Friday, 30 July 2021

Just Because

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In our Torah study group last night we discusssed the meaning of the word that starts this week's Torah portion: eikev - if, because, following on from.

D'varim 7:12 And if you do obey these rules and observe them carefully, the L-rd your G-d will maintain faithfully for you the covenant that He made with your fathers.

Coming from the root ayin-kof-vet, to grasp, the same root as Jacob's name, the word eikev is often translated as simply 'if' or 'because'. The Ba'al Shem Tov said that it meant "the end of it", so that any commandment you do could be the last one you ever do; so everything depends on you. So the text can be read as: If you obey these rules and obey them carefully, then it follows that Adonai your G-d will faithfully keep the covenant. Or putting it another way: Adonai your G-d will faithfully keep the covenant - what that will mean depends on whether you obey these rules and obey them carefully.

The Christian world fights against the high degree of contingency we find in the Scriptures. This seems to fly in the face of Yeshua's words:

John 14:15 If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

John 15:10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.

There it is, both ways round. Our relationship with the Father and with Yeshua is somehow inextricably bound up with the way that we keep His commandments. Obedience matters. It matters to Him - He is looking for obedience in us, His people.

Shabbat shalom!