BS”D
Ekev – One
Great Step for Man, The Greatest Step for Mankind
A guten Erev Shabbos. This weeks parsha is parshas Ekev. It starts off in a most interesting way. This weeks parsha is one of the most awesome warnings for us, perhaps in all of Torah. The parsha starts off,
יב
וְהָיָה
עֵקֶב
תִּשְׁמְעוּן,
אֵת הַמִּשְׁפָּטִים
הָאֵלֶּה,
וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם וַעֲשִׂיתֶם,
אֹתָם--וְשָׁמַר
יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ
לְךָ,
אֶת-הַבְּרִית
וְאֶת-הַחֶסֶד, אֲשֶׁר
נִשְׁבַּע,
לַאֲבֹתֶיךָ
יג וַאֲהֵבְךָ,
וּבֵרַכְךָ
וְהִרְבֶּךָ; וּבֵרַךְ
פְּרִי-בִטְנְךָ
וּפְרִי-אַדְמָתֶךָ
דְּגָנְךָ
וְתִירֹשְׁךָ
וְיִצְהָרֶךָ, שְׁגַר-אֲלָפֶיךָ
וְעַשְׁתְּרֹת
צֹאנֶךָ, עַל
הָאֲדָמָה,
אֲשֶׁר-נִשְׁבַּע לַאֲבֹתֶיךָ
לָתֶת לָךְ.
יד בָּרוּךְ
תִּהְיֶה,
מִכָּל-הָעַמִּים: לֹא-יִהְיֶה
בְךָ עָקָר
וַעֲקָרָה,
וּבִבְהֶמְתֶּך
12 And it shall come to pass, if you keep these ordinances,
and guard, and do them, that the LORD your G-d shall keep with you the covenant
and the mercy which He swore to your fathers,
ָ13
and He will love you, and bless you, and multiply you; He will also bless the
fruit of your body and the fruit of your land, your corn and your wine and your
oil, the increase of your kine and the young of thy
flock, in the land which He swore to your fathers to give you.
14You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle.
This is in essence the spiritual
DNA of all of
The midrash explains the word Ekev, which also means heel, in a curious usage, because the name Yaakov is also from the word for heel. Yaakov, if you remember carefully, was clinging to the heel of Esav when he was born. Which is really a tremendous insight. So, when Yaakov was born, it was apparent then that world history was being set. Even in Rivka’s womb she felt a tremendous turmoil. She felt there was a war going on. She cried out to H’. H’ told her, two nations are being developed in her womb, and that the power would eventually go from the rov, the many, the greater one, to the tzair, the younger one. To the dear one. To the sweet one. Evenb at first Yaakov was clinging to the heel of Esav as if to say to him, don’t run away so quickly, there is something that is not yours. Even though you were physically born first, there is something that wasn’t meant for you. From the very outset, from birth, the neshama somehow feels world history developing. Beyond that, tremendously, what was it ultimately that Esav traded his birthright for? He traded it for a vegetarian cholent. For a bowl of lentils, red beans. So the question goes, when did Esav have his Bris Mila? He never had a Bris Mila. How is it possible in the house of Yitzhak Avinu and Rivka Imeinu? This is a terrifying thing. If we look at the commentaries, the first thing is that he was born blood red and his blood was boiling under his skin. There are medical conditions that we now today where if a person cuts themselves they can’t stop bleeding (hemophilia). There are aneurisms on the skin that, if they are cut, they hemorrhage to death. It seemed that Esav had a medical condition. If he was cut it seemed he would bleed to death. Halachically this is a situation of safek pikuach nefashot, and the Bris is not carried out on the 8th day. When they realized that this was not a medical condition but rather a spiritual condition, Edom hu Esov, throughout world history his colour has been red, through bloodshed, when he cut himself hunting and healed, obviously at that stage, they waited until he was 13 and could accept a Bris Mila for himself. At 13, brach, he ran away. He refused to allow them to do a Bris Mila. This is a remez to where this all started from. Where the whole world of Esav’s descendants started from and until today, the don’t have Bris Mila even though they believe in Avraham and Yitzhak Avinu. We carry H’s good name with us and that is the essence of Am Yisrael.
