Ekev- God is in the Details

I was once at an event where Rabbi David J. Wolpe was speaking. I was a student, and had tagged along with his brother, now Rabbi Dan Wolpe, to help sell books afterwards. Rabbi David opened his talk with the following words, “God loves you.” These were words not often spoken by rabbis at that time. We talked about God’s love for the Jewish people. We talked about God’s protection, mercy, and righteousness, but not about God loving us. It sounded like an old -time preacher. The language seems not to be the way we, as Jews, normally talk. Parashat Ekev reads like that. 

“And it shall come to pass, because ye hearken to theses ordinances… the Lord thy God shall keep with thee the covenant and the mercy… and He will love thee and bless thee… He will also bless the fruit of thy body and the fruit of thy land, thy corn and thy wine and thy oil.. Thou shalt be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle.  And the Lord will take away from thee all sickness…” (translation- Hertz Humash

It is a beautiful picture. If only we, as a people, would follow God, all would be, not just well, but perfect. Unfortunately, we know this is not true. The Jews have not always seemed blessed. Rather, as the joke says, “God, sometimes, could you choose someone else?”. Illness does not stay far from those who follow the mitzvot, and infertility is a very real and painful problem in our community.

Oh, but some will say, this was a different time. Others declare, “Circle the wagons!” Leading to an ever-right moving Haredi community. The idea being, if we could only separate ourselves from the sinful influences of the outside world, this could come true.

Reality is harsh. This is a beautiful picture. It is a picture we should strive to attain, but it is also an illusion. The Torah is not a literal text. It is not a straightforward history. The Torah is a theological text. It speaks in theological and ideological terms. When the Exodus tells us 600,000 souls left Egypt, there was no turnstile at Yam Suf counting the people as they crossed the sea.

So where does this leave us? It leaves us back in a dream state, but a dream state we should want to attain. As a people we have, throughout the centuries, suffered greatly, even when observing the mitzvot. As individuals we know that life is not always fair; that justice seems to evade those who deserve it, for the better and the worse. Still, Jews are the eternal optimists. Even among the thorns, we strive for achievement. We see learning as our pinnacle. And the result is we make the desert bloom; we help with infertility; and we work towards preventing and curing disease.

Examine the achievements of the Jewish people. Examine the achievements of our modern State of Israel, especially considered in the light of its mere 64 years. See that we, as a people and as a modern state, are still here despite the odds. There have been “great trials… and the signs and the wonders, and the mighty hand…” God is in the details.