Va'etchanan

Jacob Bender, 9/17/2003

This week parsha includes these verses:

hen the Lord your God brings you to the land that you are about to invade and occupy, and He dislodges many nations before youhe Hitties, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations much larger than yound the Lord your God delivers them to you and you destroy them, doom them to destruction: grant them no terms and giver them no quarter.(Deut. 7:1-2).

The ideology expressed here is not an uncommon in the Bible, for later on in Deuteronomy we read the following:

When the Lord your God has cut down the nations whose land the Lord God is giving you, and you have dispossessed them and settled in their towns and homes(Deut. 19:1). nd when the Lord your God delivers [the town] into your hand, you shall put all its males to the sword(Deut. 20:13).   Read more »

Rabbi Arthur Waskow

In the Dangerous Doorways

Twice in the Torah, we are taught to place upon our doorways (for which the Hebrew is "mezuzot") some words that "I [God] command you this day." These words are also to appear between our eyes, upon our hands, and upon our gates.    Read more »

Rabbi Arthur Waskow

At Every Boundary, ONE.

Twice in the Torah, we are taught to place upon our doorways (for which the Hebrew is "mezuzot") some words that "I [God] command you this day." These words are also to appear between our eyes, upon our hands, and upon our gates.

What are the words? After centuries of experiment and difference, we have settled on the two passages that are themselves the sources of the commandment: Deuteronomy 6: 4-9 and 11: 13-21, itself.   Read more »