[Therefore] keep all the

commandments that I command you this day,

 in order that you may be strong

and come and possess the land to which you are crossing, to possess it,

. And in order that you may prolong your days on the land that

flowing with milk and honey…

a land the Lord, your God, looks after; the eyes of Lord your God are

always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

(Devarim 11)

The land is good, it is in accordance with the intended

intellectual spiritual and moral development of the nation, and it is also roomy,

so that it can also develop numerically therein.

flowing [zavat] with milk and honey

It is very characteristic that the description of

abundance of produce by zov only occurs in reference to the Land of

Israel, is never used with this meaning elsewhere, but it is the constant

expression used of the Land of Israel. In Scripture the word zov never

means overflowing. It occurs mainly to describe a human pathological condition,

and otherwise as a flowing forth caused by miraculous power He struck the

rock and water flowed forth (Psalms 78:20) or by violence stabbed, their

blood gushed forth (Lamentations 6:9). Taking all this into consideration, a

land flowing with milk and honey does not seem to describe a land that

develops this abundance in accordance with its natural fertility, but a land

that only does this under special conditions. The Land of Israel

is a hard land: ha'artzot ha'el [those lands, but also hard

lands] (Bereishit

26:3). We saw it repeatedly visited by famine, and also after Israel

left it, it lay barren. Absorbs water from the rains of heaven is said

of it. A land which, unlike Egypt, does not offer its inhabitants simply to

take advantage of its natural conditions of fertility, but which can blossom

and flourish only when the eyes of Lord your God are always upon it, from

the beginning of the year to the end of the year. When it gets water, it

blossoms out luxuriously. But it only gets this water from above. It is a land

that makes it necessary for its inhabitants to be good. For a hard people, as

we were, a hard land is fitting.

(Rabbi

S.R. Hirsch Shemot 3:8, based on Levy translation)

What does the Lord, your God, demand of you?

Gavriel

Birnbaum

For Shlomi and Etti

Upon their marriage

With love

And now, O Israel, what

statutes, which I command you this day, for your good. (Devarim 10:12-13)

This passage has

puzzled many throughout the generations. They understood it as having God say

(translated into modern lingo): "What's the big deal? I am not asking for

much, just to fear, to love, to worship… with all your heart and with all

your soul!" Is that which God demands from us not a "big

deal"? The Gemara already asked: "Is fear a small thing?!" (Berakhot 33b). The

NeTzIV formulates the problem well in his commentary, Ha'Amek Davar on

our verse:

The verse is

bewildering, since everything within human power is included within the

request, what else is there to ask for?

This question gave

rise – so to speak – to an instructive and amusing dialogue between God and the

People Israel:

I asked one thing

of the Lord (Psalms

27:4) – The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: "First you said, I

asked one thing of the Lord – to dwell in the Lord's house. But then

you spoke again: To see the Lord's pleasantness and to visit in His hall!"

He said to Him: "Master of the Universe! Shouldn't a servant be like his

master? Didn't You first come to us with one [request], for it is said: And

what does the Lord, your God, demand of you? Only to fear, but then You

began listing many commandments, for it is said: to walk in all His ways,

to cleave to Him and to keep His commandments? That is to say: it is sufficient

for the servant to be like his Master." (Midrash Tehillim [Shoher Tov] 27:5)

After citing this

midrash, the author of Ha'amek Davar comments with some audaciousness:

"But this is no more than flowery language [lashon melitzi]." However,

the plain meaning of the text seems to show that the request must be understood

in context. The exegete H. Tigay¹

understands God's request against the background of the previous sections of

Moses' speech: Moses warned the People Israel of the rebelliousness and stiff-neckedness

they displayed both before and after the sin of the Golden Calf. Then he says, and

now, introducing a kind of conclusion drawn from the preceding account,

that "The history of your rebelliousness proves that you lack the basic

qualities that shall be listed presently, and in the future you will be

required to take upon yourselves to fear and love God in order to prevent further

such incidents between yourselves and the Holy One, blessed be He."

Another important

aspect of the plain meaning of Scripture is mentioned by ShaDaL is his

commentary on our passage: "It is not that He is asking an easy thing of

you, but rather that he is not demanding anything for His own sake, but rather

for your own good."² Of course,

his interpretation is based upon the end of verse 13, quoted above. Actually,

RaMBaN had written similar thoughts much earlier:

what does the

Lord, your God, demand of you? – connects with for your good. That

is to say: He asks nothing of You for His own sake, but rather it is for your

sake, as expressed by [the verse], If you are righteous, what shall you give

Him? (Job

35:7); all of it is completely for your own good. And he explains: For

the Lord your God has the heavens and the heavens' heavens, the earth and all

that it contains – and they all glorify His name; He does not need you.

