DEUT361 Israel's hold on the land, however, was, from the very first promise to Abram, dependent on obeying God's will. Thus, as the Bible and Rabbis present it, it was Israel’s failure to obey God that prompted God to allow other nations (Assyria, Babylonia, Rome) to conquer Israel and drive them from the land. Part of the promise of the Land of Israel, then, is a war to reclaim the land from Israel’s oppressors. Although the universalists among us--and even those who believe in Jewish nationhood, but currently live in harmony and even friendship with non-Jewish neighbors--may flinch at the triumphalism of the biblical and rabbinic passages that promise such victory, the twentieth-century experience of Jews with the Soviets and the Nazis may make these sources more understandable and even palatable. The strife is sometimes symbolized by the term “the wars of Gog and Magog,” a theme taken from chapter 38 in the Book of Ezekiel but reinterpreted to mean the wars against the enemies of Israel and/or the wars of the enemies of Israel against each other.

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DEUT362 Do not derive any pleasure or benefit from items that are offered to idols. A corollary principle, according to our Sages, is that alongside money and belongings that Hashem helps us to gain justly, we are prohibited to have money or objects that we stole, extorted, collected as interest, or gained by some other ugly means. Possessions such as these are rooted in physical desires and the evil inclination, and the name of idol worship is called upon them. If a person has idol worship amongst his possessions, or belongings such as these, it contaminates his assets, for Heaven's blessing will not rest on them, and he is bound to lose all that he has.

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DEUT363 Our Rabbis taught (Sotah 4b): "Everyone who is haughty of spirit is as one who serves idols, as it is written in one place (Mishlei 16:5): 'The abomination of Hashem are all who are proud of heart,' and in another [this verse]:' And do not bring an abomination into your house.'" There are others who say: "it is as if he has relations with all those were forbidden to him, as it is written (Vayikra 18:27): 'For all of these abominations they did." And there are others who say: "It is as if he erected a provisional altar (bamah)." They say further (Sotah 5a): "All who are haughty of spirit in the end are diminished, as it is written (Iyov 24:24): 'They are exalted a little.'" And he deserves to be uprooted as an asherah [a tree devoted to idol worship], as it is written in one place (Yeshayahu 10:33): "And the haughty of stature shall be uprooted," and in another (Devarim 7:5): "And their asheros shall you uproot." And his dust will not awaken [for the Resurrection]. And the Shechinah wails over him.

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DEUT364 See [[DEUT375]] Deuteronomy 8:10 thanks SACTAB 422-3

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DEUT365 He who trusts in God has peace of mind and tranquility of soul ... A person’s trust in God will enable him to turn his heart away from worldly concerns and devote it wholly to the ways of His service. Then, in his tranquility of soul, peace of mind, and diminished anxiety, he will be like the alchemist-- one who knows how to turn silver into gold, and copper and tin into silver, through science and skill. Moreover, he surpasses him in ten respects. 1. The alchemist needs for his work certain materials, without which he cannot accomplish anything; and these materials are not available at all times and in all places. But one who trusts in God is assured of his sustenance by any one of the means available in the world, as it says in Scripture: “In order to teach you that not on bread alone can man live; rather, man can live on anything that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Devarim 8:3). For at no time and in no place are the means of obtaining his livelihood withheld from him, as you know from the story of Eliyahu and the ravens (Melachim 1, 17:3-6); the widow [from Tzarfas] (ibid. 17:9ff.); the cake baked on coals and the cruse of water (ibid. 19:6); and the account of the prophets and Ovadyahu, who said: “I hid a hundred of God's prophets, fifty to a cave; and I provided them with bread and water (ibid. 18:13). It is also said: “Young lions are poor and hungry, but those who seek God lack nothing that is good” (Tehillim 34:11); “Fear God, you His consecrated ones, for those who fear Him lack nothing” (ibid. 34:10).

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DEUT366 One is required to contemplate and realize that the tribulation that has befallen him and the suffering that has beset him are not commensurate to the gravity of his transgression in the amount of his sins. Rather, Hashem chastises him in the manner of a father his son, out of His compassion for him [Vayera 19:16], as the pasuk says [this verse], "You shall realize in your heart that just as a man chastises his son, so Hashem, you God, chastises you." Our Sages, z"l, commented on this (Yalkut Shemos 303): "Your heart realizes [from] the actions you have committed and the chastisement I have a brought upon you, that I have not chastised you commensurate to your deeds. The pesukim further say (Iyov 11:6), "Know, that God exacts from you [less] than your transgressions [deserve]"; and (Ezra 9:13), "For you, our God, withheld [Your punishment] to less than our transgressions [deserve]."

