Choosing Judaism - Comparing Religions

What is a covenant? What is the covenant between God and Israel?

Moses' explanation of why we are the Chosen people.

God did not only choose us as the Chosen people but we also chose God. This concept of mutual chosenness suggests a covenant...an agreement between two partners...are those partners necessarily equal?

Since we are the chosen people, God has unconditional love for us, the same way a parent would for their child.

"Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of the universe, who has chosen us from among the peoples, and given us the Torah." (Service for the Reading of the Torah, Mishkan T'fillah, page 250)

In our regular lives we are reminded of our covenant with God where we proclaim our chosenness, by saying the blessing over the reading of the Torah.

Verse 9

Plaut

You stand this day. The introduction that provides the setting for a ceremony of reaffirmation. The words "this day" appear twelve times in this oration and lend it rising emphasis.

You...all of you. This "you" (pl.) being addressed is the collectivity, even as its various parts are enumerated in this verse and the next. This translation takes the suffix (-khem), which appears seven times in this passage, to reiterate that "each of you groups is part of the collective." / Sperling sees this verse as listing the various ranks of "full citizens" (men), while the next verse enumerates the types of dependents. All are included in the covenant.

Torah: A Women's Commentary

Verse 9-10: The inclusiveness described here is a unique feature of the Moab covenant.Compare the general term "the people" used to characterize the participation in the Sinai covenant. Whereas the text in Exodus raises the question of whether or not women stood at Sinai, here there is no doubt that both women and men are the recipients of God's teachings. The detailed list in this passage mentions various groups according to their social status. Verse 9 opens with leaders and concludes with "all the men of Israel"; v. 10 adds those dependent on the aforementioned men as heads of the household: children, women, and foreign workers.

this day. The first part of Moses' speech (29:1-8) looked back on key events in the past and the lessons to learn from them; now the focus shifts to the present moment and even to the future. The leitmotif "this day" (here and in v. 14) functions as a message to the double audience of Deuteronomy, namely, the implicit audience at the time of Moses and the audience contemporary with the author(s) of the book of Deuteronomy, centuries later. The ceremony validates the covenant's power to obligate the descendants to the treaty and to abide by its stipulations.

Verse 11

Rashi: That thou shouldest pass into the covenant לעברך means that you should pass. It would not, however, be correct to explain it as meaning “to make thee pass” (when the suffix would be objective), but it must be explained like (Deuteronomy 4:14) לעשתכם אתם, “that ye may do them”. The way of “passing” was as follows: those who made a covenant used to make a partition (i.e. used to place objects in a straight line) on one side and a partition on the other and passed between them, as it is said, (Jeremiah 34:18-20) “[And I will give the men which have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before Me] when they cut the calf in two, and passed between the parts thereof … [into the hands of their enemies]”.

Alter: for you to pass into the Covenant. The relatively rare verb for concluding a covenant is probably a linguistic fossil, reflecting an early practice in which a covenant was sealed by cutting animals in two and, evidently, having the two parties pass between the cut parts. It is a reasonable guess that the old-perhaps archaic-idiom is used here to underscore the binding solemnity of this covenant.

Fox:

cross over into the covenant. The wording is a bit unusual. There may be a conscious play here on "crossing" in verse 15. ("Indeed, you yourselves know how we were settled in the land of Egypt, and how we crossed amid the nations that you crossed;")

oath-of-fealty. Translated elsewhere as "oath-curse."

Plaut: To enter into the covenant. The verb is עבר, which usually means "to cross over," an image reminiscent of the "covenant between the pieces," Genesis 15

JPS

Verses 11-12: The purpose of the convocation is to establish the covenant and thereby create a mutual relationship between God and Israel.

the covenant...with its sanctions. Hebrew berit ve-'alah. The 2nd word means literally an imprecation, or curse, on one who violates the law. The combination berit ve-'alah, v.11 and 13, is a hendiadys meaning "a covenant guarded by imprecations," referring to the curses in ch. 28.

Verse 12

Torah: A Women's Commentary: as promised you and as sworn to your fathers. Verse 12 alludes to two separate covenant traditions. The first recalls the promise originally made to the Israelites in Egypt, the second refers to the covenant with Abraham. The two traditions coalesce here as they each emphasize the institution of a mutual relationship between God and Israel.

Rashi

That He may establish thee to-day for a people unto Himself. He undertakes so much trouble (in making another covenant with you) in order that He may keep you for a people in His presence,

Verse 14

Alter: but with him who is here standing with us this day...and with him who is not here with us this day. This idea is paramount for the whole theological-historical project of the Book of Deuteronomy. The awesome covenant, evoked through Moses's strong rhetoric, whereby Israel binds itself to God, is a timeless model, to be reenacted scrupulously by all future generations. The force of the idea is nicely caught by the rabbinic notion that all unborn generations were already standing here at Sinai.

JPS:

13-14: The covenant binds even future generations; consequently, the punishment for infraction of its terms extends to the third and fourth generation.

those who are not with us here this day. That is, future generations. The reference cannot be to absentees, since verses 9-10 indicate that all are present. According to Midrash Tanchuma, the phrase refers to those who were spiritually present: the souls of all future generations of Jews were present and bound themselves to God by this covenant. In any case, the point of the text is that the mutual commitments made here by God and Israel are binding for all future generations. Ancient Near Eastern treaties likewise stipulate that they are binding on the parties' descendants.