D'var Torah 5770

Parashat V'etchanan
(Loving God Loving Us)

Parashat V'etchanan begins with Moses telling the people about his final
plea to God to enter the Land with them and God's response: Moses would
be allowed to see the Land, but he wouldn't be the one to lead them in --
Joshua would.
Moses then tells the people what they must do if they want to successfully
enter the Land, possess it and live there from generation to generation as
God has promised.
He reminds them repeatedly:
•To remember what God has done for them and what they experienced at
Sinai
•To worship God alone - without any images or idols
•And to learn and do God's commandments and teach them to their children
so they can do them too
Included in these instructions are two of our core Jewish beliefs: The Ten
Commandments, or more accurately Utterances, and the first part of the
Shema. The Ten Commandments are God's instructions to us and the Shema
is our response to God.
Though V'etchanan contains many strong warnings to obey God, I find it
hard to read it as a rebuke. There are too many places where Moses reminds
the people of God's love and care for them - and how they should love God
in return - for me to hear primarily anger or frustration from Moses as he
delivers these words.
Instead, I hear the words of V'etchanan delivered in a tone of loving concern
for the people he will soon be leaving to enter the Land without him, and
hope that he can inspire them to desire to know God and love Him even as
Moses himself does.
This can be seen in the Shema and V'ahavta. These words, that we declare in
our daily, Shabbat and holiday prayers, are how the people are to respond to
God's gift of Torah - loving instruction - at Sinai. It is through loving God by
living out the words of Torah that other peoples will see that God is near to
them and has given them wisdom.
Later in our parashah, Moses reminds them that God chose them and gave
them laws to make them wise not because of anything they had done but just
because God loved them and they were His treasure. They, in turn were to
love God with all their hearts and all their actions.
Sifre, a collection of halachic midrash based on Numbers and Deuteronomy,
in commenting on the V'ahavta tells us that one who acts out of fear will
abandon the hard tasks but one who acts out of love will work even harder at
a difficult task because of his love for the one he is serving. Loving God is
the best motivation for keeping God's commandments. This is what I think
Moses wanted the people to understand and feel -- a love for God that
caused them to want to keep His commandments, bringing God near to
them.
This loving relationship between God and Israel was to continue, passed
from parent to child - generation to generation.
Even as we continue to recite these words today, we can hear Moses' call for
us to love God as well.
However, we face the challenge of relating to God while being far removed
from our ancestor's experiences with Him.
We insert ourselves in the ancient story at Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot of
course, "remembering" the story as our own -- but can we really love God
through only a memory of past events? What other means do we have to
connect our hearts and souls to God as we say Shema? What can we learn
from V'etchanan that might help us?

We can remember those times when our faith has enriched our
lives.
Naming a baby, celebrating a bar/bat mitzvah or even saying kaddish as we
grieve are just a few of life's moments that give us time to reflect on God's
place in our lives and the lives of those around us. Even taking the time to
notice the beauty of nature can remind us that there is more to life than just
"us."

We can learn about God through the words of Torah.

We don't need physical contact to develop a connection to someone - we
learn who they are through the things they write or say. For example, how
many of us have read, "The Diary Of Anne Frank" and felt a connection to
Anne as we learned of her hopes, dreams and fears in her own words?
We tend to read Torah through our own eyes rather than God's -- identifying
with Abraham, Sarah, Moses, Miriam, etc. rather than God. If we try
exploring the words of Torah from God's perspective we see how much the
picture can change. We may not be able to know with certainty what God
was thinking or feeling, but just looking at the possibilities can give us a
deeper sense of who God is.

Realize that we are here today "just because" God loved us.
And we can choose to focus our thoughts on God "just because" as well. Just
because we are here, just because there is still a Jewish people for us to be
part of. Just because the words of the Torah and Shema are our statements of
faith and God has preserved us and them from generation to generation.
As we remember, learn and live as Jews in covenant with a loving God, we
can love God back as we say,
"Shema, Israel, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad"
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One!

Shabbat Shalom

Karla Worrell kjworrell@earthlink.net

24 July 2010 Temple Beth-El, Richmond, VA