The theology of Deuteronomy, as exemplified in this week’s Torah portion, can be difficult for modern Jews to relate to. The primary concern of Deuteronomy is to warn the Israelites to keep to God’s ways, obey the commandments, and most of all, to stay away from idolatry. If they follow these precepts, God will reward them with prosperity in the land of Canaan, destruction of Israel’s enemies, and God’s continual protection.
In this week’s portion, Moses reminds the people that they do not merit God’s love and protection because of their great virtue. On the contrary, Moses reminds them of all the times they complained and sinned and generally were ungrateful. Rather, Moses tells them, God’s love comes because of God’s special relationship with the Patriarchs, and the destruction and displacement of other peoples living in the land is due to the sinfulness of those nations.
Even by late Biblical times, this theology was already being questioned. Job rebukes his friends when they tell him he must have sinned to deserve his bad fortune. He says this is clearly not true, for they all know wicked people who prosper and good people who suffer.
Yet, even when we find problematic ideas in the Torah, we always also find eternal truths and teachings, reminding us that we, made in the image of God, should care for social justice as much as any other commandment, as in Dt. 10:17-19:
“For your God Adonai is God supreme and Lord supreme, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who shows no favor and takes no bribe, but upholds the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and befriends the stranger, providing food and clothing. You too must befriend the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”
This imperative, to work for justice and tikkun olam, is fundamental to the teachings of Torah, and the teachings of the Reform Movement. Even as we encounter ideas and beliefs in Torah that no longer ring true, we must remember and live by these eternal moral and ethical teachings that Torah brought into the world.
-Rabbi Bonnie Margulis
תגובות