The Torah Portion – Wk 46 Ekev – Because

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Blessing and Sharing Bread by Yoran Raanan

Ekev
Because
עֵקֶב

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Overview

In this week’s Torah portion we are looking at Deuteronomy 7:12–11:25

Moses continues his closing address to the children of Israel, If they will fulfil the commandments of the Torah, they will prosper in the Promised Land they are about to enter.

Moses rebukes the people by reminding them of their creating of the golden calf at Mt Sinai, the rebellion of Korach, the sin of the spies, their angering of God at Taveirah, Massah and Kivrot Hataavah (‘The Graves of Lust’).
Moses also speaks of God’s forgiveness of their sins, and the Second Tablets which God inscribed and gave to them following their repentance.

God sustained them with daily manna from heaven for 40 years – teaching them that man does not live on bread alone, but by the utterance of God’s mouth.

Moses describes the land they are about to enter as “flowing with milk and honey,” blessed with the “seven kinds” (wheat, barley, grapevines, figs, pomegranates, olive oil and dates), and as the place that is the focus of God’s providence of His world.
He commands them to destroy the idols of the Canaanites, and warns them not to become proud and begin to believe that their own power attained this wealth.

In the second chapter of the Shema, Moses describes the rewards of fulfilling God’s commandments and the curse of their neglect (famine and exile).

Ekev is the source of the precept of prayer, and includes a reference to the resurrection of the dead in the messianic age.