Shabbat Shalom

One Way Street

Seen in Jerusalem

Photo: Miriam Woelke

B"H

Parashat Ekev teaches us how successful the Jewish people and the Holy Land could be if every Jew fulfilled the Mitzvot. Listen to them and not step with one's feet onto the easy Mitzvot we may consider as not so important. This is Rashi's opinion and I read somewhere that "speaking Hebrew" is one of those easy Mitzvot we usually don't think about too many times.

While going through all these Parash commentaries yesterday I wasn't able to concentrate on all those religious sayings but rather thought about the present. How does the content of Parashat Ekev influence our daily lives today ? Do we have to suffer and thus Israel has a bad time because not everyone is fulfilling the Torah Mitzvot ? There are Rabbis who say YES ! If we were perfect we wouldn't have the trouble with the Palestinians, for instance.

I don't have a perfect answer to this and in my opinion, we are not able to determine why such and such is happening to us and our country. In fact, I haven't found any answer to the entire issue and will thus study the Parasha again.

"Shabbat Shalom" to all of you !