From This Week’s Torah Portion:
IF/THEN - a logical proposition
“And it shall be that IF you diligently obey My commands which I command you today, to love YHWH your Elohim and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your being, THEN I shall give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, and you shall gather in your grain, and your new wine, and your oil. And I shall give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be satisfied.
Guard yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other mighty ones and bow down to them. Then the displeasure of YHWH shall burn against you, and He shall shut up the heavens, and there be no rain, and the land not give its increase. And you shall perish quickly from the excellent land which YHWH is giving you. And you shall lay up these Words of Mine in your heart and in your being, and shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. And you shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up, and shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children are increased on the soil of which YHWH swore to your fathers to give them, as the days of the heavens on the earth. (from the Shema)
For IF you diligently guard all these commands which I command you, to do it, to love YHWH your Elohim, to walk in all His ways, and to cling to Him, THEN YHWH shall drive out all these nations before you, and you shall dispossess greater and stronger nations than you. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads is yours: from the wilderness, and Levanon, from the river, the River Euphrates, even to the Western Sea is your border. No man shall stand against you. YHWH your Elohim shall put the dread of you and the fear of you upon all the land where you tread, as He has spoken to you. See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, when you obey the commands of YHWH your Elohim which I command you today; and the curse, IF you do not obey the commands of YHWH your Elohim, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other mighty ones which you have not known.”
“IF you walk in My laws and guard My commands, and shall do them, THEN I shall give you rain in its season, and the land shall yield its crops, and the trees of the field yield their fruit. And your threshing shall last till the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last till the time of sowing. And you shall eat your bread until you have enough, and shall dwell in your land safely. And I shall give peace in the land, and you shall lie down and no one make you afraid. And I shall clear the land of evil beasts, and not let the sword go through your land. And you shall pursue your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you. And five of you shall pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you pursue ten thousand. And your enemies shall fall by the sword before you. And I shall turn to you and make you fruitful, and shall increase you, and shall establish My covenant with you. And you shall eat the old supply, and clear out the old because of the new. And I shall set My Dwelling Place in your midst, and My being shall not reject you. And I shall walk in your midst, and shall be your Elohim, and you shall be My people. I am YHWH your Elohim, who brought you out of the land of Mitsrayim, from being their slaves. And I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk upright.
But IF you do not obey Me, and do not do all these commands, and IF you reject My laws, or IF your being loathes My judgments, so that you do not do all My commands, but break My covenant, I also do this to you: And I shall appoint sudden alarm over you, wasting disease and inflammation, destroying the eyes, and consuming the life. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. And I shall set My face against you, and you shall be smitten before your enemies. And those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you.
And after all this, IF you do not obey Me, THEN I shall punish you seven times more for your sins. And I shall break the pride of your power, and shall make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. And your strength shall be spent in vain and your land not yield its crops, nor the trees of the land yield their fruit.
And IF you walk contrary to Me, and refuse to obey Me, THEN I shall bring on you seven times more plagues, according to your sins, and send wild beasts among you, which shall bereave you of your children. And I shall cut off your livestock, and make you few in number, and your highways shall be deserted.
And IFyou are not instructed by Me by these, but walk contrary to Me, THEN I also shall walk contrary to you, and I Myself shall strike you seven times for your sins. And I shall bring against you a sword executing the vengeance of My covenant, and you shall gather together in your cities, and I shall send pestilence among you, and you shall be given into the hand of the enemy. When I have cut off your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall bring back to you your bread by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied.
And IF in spite of this, you do not obey Me, but walk contrary to Me, THEN I shall walk contrary to you in wrath. And I Myself shall punish you seven times for your sins. And you shall eat the flesh of your sons, and eat the flesh of your daughters. And I shall destroy your high places, and cut down your sun-pillars, and put your carcasses on the carcasses of your idols. And My being shall loathe you. And I shall turn your cities into ruins and lay your set-apart places waste, and not smell your sweet fragrances. And I shall lay the land waste, and your enemies who dwell in it shall be astonished at it. And I shall scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword after you. And your land shall be desert and your cities ruins, and the land enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies waste and you are in your enemies’ land. Then the land would rest and enjoy its Sabbaths. As long as it lies waste it rests, for the time it did not rest on your Sabbaths when you dwelt in it. And as for those of you who are left, I shall send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies, and the sound of a shaken leaf shall cause them to flee. And they shall flee as though retreating from a sword, and they shall fall when no one pursues. And they shall stumble over one another, as from before a sword, when no one pursues. And you shall be unable to stand before your enemies. And you shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up, and those of you who are left rot away in their crookedness in your enemies’ lands, and also in their fathers’ iniquities rot away with them.