At the time of the Seuda, Esav had gone out hunting that day but hadn’t been successful, so he came home and he was starving. He said to Yaakov, give me from that red stew or I will surely die. Before he ate, Yaakov said to him, if you give be the bechor, I’ll give you the soup. Esav said, what good is the bechor to me, because I will surely die. The bechor is a certain privilege, priesthood, am mamleches cohanim, a nation of Cohanim. A nation of priests. That’s the koach, the power of the bechor. The firstborn has a responsibility to be a light unto the family and to the generation and to the world. So it seems that this was something Esav couldn’t relate to. He couldn’t relate to the next world. How come? He was the son of Yitzhak and Rivka, how is it possible that their son could be totally cut off from the next world. The simple answer is, Bris Mila. By neglecting bris Mila, all his Tora was cut off to him. This is one of the 36 aveiras that cause kares. If a person destroys or never has a bris mila he is not able to spiritually connect to the Torah. He can read it as an academic work. He can criticise it. But actually, what he is doing is destroying his own neshomo. There is no way of connecting to any of the other mitzvos. Kares is a very delicate thing. Thread by thread one cuts off the hut, the umbilical chord, so to speak, his spiritual connection with H. So by cutting any of the 36 mitzvos that carry kares, a person ultimately, spiritually, asphyxiates, dehydrates and disintegrates. That is the klala (curse) of kares. The Torah says that he ate, got up, turned his back and walked out. He ate – achalta, he was satisfied, savata, and got up, meaning he didn’t bentsch, he didn’t say thank you to H for the meal. He turned his back on his birthright and was gone forever. Never to return to H. There are righteous gentiles, but as a national faith, it is kares guaranteed.
Then we go back to the first word of the first posuk of this week’s parsha. Vehaya Ekev tishmeun. Ekev means since, but it also means heel which alludes to the type of mitzvos that people walk over. So we tend figuratively to tread on them with our heals. Just as the Torah assures Israel, if they are careful to observe every one of these mitzvos of the Torah, the Taryag mitzvos, the neglected commandments especially, they can be certain that H will reward them with his covenant of chessed (kindness) says Rashi.
Now to explore a little bit
further, what it hints to is that if you walk over my mitzvos, if your heals
treat them like dust of the earth, then measure for measure, the other nations
of the world will walk all over you with their heals. Like the Germans doing
their goose step over the graves of millions of Jews. You will cling to their
heel for life. This is what happened to Yaakov when he was born. He clung to Esav’s heel for the birthright. This is what happened over
2000 years of being hosted by Esav in
It was Sukkos one year. I was davening in yeshiva and I saw one of these hornets. It flew into the guey residue that had been left over form the wine on Sukkos. I saw the hornet fly into the bottle to taste the dvash, the sweet wine. It got tangled up in the residue. I thought for sure this poor hornet was finished. In no way in the world would it be able to get out of this trap of glue. The hornet, covered in this honey-like wine residue, crawled on the inside of the bottle, all the way up the neck, and flew away as though nothing had happened. They will not let anything stop them. On the Yamim Noraim, I saw one of these hornets. The window was open. The hornet came and flew onto the jacket of the person in front of me and started crawling towards his neck. I thought, al taamod al dam reecha, don’t stand by while your brother is in danger of getting a terrible sting. He could even land up in hospital. So with my siddur I took a swipe at the hornet, knocked him out the window. The guy didn’t flinch or move during davening. Afterwards he came to me and said ’what did you think you were doing?’ So I said ‘there was a hornet on your jacket climbing towards your neck’. The man went into a cold sweet and his face went blood red. I thought he was going to scream at me or something. He said, you don’t know what you did. I said I’m sorry, what did I do. He said he was deadly allergic to bee stings. Had he been stung, he would have died on the spot. So we see certain things that H puts in our heart to save our brothers. TO do the right thing, even if it seems like a little mitzvah, why should I bother myself. A little hornet climbing on someone’s back, maybe it will fly away. Maybe it wont, but I’m not responsible. Don’t stand by while your brother’s blood is being shed. We see how small mitzvas can be and how they can save a life. For a few shekels a person can donate an oxygen cylinder to hatzolo which could save a few people’s lives. It seems like a small thing. The money was earned in an easy way. But the mitsva that it generated goes on and on and on, saving lives. Each of those lives that comes from that person becomes your mitzvo as well. The fact that a person’s children do mitzvos makes it an infinite chain. So we see that H will send out the hornet at the end of days to uproot and drive out the other nations, even those that remain hidden in caves or in buildings, wherever they are, H does not need a radar to identify the location of everybody and they will either be sting to death or run for their lives. H your G-d will thrust these nations out from before you bit by bit, you will not drive them out quickly, lest the Lord bring the wild beasts of the field against you. It will confound them with great confusion until their destruction. They will delvier their Kings into your hands and they will perish from under the heavens. No man will stand up against you. Umtil you have destroyed them. The carved image. Even what was left of the first tablets were kept because they also have kedusha. Their currency, their middos, their idols you will burn in fire. You shall not covet and take for yourself the silver and gold that is on them, lest you be trapped by it, because it is an abomination of H your G-d. You shall not bring an abomination into your home. It becomes banned, like it. Herem. You shall surely loathe it and you shall surely abominate it, for it is banned.
