פרשת עקב תשט"ז - תנאים לישראל ותוצאותיהם

But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God, for it is He that giveth thee power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore unto thy fathers, as it is this day.

And it shall be, if thou shalt forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I forewarn you this day that ye shall surely perish.

וזכרת את ה׳ אלוקיך, "You shall remember the Lord your G'd, etc." Moses means that we must remember that the source of all the good we will experience is G'd and we must never forget it. If He had not imbued us with strength we could never have achieved what we imagine we have achieved with our own power. Whenever people turn away from religion, if ever so slightly, it is because they forget that their achievements are not truly their own. Such a path leads to a person's eventual destruction. This may be the reason this verse is immediately followed in the next paragraph by the dire warnings about what will happen when Israel "forgets" its G'd deliberately. Once you forget that G'd is the source of all the good you experience, you will eventually forget that you have a very exclusive G'd altogether. Once that happens, you will seek out other deities. Not only will you contemplate idol worship but you will engage in it actively. Not only will this be some kind of loosely defined service, but you will even prostrate yourself in front of such images. Sanhedrin 60 teaches that if one prostrates oneself in front of the idol Markolies one is guilty of idolatry even though this is not an accepted form of worship for that idol.