But IF they confess their crookedness and the crookedness of their fathers, with their trespass in which they trespassed against Me, and that they also have walked contrary to Me, and that I also have walked contrary to them and have brought them into the land of their enemies – IFtheir uncircumcised heart is humbled, and they accept the punishment of their crookedness, THEN I shall remember My covenant with Ya’aqov, and also My covenant with Yitschaq, and also remember My covenant with Avraham, and remember the land. For the land was abandoned by them, and enjoying its Sabbaths while lying waste without them, and they were paying for their crookedness, because they rejected My judgments and because their being loathed My laws.
And yet for all this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I shall not reject them, nor shall I loathe them so as to destroy them and break My covenant with them. For I am YHWH their Elohim. Then I shall remember for their sake the covenant of the ancestors whom I brought out of the land of Mitsrayim before the eyes of the nations to be their Elohim. I am YHWH. These are the laws and the judgments and the Toroth which YHWH made between Himself and the children of Yisra’el on Mount Sinai by the hand of Moshe.”
“And it shall be, IF you diligently obey the voice of YHWH your Elohim, to guard to do all His commands which I command you today, THEN it is that YHWH your Elohim shall set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, IFyou obey the voice of YHWH your Elohim: Blessed are you in the city, and blessed are you in the field. Blessed is the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your livestock – the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. Blessed is your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed are you when you come in, and blessed are you when you go out. YHWH causes your enemies who rise against you to be smitten before your face – they come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. YHWH commands the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and shall bless you in the land which YHWH your Elohim is giving you. YHWH does establish you as a set-apart people to Himself, as He has sworn to you, IF you guard the commands of YHWH your Elohim and walk in His ways. THEN all peoples of the earth shall see that the Name of YHWH is called upon you, and they shall be afraid of you. And YHWH shall make you to have plenty of what is excellent, in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, in the land of which YHWH swore to your fathers to give you. YHWH opens to you His excellent treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. And you shall lend to many nations, but you do not borrow. And YHWH shall make you the head and not the tail. And you shall be only on top, and not be beneath, IF you obey the commands of YHWH your Elohim, which I command you today, to guard and do. And do not turn aside from any of the Words which I am commanding you today, right or left, to go after other mighty ones to serve them.
And it shall be, IF you do not obey the voice of YHWH your Elohim, to guard to do all His commands and His laws which I command you today, THEN all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you: Cursed are you in the city, and cursed are you in the field. Cursed is your basket and your kneading bowl. Cursed is the fruit of your body and the fruit of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. Cursed are you when you come in, and cursed are you when you go out. YHWH sends on you the curse, the confusion, and the rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the evil of your doings by which you have forsaken Me. YHWH makes the plague cling to you until He has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess. YHWH strikes you with wasting disease, and with inflammation, and with burning, and with extreme heat, and with the sword, and with blight, and with mildew. And they shall pursue you until you perish. And your heavens which are over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you iron. YHWH makes the rain of your land powder and dust; from the heavens it comes down on you until you are destroyed. YHWH causes you to be defeated before your enemies – you go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them. And you shall become a horror to all the rules of the earth. And your carcasses shall be food for all the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the earth, with no one to frighten them away. YHWH shall strike you with the boils of Mitsrayim, with tumors, with the scab, and with the itch, from which you are unable to be healed. YHWH shall strike you with madness and blindness and bewilderment of heart. And you shall be groping at noon, as a blind man gropes in darkness, and not prosper in your ways. And you shall be only oppressed and plundered all the days, with no one to save you. You become engaged to a wife, but another man does lie with her. You build a house, but do not dwell in it. You plant a vineyard, but do not use its fruit. Your ox is slaughtered before your eyes, but you do not eat of it. Your donkey is violently taken from before you, and it is not given back to you. Your sheep are given to your enemies, with no one to save them. Your sons and your daughters are given to another people, and your eyes look and fail for them all day long, and your hand powerless. A people whom you have not known eat the fruit of your land and all your labors. And you shall be only oppressed and crushed all the days. And you shall be maddened because of the sight which your eyes see. YHWH strikes you in the knees and on the legs with evil boils of which you are unable to be healed, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head. YHWH brings you and the king whom you set over you to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other mighty ones, wood and stone. Thus you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a mockery among all the peoples to which YHWH drives you.”
“For this command which I am commanding you today, it is not too hard for you, nor is it far off. It is not in the heavens, to say, Who shall ascend into the heavens for us, and bring it to us, and cause us to hear it, so that we do it? Nor is it beyond the sea, to say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, and cause us to hear it, so that we do it? For the Word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart – to do it.”
“IF you love me, THEN keep my commandments.”

