DEUT25 In Maimonides's Book of the Commandments, he writes, "By this prohibition a judge is forbidden to be deterred by fear of a vicious and wicked evildoer from giving a just judgment against him. It is his duty to render judgment without any thought of the injury the evildoer may cause him" (Negative Commandment number 276). This is, of course, a courageous and difficult standard to live by, but one who cannot do so has no right to become a judge.

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DEUT55 This verse has at least two significant implications: ● Jews are required to make the world aware of the teachings in the Torah; after all, if non-Jews remain unfamiliar with Jewish laws, those laws can hardly serve as proof of Judaism's wisdom. Thus, when appropriate, a Jew should make known to non-Jews some of Judaism's distinctive laws. For example, the laws of lashon hara mandate that it is forbidden to reveal an ugly truth about another person unless the person to whom you are speaking needs the information (see chapters 37–43); in secular society, most people assume that it is forbidden only to tell a lie about another, but never forbidden to tell the truth. Such teachings, by revealing Jewish law's unusual sensitivity to issues of fairness, help promote respect for the God and people who promulgated such laws.● Jewish law cannot permit the practice of laws that unfairly discriminate against non-Jews. [I emphasize the word "unfairly," though not the word "discriminate." Unfair behavior is always wrong, discrimination is almost, but not always, wrong. Thus, not counting a non-Jew in a minyan, a Jewish prayer quorum, is not unfair discrimination, since a minyan is expected to consist of people who are Jewish and who believe in Judaism. Not returning a lost object to a non-Jew who lives in a society in which non-Jews are expected to return lost items to Jews is both unfair and discriminatory.] It is inconceivable that non-Jews will regard Jews as a great or wise nation if they practice unfair laws. (Would Jews be impressed with the wisdom of another religion that promulgated many impressive laws but also discriminated against Jews?) Hence, any discriminatory laws that have crept into the Jewish tradition (for an example, see paragraph 8) must be regarded as false to the spirit of this Torah verse (Deuteronomy 4:6).

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DEUT119 A Jew is permitted to lie to avoid paying a tax that discriminates against Jews. (By implication, a person from any group would be permitted to lie to avoid paying a discriminatory tax directed against the group from which she comes.) Thus, during the reign of Shapur II (309-379 C.E.), a form of fire worship became the national and state-supported religion in Persia. To win converts to the faith, the Persian government exempted fire worshipers from the poll tax. In a Jewish version of the concept of "mental reservation," (see the footnote on page 428), the rabbinic scholar Rava ruled that it was permitted to avoid paying the tax by appearing before Persian officials and declaring oneself to be "a servant of fire." While the officials regarded such a statement as an acknowledgment that one was a follower of their religion, the Jew making the statement was instructed to think to himself that he was a worshiper of the one God, whom the Torah designates as a "consuming fire" [see this verse and Nedarim 62b). [In the Shulchan Arukh, Yoreh Deah 157:2, the Ramah (Rabbi Moses Isserles) rules that, in cases of danger, it is permitted to use ambiguous language to mislead idolaters into believing that you share their faith. However, at the beginning of this passage, Rabbi Joseph Karo rules that even when a Jew's life is at stake, it is forbidden to identify oneself explicitly as a believer in idolatrous religion.]

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DEUT130 If you find yourself worrying that some wrong you have done has permanently alienated you from God, remember the Torah's promise that God is always near [this and previous verse]. Maimonides teaches that repentance can even effect a total reconciliation with God: "Yesterday this person was hated before God, defamed, castaway, and abominable; today, he is beloved, desirable, a favorite and a friend" ("Laws of Repentance" 7:6).

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DEUT217 It is perhaps a sign of God's very lovability and "vulnerability" that He asks us to love Him, and not just fear Him. This command forms part of the Sh'ma prayer and is recited twice daily [this verse]. Because God has given humankind free will, love is the most obvious gift that we can offer God.

