DEUT431 [[GEN826]] Genesis 14:19 creator DORFFWITO 23-4

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DEUT433 The first sentence of [Deuteronomy 10:14-19] restates God's ultimate ownership of “the heavens to their uttermost reaches... the earth and all that is on it.” The rest of the passage, however, articulates another reason to give to the poor, namely, that it is one of our covenantal duties to God. That covenant between God and the People Israel includes mutual promises, and so part of its authority to demand that we aid the poor comes from the promise that our ancestors--and therefore we--made at Mount Sinai to abide by the terms of the covenant. But the authority of the covenant to require us to act in specific ways is not only rooted in the morality of promise keeping. The covenant relationship between God and the People Israel also results in a love relationship between them, similar to a covenant of marriage. Therefore, we must give to the poor because our Lover wants us to do that, just as we do many things for our human spouse not because we promised, but out of love.

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DEUT432 The body belongs to God. Unlike American secular ethics, in which each person's body belongs to him–or herself, Jewish classical texts assert that God, as Creator of the universe, owns everything in it, including our bodies. [For example, this verse; Psalms 24:1]. Therefore God can and does make certain demands of us as to how we use our bodies, demands articulated in Jewish law. It is if we were renting an apartment: we have fair use of the apartment during our lease--and, and the biological analogue, during our lease on life--but we do not have the right to destroy the apartment (commit suicide) or harm it unnecessarily, because it is not ours. What constitutes "fair use"-- that is, the risks that we may take--depends, according to Jewish law, on whether most people assume the risk (B. Shabbat 129b). So, for example, one may drive a car, even though it clearly raises the possibility of injury or even death, but whether one may engage in experimental medical procedures depends on the degree to which they have a chance of preserving one's life or occurring an illness or disability. (By Elliot N. Dorff)

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DEUT434 See [[DEUT135]] Deuteronomy 4:37 loved OXFORD 40

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DEUT435 God as our model. Because we more easily perceive our separation then our oneness with others, we slip in the judgment more easily then we rise to compassion. We need to be told to walk in God's footsteps by acting to cultivate compassion in our hearts. Imitating the divine trait of compassion is not just a lovely idea. We are assured that it is within our grasp to do so, however, because "he will bestow upon you [the attribute of] compassion and show mercy to you 26 the capacity for compassion is in it within us. But to bring that quality from potential to actuality, we need to take steps to confront the obstacles to compassion. … The primary barrier to being compassionate is the sense that you and I are separate from each other.… Compassion can come into existence only when you lower the barriers that ordinarily while off and isolate your own sense of self. … And draw closer so that we can feel within us the truth of that other person's experience, and so sees with her with eyes of compassion...

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DEUT436 It is a fact that your life embodies a curriculum. Why? Because life is set up so you will be challenged, and through the experiences you have dealing with the challenges, you will grow as a person ... none of us has a choice about that. LIfe makes us grow. You do have a choice, however, of whether you just let your curriculum play out in any way it will, without preparing yourself through study and with guidance, or whether you will seek to uncover pathways for living and growing that prior generations already marked and illuminated to help you engage with your curriculum and grow in a conscious, directed way. That important choice is in your hands. Because this book tracks a Jewish spiritual path, it is useful to see that the Torah acknowledges this primary choice that confronts us. In the book of Deuteronomy were told: "You shall circumcise the foreskin of your heart" [this verse]. That enigmatic image occurs only one other time in the Torah (in the narrow sense of the Torah as being the Five Books of Moses; the metaphor shows up as well at Jeremiah 4:4), in the variance: "And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart" (Deuteronomy 30:6). I understand circumcision here to be a metaphor for spiritual initiation--removing the obstacles to having an open, sensitive, initiated inner life. In the first quote, we are offered the option of initiating ourselves. The second quote tells us what God will do it. The second verse begins with the Hebrew letter vav, which can be translated "or." Initiate yourself orGod will initiate you. The Torah gives no third option. Unguided in how to initiate themselves, too often people go after the wrong things, or, if they get it right, go about it in the wrong way. They stumble after false answers to the questions on their cirriculum: "If only I were rich." "Nip and tuck by the plastic surgeon might do it." "Defeat that enemy." "Support that cause." "Join that club." Resorts to those sorts of answers to your inner challenges is equivalent to turning yourself over to God to be wisened up, which unfortunately usually happens through bitter experiences of loss, failure, and brokenness. Those experiences do cause us to grow, with certainty. It seems a pity, though, that entire lives are spent fumbling blindly, in personal suffering and at the cost of an increase of evil--yes, evil--in the world, when each of us has another choice as to how we can grow. The Torah states very clearly that you have the option to take steps to initiate your own heart.

