Forgetting God

Found 4 Search results

1. "The Great and Dreadful Day of the Lord"

   Haftarot: Shabbat Hagadol

   Rabbi Mosheh Lichtenstein

   Our haftara concludes the books of prophets, and should be viewed in relation to a broader historical context. The prophet is speaking to future generations who will not have prophets to turn to. Moshe concludes the era of the written Torah, and Malakhi concludes the era of prophecy. Both warn the nation of the spiritual dangers that lie ahead, and emphasize the eternal connection between God and His nation, despite their sins.

2. The Descendants of Rekhav

   Rabbi David Sabato

   The descendants of Rekhav, who abstain from drinking wine and do not settle down permanently, symbolize absolute adherence to the ancient ancestral command. This is a lesson for Israel, that they must keep God's commands. But why does this adherence deserve an extreme Divine promise?

   The prohibition against settling down might not stem from a nomadic perception, but rather from experience that teaches that settling down leads by necessity to forgetting God and ultimately to idol worship, as the book of Devarim warns many times in anticipation of Israel's entry into the land.

   Additionally, farmers whose lives were dependent on the seasons of the year and on the forces of nature deified these forces and worshipped them. Therefore, the Torah is concerned about the dangers of agricultural life in the land of Israel, the chief of which is immersion in idolatry, which will lead to the removal of the people from their land.

3. Material Wealth and Its Dangers

   Rabbi Elchanan Samet

   Both the beginnings of Parshat Va'etchanan and Parshat Ekev begin with Moshe's speech to Am Yisrael regarding their entrance into the Land of Israel. Is Moshe repeating himself, or is there a crucial difference between the two speeches?

4. Ekev: Monotheism, Paganism, and Human Pride

   Rabbi Shlomo Dov Rosen