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DEUT236 The talmudic sage Abaye deduced from [this verse] "And you shall love the Lord your God," that this commandment requires us to make God lovable to others (just as when we fall in love with our future spouse we want everyone else to find them lovable as well). How does one make God and Judaism lovable to others? The Talmud explains that a Jew, particularly a Jewish scholar, should behave in such a pleasant manner that people will say of him, "Happy is the father who taught him Torah. Woe to those who do not learn Torah. This person who learns Torah, see how pleasant are his ways" (Yoma 86a). When people understand it that you behave in this way because you love God, they may well come to love God also. In short, a Jew must act in such a way that people will assume that being committed to God's teachings makes one a better person. Indeed, does anyone doubt that if people consistently equated religious Jews with exemplary behavior, more non-Jews would become Jews, and more Jews would become religious?

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DEUT251 Teaching Torah to one's children is a fundamental parental obligation. The Rabbis root this commandment in [this] biblical verse [also see Deuteronomy 11:19]. According to the Talmud, a father is obliged to teach his children, or to arrange otherwise for their Jewish education. Thus parents should not move to a city that does not have adequate educational opportunities for children; if they do so, they bear full responsibility for their children's Jewish education. From Judaism's perspective, parents who do not provide for their children's Jewish education are as negligent as those who do not make the effort to provide their children with other basic necessities. Just as a child is deprived of essential material needs cannot function in society, a Jew deprived of Jewish knowledge will not know how to live and act as a Jew.

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DEUT304 Nachmanides comments, “The meaning of this verse is as follows: First, God tells you to keep the statutes and laws which He has commanded you to. And then He tells you that even with regard to those matters concerning which there is no specific command, you should see to it that you do only that which is good and right in His eyes, for He loves that which is good and right.” Thus, there is no law mandating that we leave a waiter a tip. But waiters' low salaries are based on the presumption that people will offer gratuities. Therefore we must do the "right and the good" and act generously.

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DEUT306 The medieval Torah commentator Ramban (Nachmanides, 1194-1270) notes that the broad but vaguely worded commandment "And you shall do that which is right and good in the eyes of God" [This verse] was necessary because the Torah could not issue ordinances that would cover every contingency ("It is impossible to mention in the Torah all aspects of man's conduct with his neighbors and friends"), and so included this general admonition to act ethically to cover cases where there is no specific law. According to the Talmud, this verse mandates that we sometimes even ignore a law if adherence to it will lead to injustice. For example, if a debtor does not pay a debt on time, the creditor may seize his land in payment. If the debtor later comes up with the money owed, the creditor may say to him, "Too late, I prefer to keep the land." Basing itself, however, on the verse "And you shall do that which is right in good in the eyes of God," the Talmud rules that the land must be returned, even if the money was paid after it was due (Bava Mezia 16b). [In his eleventh-century Torah commentary, Rashi notes that this verse is intended to teach people in a dispute to compromise, and not to insist on the letter of the law.] Another talmudic passage sees this verse as so fundamental that it claims that the entire Book of Deuteronomy became known, as the "Book of the Right" [i.e., the Upright] simply because it contains the verse, "And you shall do that which is right and good in the eyes of God" (Avodah Zarah 25a).

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DEUT420 One of the Rabbis' most important teachings, based on a biblical commandment, is the duty to imitate God's deeds (imitatio dei; see Deuteronomy 28:9 and this verse) [See the discussion of commandment 611 ("The precept to emulate the good and right ways of the Eternal Lord") in Sefer Ha-Hinnuch.] Yet, because of the rabbinic commandment to ethical behavior, the Rabbis limit the traits of God that we should imitate to those that promote kindness and holiness. ... we do not find in rabbinic literature statements instructing Jews to imitate God's more aggressive attributes. Thus, although the Torah speaks of God as "a jealous God," Jews are never enjoined, "Just as God is jealous so must you be jealous," or "Just as God is a zealot, so must you be zealots." [Dr. Samuel Belkin explains the reason for this omission: "[I]t is only God, who rules over jealousy, who is called a 'jealous God.' Man, who has no power to rule over jealousy, must rather imitate God in His attribute of kindness, and not in his attribute of jealousy" (In His Image, 29-30).

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