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DEUT437 Know and understand--Divine chastisement is for man's good. For if one sins and commits evil before Hashem, His chastisement has a dual purpose. The first--it atones for his sins and removes his transgression, as the pasuk says (Tehillim 25:18), "Look upon my privation and suffering, forgive all my sins." Through the sicknesses of the body, Divinely incurred, the malaise of the soul becomes healed--for transgression is the malaise of the soul, as the pesukim say (ibid., 41:5), "Heal my soul, for I have sinned against You," and (Yeshayahu 33:24), "No inhabitant will say, 'I am sick'; the people that dwell there will be forgiven [their] transgression." The second [purpose]--to remind him [to repent] in order to bring him back from his evil ways as the pasuk says (Tzefanyah 3:7), "Just fear me, accept chastisement." But if he does not accept chastisement, does not become submissive through reproof, and does not remove the layer [over] his heart [this verse]--woe and to him and woe unto his soul! For he has endured suffering and borne his sin without its being forgiven, and [in its place] his punishment has increased twofold, as we have explained.

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DEUT438 Know, there are six ways by which man can arouse himself to return from his evil behavior. For each of these we will teach the knowledge [Yeshayahu 40:14] required for one's ability to classify them analytically and for understanding what each requires of him. We will bring them to his attention [Yeshayahu 50:4; Merely reading these words is insufficient; one must pay attention to them and take them to heart (Zeh Hasha'ar)]. Yet, beyond this, my son, take care to repent daily and to purify your soul. Even if you don't experience [one of these] ways to arouse yourself and daily events disrupt your thoughts, remember your Creator. Recalling His presence will bring your soul back from the pathways that emerged through a clod of earth. [I.e., Man's earthly body, which draws him to the corporeal world.]. Similarly, you must expose the power of your intellect [Chavakuk 3:9], to straighten any crookedness within your nature. Through your fear of Hashem, your love for Him, and your shame when standing before Him, you will continually elevate yourself. Persevere in keeping your hands untainted, remove unruly thoughts from your mind, and purify the carriers of the instruments of your soul [Yeshayahu 52:11; By cleansing your deeds and your thoughts, even your body will assist in helping perfect you (Zeh Hasha'ar).] When the soul recalls its Creator, it will adorn and add beauty to itself, as the pasuk says (Yeshayahu 45:25): "Through Hashem, all the seed of Yisrael will become righteous and glorified." Intensify your efforts to arouse your spirit through the six ways that will be clarified. One who has not yet attained this level [I.e., of returning to Hashem by recalling His presence] will be able to [at least] subdue his uncircumcised heart [I.e., A heart that is "covered overall" with coarseness, making it untamed and stubborn; see Ibn Ezra on [this verse]] through one of these [six] ways, and by seeing many [other motivating insights]. As the need for any one of these ways to arouse one's heart to repentance is lessened and to the extent that one is inclined toward the path of one's inner resolve to teshuvah, his repentance will be recognized and discerned as [emerging from] the preeminence of the soul.

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DEUT439 R. Avira (others say R. Yehoshua b. Levi) expounded: Moses called the evil inclination an "occlusion," as it is written: "And you shall circumcise the occlusion of your hearts" (Succah 52a)

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DEUT440 The seventeenth principle [of repentance] is to pursue acts of kindness and truth, as the pasuk says (Mishlei 16:6), "Through kindness and truth transgression is atoned for, and through fear of Hashem [to] turn from evil." Contemplate the hidden meaning of this pasuk. In truth, if the sinner does not return to Hashem, his transgression will not be atoned for by an act of kindness, as the pasuk says [this verse], "Who shows no favoritism and accepts no bribes." Our sages, z"l, interpreted this as follows (see Sifrei 33:6; Yalkut Mishlei 947): "He will not accept being bribed by a mitzvah, to pardon and overlook sins." They further said (Bava Kama 50a), "Whoever says that HaKadosh Baruch Hu overlooks things will have his life overlooked." It is just that Hashem is slow to anger; but if they do not heed His word, their actions will be repaid in kind [Yeshayahu 65:7]. Thus, when Shlomo [HaMelech], a"h, said, "Through kindness and truth transgression is atoned for"--he was referring to one who [first] does teshuvah. There are sins for which repentance and Yom Kippur suspend [atonement], and suffering purges [and completes the atonement], as we will explain in the Fourth Gate. Yet, an act of kindness shields the sinner and safeguards him from [the need for] suffering, just as it also rescues one from death, as the pasuk states (Mishlei 10:2), "Charity delivers [one] from death." [Rabbi Yonah has just explained how kindness helps achieve atonement -- by taking the place of suffering. ...]

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