I would like to share with you something from this week. There was meant to be a huge concert in Teddy Stadium last night. About 2 days ago a notice came out from the Gedolei HaDor, don’t go. There were to be two concerts next week and one last night. The ban emphasized that the gedolim did not agree to mixed events even if there is separate seating and stressed the seriousness of this for spectators and for the musicians themselves, given that this was a concert targeted at the religious community. If the concert was not cancelled, they would be considered mehatei es haRabim, causing the generation to violate or move away from Torah. Another notice came out that even if the concert is not cancelled, bnei Torah should rally around the psak din (decision) of the Gedolei HaDor (leaders of the generation), principals of schools, Rosh Yeshivas, Heads of Seminaries, High Schools, every Jew that is a father or mother is told to instruct their children or talmidim that on the strength of submitting to Daas Torah, their obligation is absolutely clear. The call also extended to the newspapers not to advertise the concerts and added that chazanim who perform for mixed audiences should not be invited to perform at any other event, ever. Even if it is a completely kosher event, so as not to strengthen the hand of those that lead others astray. Should the concerts not be cancelled, private people, organizations, chesed organizations, educational institutions are not to invite any of the performers ever again to any event organized by them or on their behalf. This is an all encompassing herem. In the musical world, in the movie world, what are those performs called – pop idols. Movie stars. Don’t worship the stars and the idols. Its idol worship. This pahad. That we can roar with ecstasy at somebody performing some words that we didn’t hear, just because the tune is beautiful. It is infinitely more meaningful to have 25- 30,000 people go to shirei Torah. Sit down and learn torah rather than going to rock and roll concerts with lights in the sky, better for them to praise H’. This is a pahad. What about in our own home. The question is, is it leshem shamayim if you listen to music instead of learning a blatt gemoro. We are listening to the tune and not the words. I heard something a while ago so shocking. I heard a Shir Hamaalos song played to disco rap. I thought to myself, is it possible that people at a disco, dancing as if to idol worship for a second hear the words that they are singing? This is possibly the darkest moment in those dungeons of iniquity. That not one person in that audience is saying even one word of tehillim. They have to say, wow, I have to get out of this death trap, before I’m buried in it. We contemplate the devastation and the danger. So you say, what is the big deal about music – lets get serious. It’s a beautiful tune, a nice niggun, it brings a certain amount of comfort and happiness, joy into the world. This was an introduction to a sefer that just came out, an absolute pachad, that many people have been led to think that there is no bad influence in music. It is completely parev. What could possibly be bad about a few notes that are put together. That assumes that if you do not find an absolute prohibition mentioned by our Rabbis, the Gedolei HaDor, to refrain absolutely from listening to a particular type of music, then everything is permissible. But in fact, we do find in one place in Chazal, in maseches Hagiga טו that Elisha ben Avuya, was influence to become an apikorus, a total atheist, by listening once to a Greek song. He was a Tanna. He was one of the mightiest men of Torah. He heard a Greek song once and was finished. This seems to imply that the Greek music of that period had influence that could destroy a person spiritually. They could corrupt the soul. That does not mean that all times of non-Jewish music are bad. Over the generations the Rabbis permitted the use of some non-Jewish melodies even for Kaddish and Kedusha, in the Birchei Yosef and Pri Megadim. The truth is, there are many different types of music in the world. Some for our benefit, which may not be harmful and others which have absolutely devastating negative effects. Apparently the Greek song that Aher listened to was just that type of devastation. It was avoda zora. So there was a famous group 20/30 years ago that swept the world and then they claimed that they were more popular than G-d Himself (Has VeShalom). Which group? You know thow they were spelt – Beat-e l. They claimed that they were being worshipped as a god. It is a tremendous pahad because it seemed like such parev music. They were worshipping LSD, lucy in the sky with diamonds. They were worshipping every forbidden form of promiscuity and the major devastation they caused to the generation was to tear down any barrier of good and to lead the next generation into drugs and immorality. As people came to worship pop idols and movie stars, all the protective barriers came down. It was a short step to drag the heel over the 7 Mitzvos Bnei Noach and to total desecration and destruction.
