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August 4, 2023 (17 Av 5783) Parasha Ekev
Dear Friends, I hope this correspondence finds you doing well and enjoying the relaxing pace of your summer schedule. We want to thank those of you who joined us on Zoom, earlier this week, to share in our High Holy Days planning session. Your ideas, thoughts, and sharing of personal experiences were very much appreciated. Please join us this Saturday morning for in-person Shabbat services, which will be held in our beautiful sanctuary at 10:15am. The number of congregants, who attend services in person, continues to increase, so come early to find a preferred seat with easy access and comfortable sightlines to our uplifting, melodious service and tantalizing Torah talk! These services will also be available on our regular Zoom prayer link. This week’s Torah portion of Ekev features both a long scriptural Torah reading (Deuteronomy 7:12 - 11:25); and an extensive prophetic Haftarah selection (Isaiah 49:14 - 51:3). In fact, the full parashah, according to Major League Baseball Advanced Statistics, is made up of 6,865 Hebrew letters, 1,747 Hebrew words, 111 verses, and 232 lines in our Torah scroll. It is the fourth longest portion in the Book of Devarim and, trust me, it’s a long parasha! Some of Ekev’s most well-known verses include a jarring juxtaposition of both our physical and spiritual essence. We read two famous verses dealing with our physical being: “Not by bread alone does mankind live” and the command of reciting the Birkat Hamazon (blessings after the meal when provided with physical sustenance). Additionally, the same verse of Dev. 8:10 references the physical gift of the Land (when you have eaten your fill, give thanks to your God יהוה for the good land given to you). From a spiritual perspective, this week’s portion relays perhaps the singularly most familiar description of Hashem, which is incorporated into our daily Amidah: “The Great, Mighty and Awesome God (האל הגדול הגיבור והנורא)” [Dev 10:17]. The Amidah’s familiar description of God’s great, mighty, and awesome nature can be interpreted in one of two ways, either as an expression of God’s cosmic influence throughout history (see Midrash Tehillim 19:2) or as a description of God’s personal lovingkindness to the disenfranchised and, in fact, to all humanity (see Devarim 10:17-19). With either of these interpretations, I would argue that the phrase האל הגדול הגיבור והנורא reflects the metanarrative of The Divine in ongoing relation, either with the physical cosmic universe or with the individual human being bound by ethical fundamentals. As God is bound to humanity both through physical and spiritual bonds, so too, Judaism reminds us to be devoted to Him both in mind and body. Rabbi Reuven Tradburks remarks about Devarim’s third portion of Ekev, “There is a lot of love in this parasha!” God loves Israel and, in an act of reciprocity, each time B’nei Yisrael remembers Hashem’s guidance or fulfills Hashem’s command, Israel devoutly expresses and returns Hashem’s love. Such love is most fully expressed through the conjunction of physical acts of Mitzvoth and a Jew’s yearning spiritual quest to commune with the Divine. As we enter Shabbat and think about parashat Ekev, let us consider this a reading that literally gives us food for thought. Let us all pause to think about the gifts of our physicality: our clothes; our shelter; our possessions; as well as the spiritual gifts of Judaism: our theology; our holy time; and all of our holy endeavors. Ultimately, it is only through collaborative, loving expressions of mind, body, and spirit, manifested in acts of Torah, love, and chesed (loving kindness), that we can represent the most genuine reflection of any human being’s existential reaction to standing in the presence of something greater and holier than ourselves. Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Eric L. Wasser, EdD, Hon.DM
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