Vaetchanan Torah Study -- CBH

(23) I pleaded with יהוה at that time, saying, (24) “O Lord יהוה, You who let Your servant see the first works of Your greatness and Your mighty hand, You whose powerful deeds no god in heaven or on earth can equal! (25) Let me, I pray, cross over and see the good land on the other side of the Jordan, that good hill country, and the Lebanon.” (26) But יהוה was wrathful with me on your account and would not listen to me. יהוה said to me, “Enough! Never speak to Me of this matter again! (27) Go up to the summit of Pisgah and gaze about, to the west, the north, the south, and the east. Look at it well, for you shall not go across yonder Jordan. (28) Give Joshua his instructions, and imbue him with strength and courage, for he shall go across at the head of this people, and he shall allot to them the land that you may only see.”

For your own sake, therefore, be most careful—since you saw no shape when יהוה spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire— not to act wickedly and make for yourselves a sculptured image in any likeness whatever: the form of a man or a woman,

the form of any beast on earth, the form of any winged bird that flies in the sky, the form of anything that creeps on the ground, the form of any fish that is in the waters below the earth.— And when you look up to the sky and behold the sun and the moon and the stars, the whole heavenly host, you must not be lured into bowing down to them or serving them. These your God יהוה allotted to other peoples everywhere under heaven; but you יהוה took and brought out of Egypt, that iron blast furnace, to be God’s very own people, as is now the case.

(1) מכור — a כור is a vessel in which one refines gold.

Moses summoned all the Israelites and said to them: Hear, O Israel, the laws and rules that I proclaim to you this day! Study them and observe them faithfully! Our God יהוה made a covenant with us at Horeb. It was not with our ancestors that יהוה made this covenant, but with us, the living, every one of us who is here today.

Hear, O Israel! יהוה is our God, יהוה alone. You shall love your God יהוה with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Take to heart these instructions with which I charge you this day. Impress them upon your children. Recite them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead; inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

HEAR, O ISRAEL: THE ETERNAL OUR G-D, THE ETERNAL IS ONE. This too is a commandment that offers explanation. For, already contained in the commandment I am the Eternal thy G-d, is [the principle of] the Unity of G-d. As the Rabbis have said: “Rabbi Nathan says: From here there is a refutation to those heretics who say there are two powers governing the universe. For, when the Holy One, blessed be He, stood on Mount Sinai and proclaimed I am the Eternal thy G-d, who protested against Him?” But here he [Moses] came to explain this commandment [I am the Eternal …] and mentioned it after the Ten Commandments because it is the root of faith, and whoever does not acknowledge it denies the essential principle [of the religion] as if he worships idols. “The Eternal our G-d, the Eternal is One. This means: the Eternal, Who is [now, only] our G-d and not the G-d of the [other] nations, will eventually be acknowledged as the One [and only] Eternal, as it is said, In that day shall the Eternal be One, and His Name One.” This is Rashi’s language. Now you must contemplate [the fact] that Scripture changed [the normal usage] here by saying the Eternal ‘our’ G-d and did not state “thy” G-d as it says everywhere else: Hear, O Israel: thou art to pass over the Jordan this day etc. Know therefore this day, that the Eternal ‘thy’ G-d etc.; Hear, O Israel, ye draw nigh this day unto battle etc. for the Eternal ‘your’ G-d is He that goeth with you. And so also in all sections where [Moses] spoke to Israel he mentioned “the Eternal your G-d” or “the Eternal thy G-d,” and even here [in this very section] he said, And thou shalt love the Eternal ‘thy’ G-d. However, in this declaration of the Unity [of G-d] Moses said, the Eternal ‘our’ G-d because He had done great and awesome things with Moses to make Himself a glorious Name [therefore Moses said “our G-d,” for had he said “your G-d,” he might have appeared to exclude himself from this declaration of Unity]. Now the letter daleth in the word echad (one) is written [in the Torah] large in order to allude to that which is written, He divided the water before them, to make Himself an everlasting Name. And therefore the Rabbis instituted in the reading of the Sh’ma “Blessed be His Name Whose Glorious Kingdom is for ever and ever” and they further said [there]: “This may be compared to a lord’s daughter who smelled the [sweet] odor of some pudding etc.,” for Moses stated it in the Torah by an allusion. And then he reverted [to the general usage] and stated, And ‘thou’ shalt love the Eternal ‘thy’ G-d like the expression found in [the other] sections of Deuteronomy.

Do not try your God יהוה, as you did at Massah. Be sure to keep the commandments, decrees, and laws that your God יהוה has enjoined upon you.

(5) Then יהוה said to Moses, “Pass before the people; take with you some of the elders of Israel, and take along the rod with which you struck the Nile, and set out. (6) I will be standing there before you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock and water will issue from it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. (7) The place was named Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and because they tried יהוה, saying, “Is יהוה present among us or not?”

Do what is right and good in the sight of יהוה, that it may go well with you and that you may be able to possess the good land that your God יהוה promised on oath to your fathers,

AND THOU SHALT DO THAT WHICH IS RIGHT AND GOOD IN THE SIGHT OF THE ETERNAL. In line with the plain meaning of Scripture the verse says, “Keep the commandments of G-d, His testimonies, and His statutes, and, in observing them, intend to do what is right and good in His sight only.” And [the expression in the verse before us] that it may be well with thee is a promise, stating that, when you will do that which is good in His eyes, it will be well with you, for G-d does good unto the good, and to them that are upright in their hearts. Our Rabbis have a beautiful Midrash on this verse. They have said: “[That which is right and good] refers to a compromise and going beyond the requirement of the letter of the law.” The intent of this is as follows: At first he [Moses] stated that you are to keep His statutes and His testimonies which He commanded you, and now he is stating that even where He has not commanded you, give thought, as well, to do what is good and right in His eyes, for He loves the good and the right. Now this is a great principle, for it is impossible to mention in the Torah all aspects of man’s conduct with his neighbors and friends, and all his various transactions, and the ordinances of all societies and countries. But since He mentioned many of them — such as, Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer;Thou shalt not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge;neither shalt thou stand idly by the blood of thy neighbor;Thou shalt not curse the deaf;Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head and the like — he reverted to state in a general way that, in all matters, one should do what is good and right, including even compromise and, going beyond the requirements of the law. Other examples are the Rabbis’ ordinances concerning the prerogative of a neighbor, and even what they said [concerning the desirability] that one’s youthful reputation be unblemished, and that one’s conversation with people be pleasant. Thus [a person must seek to refine his behavior] in every form of activity, until he is worthy of being called “good and upright.”