So we see the power of music
isn’t parev. The power of music can have tremendous kedusha. In the Beis HaMikdash we sing Hallel. It has
tremendous hashpoa, koach, to
inspire the generation and bring tremendous simcha.
The ultimate simcha was giving the korban and wine libations to H. The ultimate was meat and
wine? Aren’t these used for a man’s own lusting? At 12 a ben
sore umore steals meat and wine from his parents for
his own lust. If he does it on Rosh Chodesh they
can’t put him to death. If he does it a second time after having been brought
to the beis din, he must be put to death. If he
isn’t, he will go to the highway crossroads and murder for his cravings. This
is addiction to meat and wine. Something as simple as meat
and wine? If a little twelve year old is addicted, what will he be later
– a rodef, a murdered, to feed his drives for alcohol
and other cravings. So we see that it is not such a simple thing. In our
generation it seems that everything the Torah warns is going in both
directions. We can understand the awesome devastation of something as simple as
music disguised as religious music. Beautiful words, but
tunes that overpower the words so that people don’t think about what is being
said. People start to worship the artist not the author/object of the
material, H’. I can’t stop thinking about the Tehilim
I heard played to the sound of disco rap. David Hamelekh
would have probably been shocked out of his mind as to what has become of Tehilim in our generation. It is the same statement that
has gone back many generations, to the earliest years of the philosophers,
there was a philosopher that said, to do is to be,
maybe 3000 years ago. Then a couple of thousand years ago another philosopher
came along and said do be is to do. The first was Socrates, the second
Archimedes, (or the other way round). Then in our generation, came forward a
man with the infinite wisdom to say, do be do be do. Who was that, Frank Sinatra. So you see we’ve come a long way, baby. The tragedy
is, that probably our generation is one of the weakest
of world history. By way of compensation, we’ve been left the wisdom of
previous generations. It can be said of our generation, we are midgets but we
are on the shoulders of giants, if we choose to be. If not, we are under the heals of all the beasts of the world. So we see the next
posuk, posuk Hes, says “the entire commandment that I command you
today”, today meaning every day of world history, “you shall observe to perform
so that you may live and increase…” look at the order of this, “ that you may
live” firstly, “ increase and come into the land”. To come into the land you
can only do it with Torah. “H swore to your forefathers, “you
shall remember the entire road”. Now we see that to which H your G-d led you 40
years in the wilderness”. So it is to test you, to know what is in your heart.
Will you observe the commandments or not. He afflicted you, let you go hungry,
then he fed you man, but you did not know it was miracle food. Nor did your
fathers know it., In order to let you know that not by
bread alone does man live. So this famous posuk has
been misused over the ages. People feel that therefore everything is hefker. Not at all. Listen to the
end of the posuk. Not by bread alone, but by
everything that comes from the mouth of H’ does man live. This means the Torah.
Ein kemach ein torah. Just as
a father chastises his son, so H chastises you. This is a massive mussar sefer. You shall observe
the commandments of your G-d and go in his ways and fear Him. So we see, just
like it says Ekev, that if you walk over the mitzvos with your heel, and treat them lightly like dust of
the earth, so you will become dust of the earth. H pleads with us, go on my
way. Go on my road. Fear H, for that is a man’s wisdom. H your G-d is bringing
you to a good land. A land with blessings beyond our
imagination. How can it be after 2000 years of devastation and
desolation that the nation was driven out and destroyed, that the nation could
come back after 2000 years. Not to a sandy desert but
to a land of streams and water and underground water, coming forth in valleys
and mountains, a land of wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, a land of
olive oil and date honey. The sheva
minim. A land where you will eat bread, without
poverty. Your bread will overflow. Therefore, that is a reward for your
Torah that is overflowing. You will lack nothing. Can we comprehend 62 years
ago in the holocaust, what those people would have done to be in our place today. To see these prophecies become reality, to go to the
waterfalls of
There is something terrifying
developing as well. A land whose stones and iron and from whose mouth you will
mine copper. It will be such a rich land, there will
be no end to the blessing. You will eat, you will be satisfied and you will
bless h, your G-d for the good land that he gave you – perek
Hes, posuk yud. “Veachaltem, vesavatem, uverachta es H Elokecha, al ha’aretz hatova asher nassan
lach. Lest you forget H’.