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DEUT367 See [[DEUT346]] Deuteronomy 7:10 pays TZADIK 177

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DEUT368 [The prophets'] moral and religious conceptions [regarding evil, sorrow, and grief] centered in the doctrine of [Divine] retribution, in the light of which suffering is the fruit of sin and of folly, and happiness the reward of obedience and of goodness. This simple creed of the Biblical authors was shaken by the suffering of the righteous and the prosperity of the wicked. Prophets, Psalmists, and Sages alike complain against the topsy-turvydom of the moral order. Hab. 1:3-4; Jer. 12:1-3; Pss. 49; 73. Job rejected the orthodox belief, championed by his friends, of an equation between evil and suffering, and left a matter a veiled impenetrable mystery. The Parsis [followers in India of the Persian prophet Zoroaster - AJL] had solved the problem in a holy different way. They envisioned the world as governed by two conflicting powers, one good and the other evil. Deutero–Isaiah, rejecting the dualistic conception of the world, reaffirmed the doctrine of ethical monotheism: "I am the Lord, and there is none else; I form light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil. I am the Lord that doeth all these things (Is. 45:6-7). (Cf. Sanh. 39a. Lam. 3:38 lends itself to two opposite constructions. Take it as a question, it supports the belief of Deutero-Isaiah. As a direct statement it asserts that evil and good proceed not from God, but that they are man-made). This manifesto of monotheism, while ruling out dualism from the range of Jewish belief, left the ethical problem where it was. How can a good God create evil? Does not evil cast a reflection upon His character? Deutero-Isaiah resorts to two novel conceptions to supplement the old doctrine of retribution. With (this verse) he interprets suffering as disciplinary in character, as the rabbis subsequently turned it, "chastisement of love." Chapter 53 of Isaiah advances the belief that suffering is vicarious. The righteous does not suffer merely an expiration of his own sins. By his suffering, he bears and expiates the guilt of his wicked fellow man.

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DEUT369 See [[DEUT341]] Deuteronomy 7:9 steadfast DORFFDRAG 124-5

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DEUT370 Walking in God's Patient Way. Who wouldn't be delighted to deepen their ability to meet life's challenges with more patience? We get very clear support for doing so from the Bible, where it tells us that we should "walk in His ways" [this verse, Deuteronomy 19:9, 26:17]. This simple but forceful idea--sometimes called imitatio dei, emulating God--is the ultimate blueprint for the spiritual life and tells us that we should model our lives on Godly virtues. That's how we move ourselves closer to the highest potential we have from birth, and when we act with heavenly virtue in our personal lives, we help to make this world a little more like heaven. In practical terms, we emulate God by practicing virtue or, as I like to all it, living in "virtuous reality." The sages tell us: "as God is called merciful and gracious, so you be merciful and gracious; as God is called righteous, so be you righteous; as God is called holy, so be you holy" (Sifra 85a). As God is forgiving, so too should we strive to be forgiving. We are guided to emulate God in all the divine attributes of mercy and righteousness, though not the attributes of severity and justice that we can also find in the Torah. Because we want the world to be infused with qualities of goodness, we have a responsibility to become vessels for those same virtues. That prescription includes the trait of patience. No matter how you may conceive of God or the creative force that stands behind the universe, there is no doubt that this ultimate source of life is endowed with patience, especially when compared to us. Think of the pace of earthly eras, creeping along as slowly as glaciers advancing and retreating in an ice age. Stars and galaxies are born, mature, and pass away. And as for us, what the Mussar tradition offers as evidence for God's patience is the fact that our lives are sustained, even when we do wrong (Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, Tomer Devorah [The Palm Tree of Deborah], trans. Rabbi Moshe Miller (Southfield, Mich.: Targum/Feldheim, 1993), 6-8.) It's not hard to imagine a universe where there is absolutely no margin for error, where punishment is instantaneous and total, but that isn't the world we live in. God is patient and preserves our lives even when our actions happen to hit way off the mark, to give us time to come to deeper realizations, make amends, and return to a straighter way. "From this, man should learn to what extent he, too, should be patient and bear the yoke of his fellow" (Ibid, 8). Since God is patient, then we, who are encouraged to guide our lives by "walking in His ways," should also be patient.

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