From This Week’s Torah Portion:
“And now, Yisra’el, what is YHWH your Elohim asking of you, but to fear YHWH your Elohim, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, and to serve YHWH your Elohim with all your heart and with all your soul, to guard the commands of YHWH and His laws which I command you today for your benefit?”
(In other words, everything. But it's absolutely worth the price.)

From This Week’s Torah Portion:
“And now, Yisra’el, what is YHWH your Elohim asking of you, but to fear YHWH your Elohim, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, and to serve YHWH your Elohim with all your heart and with all your soul, to guard the commands of YHWH and His laws which I command you today for your benefit?”
(In other words, everything. But it's absolutely worth the price.)

Shalom Chaverym;

This week’s parasha is:
Eiqev – עקב – “Because”
Torah reading: D’varym (Deuteronomy) 7:12-11:25
Haftarah reading: Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 49:14-51:3
Ketuvym Hatalmidym reading: Mattithyahu 4:1-11

Shalom aleykhem, achym, b’shem YHWH Avinu ~ Peace to you, my brothers and sisters, in the name of YHWH, our Father.

V’Zakarta eth kal haderek ashser holiyka YHWH Eloheyka zeh arbeyim shanah bamidbar, l’ma’an anothka, l’nast’ka, lada’ath eth asher bil’vavka, hatishmore mitzvotav, im lo ~ “And thou shalt remember all The Way that YHWH Eloheyka led thee this forty years in the wilderness, in accordance that He might afflict thee, to prove thee, to know what was in thy heart, whether thou wouldst keep His commandments, or not.”

“Or not…” Some people when confronted with the commands to strictly obey Him will point out that, “YHWH knows my heart,” and that He needn’t put anyone to the test with these. This is true, YHWH knows all things. He does know every person’s heart. He also knows the entire future – The end from the beginning. So then, these things considered, what is the point in His putting anyone to the test? Truly, He has already stated His reason, and it is not for us to challenge His authority and ask for more. In faith, we should only accept what He says, then do and obey. But, if it must be asked, the test of His commands not only proves our heart to Him, it also stands as a witness to the world, to the heavenly court, and to ourselves that we belong to Him. Talk is cheap – anyone can say they are His, but to keep His commands is proof. And it is the proof He has said He wants and requires of us.

Unlike YHWH, men are full of deceit – especially self-deceit. A man can never really know himself, who he truly is and what he will do in a given situation, until he is tried. When trials come, the truth about a man becomes known through how he responds to them, both to himself and to others.

Please, notice that our pesuk does not even say YHWH Himself needs to know what’s in a man’s heart. As has previously been pointed out, He already does. The verse simply says, to know. In fact, the verse which immediately follows our pesuk provides and clarifies the answer, which is, “that He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread alone, but by all that proceeds from the mouth of YHWH doth man live.”

May you all come to know Him, and to truly know yourselves.

B’Shalom, Ovadyah Ben Yisrael