Eikev

Moses recalls the making and re-making of the Tablets of Stone, the incident of the Golden Calf, Aaron's death, the Levites' duties, and exhortations to serve God.

[9] Moses directed the Israelites to burn the images of their gods, not to covet nor keep the silver and gold on them, nor to bring an abhorrent thing into their houses.

[46] Moses described God as supreme, great, mighty, and awesome, showing no favor and taking no bribe, but upholding the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and befriending the stranger.

[59] Moses urged them to impress God's words upon their heart, bind them as a sign on their hands, let them serve as a symbol on their foreheads, teach them to their children, and recite them when they stayed at home and when they were away, when they lay down and when they got up.

Similarly, in 1 Kings 12:28, Jeroboam told the people of his golden calves, "You have gone up long enough to Jerusalem; behold your gods, O Israel, that brought you up out of the land of Egypt."

[74] 1 Chronicles 23:3–5 reports that of 38,000 Levite men age 30 and up, 24,000 were in charge of the work of the Temple in Jerusalem, 6,000 were officers and magistrates, 4,000 were gatekeepers, and 4,000 praised God with instruments and song.

Rabbi Simeon ben Lakish reconciled the two sources, explaining that the hornet stood on the eastern bank of the Jordan and shot its venom over the river at the Canaanites.

[93] The Mishnah taught that first fruits were brought only from the Seven Species (Shiv'at Ha-Minim) that Deuteronomy 8:8 noted to praise the Land of Israel: wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olive-oil, and date-honey.

[94] In the Babylonian Talmud, Rav Judah taught that the commandment to recite the Grace after Meals (בִּרְכַּת הַמָּזוׂן‎, Birkat Hamazon) derives from Deuteronomy 8:10, "And you shall eat and be satisfied and bless the Lord your God.

The heart speaks,[103] sees,[103] hears,[104] walks,[105] falls,[106] stands,[107] rejoices,[108] cries,[109] is comforted,[110] is troubled,[111] becomes hardened,[112] grows faint,[113] grieves,[114] fears,[115] can be broken,[116] rebels,[117] invents,[118] cavils,[119] overflows,[120] devises,[121] desires,[122] goes astray,[123] lusts,[124] is refreshed,[125] can be stolen,[126] is humbled,[127] is enticed,[128] errs,[129] trembles,[130] is awakened,[131] loves,[132] hates,[133] envies,[134] is searched,[135] is rent,[136] meditates,[137] is like a fire,[138] is like a stone,[139] turns in repentance,[140] becomes hot,[141] dies,[142] melts,[143] takes in words,[144] is susceptible to fear,[145] gives thanks,[146] covets,[147] becomes hard,[148] makes merry,[149] acts deceitfully,[150] speaks from out of itself,[151] loves bribes,[152] writes words,[153] plans,[154] receives commandments,[155] acts with pride,[156] makes arrangements,[157] and aggrandizes itself.

So, said the Sifre, Moses told Israel that one might see the wicked flourish in this world for a short time, but in the end, they will have occasion to regret.

"[169] Similarly, the school of Rabbi Yannai interpreted the place name Di-zahab (דִי זָהָב‎) in Deuteronomy 1:1 to refer to one of the Israelites' sins that Moses recounted in the opening of his address.

Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba likened it to the case of a man who had a son and bathed him, anointed him, gave him plenty to eat and drink, hung a purse round his neck, and set him down at the door of a brothel.

The midrash noted that the Rabbis taught that documents of betrothal and marriage are written only with the consent of both parties, and the bridegroom pays the scribe's fee.

[179] Rav Joseph deduced from this that a scholar who has forgotten his learning through no fault of his own (through old age, sickness, or trouble, but not through willful neglect) is still due respect (by analogy to the broken pieces of the tablets that the Israelites nonetheless treated with sanctity).

"[186] Rabbi Joshua ben Levi said that the men of the Great Assembly were so called because they restored the crown of the divine attributes—the enumeration of God's praise—to its ancient completeness.

Rabbi Jacob ben Dostai said that it is about three miles from Lod to Ono, and once he rose up early in the morning and waded all that way up to his ankles in fig honey.

Rabbi Ishmael replied that since Joshua 1:8 says, "This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate therein day and night," one might think that one must take this injunction literally (and study Torah every waking moment).

Rava would ask the Rabbis (his disciples) not to appear before him during Nisan (when corn ripened) and Tishrei (when people pressed grapes and olives) so that they might not be anxious about their food supply during the rest of the year.

From the Writings, Rabban Gamaliel cited Song 7:9, "And the roof of your mouth, like the best wine of my beloved, that goes down sweetly, causing the lips of those who are asleep to speak."

[219] Baḥya ibn Paquda read Deuteronomy 8:3, "That He might make known to you that man does not live by bread alone," to teach that those who trust in God have their sustenance assured by any of the means available in the world.

In Deuteronomy 8:17, "and you say in your heart: ‘My strength and the power of my hand has gotten me this wealth,'" Baḥya ben Asher read Moses to warn of the possibility that arrogance can lead one to ascribe affluence to one's own lucky stars.

Baḥya suggested that this principle, in turn, might provide one possible reason for why some righteous people are prevented from obtaining their livelihood without effort and must instead exert themselves for it and be tested by it.

[230] As the numeric value (gematria) of the word "power" (כֹּחַ‎, koach) in Deuteronomy 8:18 is 28, Jacob ben Asher (the Baal Ha-Turim) saw an allusion to Joshua, who led the Israelites for 28 years.

[236] Maimonides read Deuteronomy 10:20, "and you will cling to God," to set forth a positive commandment to cleave to the wise and their disciples to learn from their deeds.

[242] Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch read the word "power" (כֹּחַ‎, koach) in Deuteronomy 8:18 to comprehend everything that makes up one's creative personality and capacity to earn—intelligence, skill, foresight, health—and explained that this comes not from the food that one eats but directly from God.

[243] Reading Deuteronomy 8:11–18, Nechama Leibowitz wrote that people in their blindness tend to detect the guiding hand of Providence only when manifested in visible miracles, as the Israelites witnessed in the wilderness.

The expression evoked a general sense of the bounty of the land and suggested an ecological richness exhibited in several ways, not just with milk and honey.

[247] Walter Brueggemann argued that the "if-then" structure of Deuteronomy 11:13–17, a trademark rhetorical feature of the Deuteronomic tradition, makes clear that the gift of the land was not an automatic given but a consequence of obedience.

The "then," the consequence of obedience, is abundant rain in every season that will cause the land to produce everything needed, made explicit through three phrases—first, "grain, wine, oil," a common triad to signal a rich, productive economy (see Hosea 2:8, 22]); second, the pasture land for cattle on which the agrarian economy depended (see Psalms 50:10, 104:14); and third, the rhetoric of satiation from Deuteronomy 6:11.