Let us try to dig a

bit deeper into the significance of the idea that God asks for nothing to

satisfy His own needs. Is it even possible to speak of God having needs? Is the

statement "God needs something" meaningful? Every novice philosopher

understands that it is a contradiction in terms to say that God needs something.

The Psalmist expressed this poetically: For all the beasts of the forest are

Mine, the behemoth of the thousand mountains. I

with Me. If I were hungry I would not

tell you, for the world and its fullness are Mine (Psalms

50:10-12).

Not only that – doesn't

this turn man into the final end, making all of God's essence and the

commandments he orders, means for the good of humans? Doesn't this

interpretation bring us dangerously close to the figure of the Christian god

who sacrifices himself to redeem humanity?

It is common to say

that man is the "crown of creation" (albeit, this is a very late

formulation). That is to say, simply understood: the entire universe was

created for humanity's sake. Consider this parable:

The ministering

angels to the Lord: "Sovereign of the Universe! What is man, that You

are mindful of him, and the son of man, that you think of him? (Psalms 8:5). This

trouble, for what has it been created?" "If so," said He to

them, "Sheep and oxen, all of them (ib. 8), why were they created; why were The

fowl of the air and the fish of the sea (ib. 9) created? A tower full of good things

and no guests-what pleasure has its owner in having filled it?" They said

to Him: "Sovereign of the Universe! O Lord, our Lord, how glorious is Your

name in all the earth (ib. 10). Do what pleases You!" (Bereishit Rabbah 8:7, based

on Soncino translation)

Rabbi Saadia Gaon had

this to say:

Even though we see

that the creatures are many in number, nevertheless, we need not be confused in

regard to which of them constitutes the goal of creation. For there exists a

natural criterion by means of which we can determine which one of all the creatures

is the end. When, then, we make our investigation with this criterion [as a

guide], we find that the main goal is man… Upon further investigation of all

its parts we note that the earth and the water are both inanimate, whereas we

find that the beasts are irrational. Hence only man is left, which gives us the

certainty that he must have unquestionably have been the intended purpose of

creation. (Saadia

Gaon: The Book of Beliefs and Opinions, 4: introduction Rosenblatt

Translation)

RaMBaM attacks this

view and its corollaries with his customary vigor and courage. He claims that

the question "What is the goal of existence" cannot even be answered

by saying "We do not know." Rather, the question itself is

meaningless:

Intelligent persons

are much perplexed when they inquire into the purpose of the Creation. I will

now show how absurd this question is, according to each one of the different

theories. (Guide

for the Perplexed 3:13, Friedländer translation)

One of the attempted

solutions to this question mentioned by RaMBaM claims that human existence is

the purpose of existence more generally. Everything exists so that we can serve

God; everything that happens, happens for our sake – even the heavenly spheres

rotate for our sake and in order to produce the things we need. If the heavenly

spheres were created for man, surely that is true of animals and plants. However,

RaMBaM rejects this view:

Even if the Universe

existed for man's sake and man existed for the purpose of serving God, as has

been mentioned, the question remains, What is the end of serving God? He does

not become more perfect if all His creatures serve Him and comprehend Him as

far as possible; nor would He lose anything if nothing existed beside Him. It

might perhaps be replied that the service of God is not intended for God's

perfection; it is intended for our own perfection, – it is good for us, it

makes us perfect. But then the question might be repeated, What is the object

of our being perfect? We must in continuing the inquiry as to the purpose of

the creation at last arrive at the answer, It was the Will of God, or His

Wisdom decreed it; and this is the correct answer. (ibid)

From here he reaches a

conclusion that is very unusual for his historical period:

I consider therefore

the following opinion as most correct according to the teaching of the Bible,

and best in accordance with the results of philosophy; namely, that the

Universe does not exist for man's sake, but that each being exists for its own

sake, and not because of some other thing. (ibid)

And so, we began our

journey with a difficulty in interpretation that is perhaps no difficulty at

all, and now RaMBaM has delivered us from our excessive self-centeredness and

brought us to the boundary of the furthermost knowledge of God possible for

human beings.

1. H. Tigay, Deuteronomy: The

Traditional Hebrew Text with the New JPS Translation (Jewish Publication

Society: Philadelphia, 1996) p. 107.

