraham, or Esau, a son of Isaac and a grandson of Abraham were not chosen and only some of the descendants of Isaac developed into the Jewish people. (compare Nedarim 31).

אלוקי האלוקים ואדוני האדנים, "The G'd of gods and the Lord of lords, etc." The first statement means that He is the G'd of the angels who are often described as אלהים, such as in Job 1,6 ויבאו בני האלוהים. The expression אדני האדנים refers to terrestrial rulers. Compare Genesis 42,30 דבר האיש אדני הארק אתנו קשות, "the man who is the ruler of the land spoke harshly to us." The reason Moses also had to mention terrestrial rulers is so that we should not think that these rulers are free to do as they please; Moses reminds us that G'd exerts some pressure on those rulers. This is what Solomon meant in Proverbs 21,1: "the heart of the king is in G'd's hand, He directs it to whatever direction He desires."

וידעתם היום, "and you shall know as of this day, etc." Moses means as of this day after you have reviewed all the proofs it is your duty to know that G'd has performed all these miracles as He did not perform them for your children. If your children who have only heard about all this would deny knowledge of these events this is one thing. You, however, who have witnessed all these events are in no position to deny knowledge of them. There was no need for Moses to define what precisely he meant by the word ידיעה, knowledge. They had seen with their own eyes miracles which proved that G'd is unique, has created the universe and is the supreme Ruler who despises those who disobey His laws and has chosen as His people those who adopt the laws of the Torah.

כל היקום..בקרב כל ישראל, "every substance…in the midst of all Israel." This means that the earth swallowed even the substances belonging to Datan and Aviram which were not in the vicinity of their owners wherever they happened to be at that moment. Bamidbar Rabbah 18,13 claims that even a needle was included in this statement.

ושמרתם את כל המצוה..למען תחזקו "You shall keep all the commandment in order for you to be strong, etc." Moses advances this argument against the people who suggested a temporary neglect of Torah study, something which physically weakens those who pursue it with intensity. The argument was that they had to husband their physical strength in order for them to conquer the Canaanites. Compare Sanhedrin 26 describing Torah study as a physically debilitating experience based on the word תושיה in Isaiah 28,29. I have mentioned previously that whenever Moses uses the expression כל המצוה in the singular he refers to Torah study. The reason Moses used the expression ושמרתם here, an expression associated with the observance of negative commandments is that neglect of Torah study would be considered a violation equal to transgressing a negative commandment. Moses concludes our verse by saying: "in order that you will be strong" to tell you that far from weakening you, Torah study and מצוה-performance will strengthen you in the forthcoming war by G'd. This is also the meaning of Proverbs 8,14: אני בינה לי גבורה, "once I have acquired insight (through Torah study) courage and strength will be mine."