Look what it says here. Hishamer lecha, pen tishcah.
All of a sudden you forget H and look what happens. You gold and silver
increases, your sheep and everything that you have will increase. Your heart
will become arrogant has veshalom. Who took you out
of the Land of slavery? It was H and none else. Who leeds you through the great and awesome dessert with
snakes and fiery serpents an scorpions. Where there was no water, H brought
water from a rock of flint. H fed you man in order to afflict you, in order to
test you. It is good for you, if you just hold on and have faith. You might say
in your height, my strength and strength of my hand made me this wealth. This
is the aweful tragedy of the secular Jew in
Hear O Israel, today. The Ohr HaHayim cites the midrash, Moshe Rabbeinu
urges the people to hear. He wanted them to hear the implications of his words.
When it came to crossing the
Imagine what would have happened if before Am Yisroel had gone to worship the golden calf, the Gedolei HaDor said, don’t go. Just don’t go to that concert. It will be your destruction. Who would imagine something as simple as throwing some gold into a fire and a calf coming, we would have said, this is just something for us to marvel over. To enjoy its music. The nation was on the brink of total destruction. H would have carried on through Moshe Rabbeinu. Imagine if at that moment, the nation would have grabbed the golden golden calf and destroyed it themselves, ground it up and thrown it back in the fire. Had they done the tshuva that was necessary they would still be here.
I think what was done last night where one sentence of a Gadol HaDor shut down a concert that had been planned for a year by the greatest artists in the musical world. Everybody accepted ol malchus shomayim, everybody accepted 1 sentence of the Dass of the Gedolei HaDor. Even if we don’t understand it completely we don’t dare to go where a gadol hador has said not to. One who does is a partner in hillul H in immeasurable proportions. The Gedolei Torah know the impact better than anybody else. There are two types of people. There are those who know there is a stampede of wild bulls by the dust approaching on the horizon and there are those who know there was a stampede of wild bulls by the footprints on their forehead. You have the choice of being with the first group or the second group. The reality is that Daas Torah reaches us the horizons of time and to the horizons of the world. They feel the challenge of previous generations. They see what is too much for us. They see something that looks so kosher on the outside, but is so Tame on the inside. Be it pork or spiritual pork. Just as we learn in the Torah, there was something that looked so parev or a Kiddush H at best. Everyone was going to go. One statement from the Gadol HaDor was sufficient. Those who ignored him would be put in herem. Even people who invested millions of dollars to put the concert on, they would rather lose the concert than lose the generation. So we see, in our generation, things are happening. We dare not, for a second, rest on our laurels. If we rest on our laurels we rest on our graves.
We have to contemplate. According
to the Shema Yisrael, as it says, in the second
paragraph of krias shema
which is in this week’s parsha, to love H your G-d is in the pural. To keep His charge, ordinances and
commandments all the days. You should know today that it is not your
children who did not see the chastisement of G-d, the greatness of his strong
hand, outstretched arm and signs and deeds performed in the midst of
Now we see that the Eikev is a reverse deal. Instead of the other nations
walking on your grave, everything that you heel touches is yours. The whole
land as you walk the length and the breadth, as H commanded Avraham
Avinu,
wherever you walk it will be your land. H knew the borders of Torah, Am Yisrael
and Eretz Yisrael. These three things were create reishis.
At the beginning of creation H had these three things in mind. From the wilderness and the Levanon, from
the River, the Euphrates, until the
May we continue to walk in the ways of H, never walk in any other way, may we only know the ratzon H, may we continue to walk to the gates of the Beis Hamikdash, bimheira veyameinu, may we continue to walk on Shabbos and every day of the week bederech H, may we be zoche to a Geula Shleima, Moshiach Tzidkeinu, and a wonderful Shabbos to kol Am Yisrael and the whole World.