Va-ethannan

I said this aloud yesterday, 02/08/20 on Shabbat Nachamu in real life shul - Assif minyan:

I had a professor at UCL who would do a Talmud shiur once a week. We were studying a section about idol worship. He was not one for musing but one day he mused that he would love to go back in time and see what idol worshippers looked like then.  I thought to myself, well, Professor, you can just look at me now if you want to see an occasional idol worshipper. And I can’t speak for everyone in the class, but I bet you they are occasionally idol worshippers too. We’re not all going round kissing crucifixes and throwing stones at a statue of Merculis, because there are many less visible forms of idol worship available to us.

Speaking personally, it’s very difficult to remember that there is nothing else besides God. Nearly 100% of the time, I walk around feeling separate from the whole, and in my own little head, thinking about my own little experience. I separate myself from the unity of everything that is God by caring more about Israel than I do about most countries in the world. I separate myself by loving my children more than I do all the children in the world. I worry about my own personal future and although I know I shouldn’t, I fret about my past.

I’m willing to bet you do too.

Today we learn the commandment that forbids idol worship.

    It says: ‘You shall not bow down to them and serve them, for I the lord your god is a jealous god visiting the guilt of the parents upon the children upon the third and fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing kindness to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.’

Idolatry is one of the Ten Commandments that we read today, and it’s quite high up on the list.  

For Maimonides, idolatry is particularly problematic.  That’s because he’s all about the transcendent (God above matter) and immanent (god in matter) unity of God. The God he prays to is the Ein Od god. His God is all inclusive of what we experience as the good, the bad and the ugly. I imagine he truly understands the radical statement that we read in today’s parashah in verse 39

 

 

Know this day, and consider it in your heart, that the Lord, He is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is nothing else.

The JPS translation for Hasheyvota el levavecha is  Keep in mind.

Or you could say settle it or put it in your heart.

That’s why idol worship is such an issue for Rambam. Because to say there is a separate form of god in any form is to misunderstand the infinite vastness of the project. It’s an either-or proposition. Either God is everything. Or there are  bits of things in our world with god and bits without. If we pray to the idol as god, we are understanding that the non-idol things in the world are not god, which is abhorrent to Maimonides.

Granted Rambam is a genius that knows the Truth with a capital T, so what do the rest of us do? Us that weren’t at Sinai ourselves and aren’t so enlightened as Rambam? 

The Torah today tells us what to do. We must brainwash ourselves and our children of this truth and these instructions, when we stay home and when go out into the world, when we lie down and when we get up, we must bind them a sign on our hand and let them serve as a symbol on our heads etc So that even when we’re not feeling it, we can refer to it.

So that we can do goodness and fairness, even when we’re not feeling the love   

That’s why it says in verse 39: ‘Know this day, and settle it in your heart, that the Lord, He is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is nothing else.

It’s the difference between knowing better and doing better. Knowing something is true happens once. Keeping in mind takes a lot of ongoing work.

And if you need some help with the knowing God part, I came across this useful teaching from the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe Rabbi Yosef Yitchak.  He is wondering about the commandment to love God and he says this:

The commandment to love God lies in the previous verse, “Hear O Israel . . .” The Hebrew word shema (“hear”) also means “comprehend.” The Torah is commanding a person to study, comprehend and reflect upon the oneness of God. Because it is the nature of the mind to rule the heart, such contemplation will inevitably lead to a love of G‑d.

If one contemplates deeply and yet is still not excited with a love of G‑d, this is only because he has not sufficiently refined and purified himself of the things which stifle his capacity to sense and relate to the divine.

Aside from this, such contemplation by the mind will always result in a feeling of love.

I would like to add though that besides purifying myself of the things that stifle my capacity to sense and relate to god, I also need to give myself a break, to slow down and to accept that I am just human and doing the best I can.  

I can be confident that on the days that I’m not feeling the love, I can still play by the rules.