EKEV 2018
Tomorrow’s Torah reading begins “And if you do obey these rules and observe them carefully, [Ekev – then, as a consequence] the Lord your God will maintain faithfully for you the covenant that He made on oath with your fathers.”
The word Ekev, that names this week’s Torah reading, has the same root as Ya’akov (Jacob). Recall Jacob was born grasping the heel of his elder twin Esau, and therefore was named for the heel. Ekev is idiomatically translated as “on the heel of,” “because,” “as a consequence of,” or “in the end.”
Rashi takes Ekev as a warning against ignoring the mitzvot that one might consider unimportant and therefore grind under the heel, as we might treat refuse. Thus we have, in Pirkei Avot, Chapter 3, the teaching of Rabbi Yehudah haNasi to perform a “minor mitzvah” as eagerly as a “major” one, because we don’t really know how to evaluate our deeds.
A sage rabbi once told me as I was entering into my career as a Cantor, “Don’t take people too seriously; don’t take yourself too seriously. Do your life, do your work with joy and the rest will follow.” In my 18 joyous years as a Cantor, there certainly were times when this advice was a great comfort and got me through some challenges. Yet, as relaxing as these words are, this is not really the approach of the Torah. In fact, this entire portion from beginning to end is the opposite of my teacher’s advice. Eikev is about consequences of everything we do. From the start to end of this portion the message is loud and clear: Everything we do makes a difference and someone (God, the world, people around us) is watching and is deeply affected by what we do.
Now, this is not so easy. It is not so much fun to live life in the spotlight, where everyone notices everything we do. My kids could certainly attest to this. as “CKs,” Cantor’s kids, my children seem to have adjusted being spotlighted at times, I know that many children in that situation find it hard and don’t want the spotlight. Not only children: I vividly remember while growing up that the most sought-after seats in synagogue were those in the back row. The back benches (inhabited by “back benchers”) were a place where you were not always in the glare of the rabbi giving the sermon or the gabbai who was trying to find people to lead services or take an honor. There is something so comforting about being able to retreat into your prayer book or talk with your friends and feel like you are not being noticed.
Yet, our Torah portion reminds us that every action we take, or avoid taking, has real consequences. Moses warns the Jews “Vehaya im shamo’a tishme’u el mitzvotai…” (Deuteronomy 11:13): “It will come to pass, only if you listen to my commandments…” The Reform siddur removed this second paragraph of the Shema from the prayer books because it implies that when we do a mitzvah we immediately see results in this world: rain, crops, stock market going up, etc. The rabbis of the Talmud also felt uncomfortable with this paradigm and in many places worked on limiting our expectations or even saying that there is no visible reward in this world. However, when we may never see the results of our actions or our inactions, our tradition is firm that there are consequences. Two centuries ago, Rav Chayim of Volozyn wrote a brilliant work of Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism), Nefesh HaChayim, where he spends a quarter of the volume proving from sources that every single action we take creates innumerable worlds, either good worlds or bad worlds. His vision for the Afterlife was that when we die we live in all those worlds that we have created. We cannot overestimate the impact even our simplest gestures, words, thoughts and actions have.
Eikev focuses on how our actions will enable us to enter the Land of Israel and to make it thrive or deteriorate. The Torah tells us, “The eyes of God are constantly on this Land from the beginning of the year to the end…” (Deuteronomy 11:12) So it is not surprising at all that the world has Israel and the Jews under a microscope: Every action the State of Israel takes to defend herself or to deal with her multiple challenges seems to make it to the front pages of the papers or to the mouths of protesters and activists on college campuses. This makes it difficult for all of us who love Israel and wish to defend her. Yet, it means that Israel and the Jews must set an example for the world of how every action, every act of a state or an individual, does have an impact. We cannot expect the world to appreciate Israel, but we are constantly reminded of the value of us trying to make a difference.
So next time you have the opportunity to speak up, to say hello, to take a stand, to volunteer or even just to sit up front to be supportive, remember: God is watching, and the world is waiting. Innumerable and unfathomable mystical worlds and real-life consequences will result from whether we rise to the challenge or sneak back into our comfortable iPhones. The choice is ours, but the impact is real.
