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Drash for Shabbat Ekev By Ina Rae Levine - August 3, 2007 Parasha Ekev deals with avoiding dangers to faith and obedience to God after the conquest of the land. It deals with accepting the Covenant in every generation. It is the second Shabbat of Consolation before the High Holidays. If you walk in God's ways and obey God's rules...God will keep the Covenant he made with your fathers i.e. fertility, good harvest, healthy stock, etc. and God will keep you healthy. Moses went on to say that you should not fear the Canaanites and should destroy all people that God delivers to you. It is God in your midst who will cause the destruction of these people. We are to burn their idols and not covet their gold and silver. Moses goes on to remind us that it was God who set the hardships before us for 40 years in the wilderness and gave us manna to show that man cannot live by bread alone but on anything that God gives us (Deut 8.3). These words from Moses are the basis for our blessings before and after meals. Moses reminds us that our clothes did not wear out and our feet did not swell for 40 years. He continues that we have sinned as a people many times. He called us a stiff necked people. Moses referred to the golden calf and other instances where we defied God and how he, Moses, fasted for 40 more days and nights after receiving the original Ten Commandments pleading with God on our behalf not to destroy us before God made the second set of Commandments. He reminds us that in Egypt we had to water our crops and goes on to say that in the Promised Land, God will cause the land to be watered by rain in its season only if we will obey God's commandments. "Beware, do not let your heart grow haughty and you forget everything God gives you". We must take care not to be lured away by other gods. Should we turn to worship other gods, God's anger will stop the rain, our crops will dry up and we will perish. We have a conditional Covenant. In every generation we must revere God, love God, keep God's laws, God's rules and God's Commandments. It is God who disciplines us just as a man disciplines his son. We are to remember that it is God who gives us power to get wealth and remember that everything is God. This is how we walk with God. We become an "Am Ha-Kodesh" (a Holy Nation) not an Am Kashay Oreff (Stiff Necked People). We keep God's words in our hearts and teach them to our children. It is up to every generation to continue the Covenant that God made with our ancestors by accepting God's commandments and following God's laws. My question tonight… Are we walking with God? We need to answer that in our own hearts as we approach the High Holy Days. Shabbat Shalom.
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