TORAH PORTION

Don't Let

g9

L.I.F.E.

Congregation

13bai Moshe

Pass Your Children By!

Moses' Farewell
Teaches, Exhorts

DR. RICHARD C. HERTZ

Special to The Jewish News

Registration has begun for
Congregation B'nai Moshe's exciting
and innovative educational program.

3El Emde chNliciTen led

fiNe _ 'VOW

Rabbi Elliot Pachter

in conjunction with

Nancy Vardy, Director

You and your children will love the camp-like atmosphere of L.I.F.E.

Classes begin September 12.

Call 788-0600

'"'
■114=11.14/■

HFIA

Due to a lack of interest • •

Tr

f(E12(2t06,ECI

I12±)

12aLi.-ent.

9 // Ear fOT 17E1.12.9
riE. t-Ott0172 of 112

,

ou twin t
TOU9f2..
paii two and a izat jEay. cv-ETE

ELLET. lot, a)

9 El
fict(yE ,ta,..tEct Lo
tr21,2, 9 5.

Liz' anie)

cvant

pacj. inzat on nu) toan.

nEct-, and

flarrE

&o,c1:1 in

OWLET."

. . . Hebrew Free Loan has been helping
needy Jews in Metropolitan Detroit for 97 years

I want to help. Enclosed is my gift:

❑

$18

❑

$50

❑ $100 ❑ $200

Name

❑ Other

Cut on the dotted line and
send with your check to:

Address

Hebrew Free Loan Association

City, State, Zip

YOUR GIFT WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

TRIBUTES & MEMORIALS AVAILABLE

21550 West Twelve Mile Rd.
Southfield, MI 48076

CONGREGATION SHAAREY ZEDEK B'NAI ISRAEL CENTER
4200 Walnut Lake Road, West Bloomfield

Invites you to participate in our Daily,
Sabbath and High Holy Day Services

Share the joy of ushering in the year 5753,
as we worship together in our new home.

Rabbi Leonardo Bitran

Cantor Barry Ulrych

Contact the Synagogue Office - 681-5353
for Membership or High Holy Day Tickets

All PRIEM) M IqT 91 1Q09

T

he weekly Torah read-
ings are now centered
in Deuteronomy. Its ti-
tle comes from the Sep-
tuagint, the Greek translation
of the Bible. The book was
titled from the Greek-
speaking Jews meaning "Se-
cond Law," but a full title
might well have been "Moses'
Farewell Addresses to the Peo-
ple of Israel."
Deuteronomy begins with
Moses having brought his
people to the borders of the
Promised Land whereupon he
recounts in three discourses
the events of the wanderings
of the past 40 years. He warns
his people against the temp-
tations awaiting them in Ca-
naan. In magnificent cadence
of language, he promises
divine judgment for disobe-
dience of the laws given to the
children of Israel, with many
blessings awaiting them in
turn for observance.
This week's sedra continues
the second discourse of Moses
on the religious foundations
of the covenant. Moses
foresees that the chief
religious problem occupying
Canaan would be how to deal
with idolatry and the
idolatries of the people living
there. Canaan represented a
foreign culture unknown to
the children of Israel. Mixed
marriage with the in-
habitants was to be avoided
and pagan images demolish-
ed. The sedra reveals the
clash of cultures with the
seven nations who are part of
the Canaanite mixture of in-
habitants. The Torah
demands the native people be
done away with, lest they
ensnare Israel with their
idolatrous practices.
Naturally, such a policy of
annihilation was never car-
ried out. The Canaanites
were not annihilated, though
the temptation for Israel to be
infected by the pagans was
ever present. The effective an-
tidote was to avoid mixed
marriages with the sons and
daughters of the seven Ca-
naanite nations.
Yet mixed marriages did
take place with many of the
Bible's leaders. Moses,
Solomon, and Ahab all took
foreign wives, as did Joseph.
Not until the time of Ezra,
about 400 B.C.E., after the ex-
iles were returned from
Babylon, were mixed mar-
riages deemed socially or
politically undesirable. Pro-
hibitions against mixed mar-

riage were religious in nature
and had nothing to do with
any racial ideas of superiori-
ty. Contemporary and modern
opposition to mixed mar-
riages trace their origins to
this very sedra.
Another excursion into this
week's sedra comes from the
discourse of Moses concerning
the people's spiritual ex-
istence. Moses teaches the
Israelites that "man does not
live by bread alone" but that
"man may live on anything
that the Lord decrees." Israel
is warned by Moses that af-
fluence is likely to engender
false pride. Moses reminds
the people that they must
faithfully observe all of the
instructions and take care
"lest you forget the Lord your
God and fail to keep His com-
mandments."
Moses also teaches that
Israel has to be trained by
hardship in the wilderness.
These hardships are the

Shabbat Ekev:
Deuteronomy
7:12-11:25
Isaiah 49:14-51:3.

chastisements of love, such as
a loving father must do to
educate and discipline his
children. Moses realizes his
people are stiff-necked and
defiant. He even reminds
them of the incident of the
golden calf as a particularly
obnoxious offense against
God.
Another insight has to do
with loving the stranger.
Strangers did not always
receive any love from
Israelites. Already the Torah
had reminded the necessity of
compassion. "You shall not
oppress the stranger, for you
know the feelings of the
stranger having yourselves
been strangers in the land of
Egypt." (Exodus 23:9) Here
Israel was reminded by Moses
that the strangers were to be
protected and not mistreated.
In the Torah's view, humane
ethics and humane regard for
the stranger are part of the
prophetic concept of religion's
standards of human behavior.
The sedra concludes with
an eloquent exhortation to be
faithful to all that God com-
mands the Israelites in order
that they may be worthy to
occupy the land of Canaan.
The good land of Canaan was
an expression that included
borders from the Negev to
Lebanon and from the
Mediterranean Sea all the
way eastward to the