2. Perush ShaDaL

R. Shmuel David Luzzato al Hamisha Humshei Torah, P. Shlezinger, ed., (Jerusalem 5726) pg. 524.

Dr. Gavriel Birnbaum is a linguist

And the Lord said to

Moses: I have seen this people. What is meant by, and behold, it is a

stiff-necked people? R. Yehuda ben Poloya said in the name of R. Meir: They

deserve to be beheaded. R. Yakim said: Three are the undaunted: among beasts,

it is the dog; among birds, it is the cock; and among the nations it is Israel.

R. Yitzhak ben Redifa said in the name of R. Ammi: You think that this is said

disparagingly, but it is really in their praise; for it means: "Either be

a Jew or be prepared to be hanged."

R. Abin said: To this

very day Israelites in the Diaspora are called the stiff-necked people.

(Shemot Rabbah 42:9, based on Soncino translation)

And you shall

– the Proper Moral Lesson of the Exile

And you shall

love the stranger – Resemble God in love of the stranger who

accompanies you from alien lands; by your acceptance of the stranger you will

realize that pure humanity is the supreme quality in your view. Equality before

the law and the love with which Israel

relates to the stranger characterize the nation and the Land as the Nation of

God and the Land

of God. In other circles,

man's status depends upon his ancestry and his property; in the Nation of God

and the Land of God only pure humanity, subservient to

God, determines the status of man.

(Rabbi S.R. Hirsch, Devarim

10:19)

For you were

strangers – All of your misfortune in Egypt was that you were strangers

there; as such, local custom denied you land, birthplace, livelihood; the

natives were free to do with you as they saw fit. As strangers, you were denied

rights in Egypt,

and this was the root of the servitude and the persecution you underwent.

Therefore, watch yourselves – this is the terminology of the admonition – lest

you establish human rights in your state on any foundation other than pure

humanitarianism, which rests in the heart of every man as a man. Any

depravation of human rights will open the door to arbitrariness and to abuse of

man – this is the root of the abomination of Egypt.

(Rabbi S. R. Hirsch, Shemot

22:20)

My own power and the might of my own

hand: the Danger of Megalomania

The

temptation mentioned here (Devarim

8:12-17) is not one that could trap Israel in its net immediately upon

their arrival in the land and during their first acquaintance with its

landscape. Rather, it is a temptation that comes later, after the land is well

in their control and they have settled it, after they become rooted in the land

and reap success in productive work. It is a temptation that springs from a

feeling of My own power and the might of my

own hand have won this wealth for me. It is a temptation which

replaces the worship of the Creator of the world not with nature and the

worship of nature-gods, but with man and his pride. The Torah opposes

man's confidence in his own powers with the memory of the great and terrible

parched land with no water in it, the sojourn through the wilderness in

which man sustained his own existence.

(Prof. Nehama Leibowitz z"l, Iyyunim b'Sefer Devarim pg. 95)

He will hear the

cry of the poor and save him

Who does justice:

Although He is lofty, He does justice for the orphan and the widow for there

is none who aids them, as in the expression Father of orphans (Psalms 68:6). And so too regarding the stranger

– He provides for him when he depends on Him; and since the Lord loves the

stranger, you are [also] required to love him.

(Ibn Ezra Devarim 10:18)

And place these,

My words upon your hearts

Next to your hearts, as in the verse and place it as a cover

with it upon the Ark, and place upon

the covering. From this our Rabbis learned that it [the tefillin]

should be placed in juxtaposition to the heart.

(Hizkuni Devarim 11:18)

Rabbi Menahem Mendel of Kotzk used to say: Why is it written upon

your hearts and not in your hearts? Because sometimes the heart is

closed up and cannot open itself to certain words, so in the meantime they

shall rest upon your hearts, so that one day, when the heart

opens up, they will be able to enter…

Readers respond

We thank Dov Barak for sending us the following

passage from Birkat Yosef – Pardes al Hamisha Humshei Torah by R.

Yitzhak Shvinger, ztz"l:

And I said to interpret that which the Alshikh

had written, that every place where the blessing of peace is mentioned, that it

means there should be no conflict between body and soul, but rather the body

should be subservient and obey the soul, and My heart and flesh shall sing

to the living God. Torah scholars increase "peace" in the world

through their Torah and their righteousness makes peace in their bodies. Since

Pinchas prevented many from sinning when he stabbed the adulterer and

adulteress, he was given a pact of peace, that he would not sin again and

there would be a pact of peace between his body and his soul, for the merit

of the many depended upon him and no sin would be caused by him. That is why

the midrash was correct to say that he would rightfully collect his reward,

since the Holy One, blessed be He, guaranteed him a pact of peace as understood

by the Alshikh, and He would certainly not rescind it, and he would be able to

receive his reward in this world.

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