DEUT347 See [[LEV1118]] Leviticus 26:14 obey DORFFWITO 41

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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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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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DEUT526 Are grandparents responsible for teaching their grandchildren? … “And you shall teach your children” (Deuteronomy 11:19), from that I only know that I must teach my children; how do I know that I must also teach my grandchildren? Because the Torah says, “and make them known to your children and to your children's children” (Deuteronomy 4:9). Babylonian Talmud, Kiddushin 30a. In our own day, this implies that grandparents have a duty to help their children provide a Jewish education for their grandchildren. That includes providing a Jewish model for their grandchildren, especially if they are the product of an interfaith marriage. For grandparents who have greater financial resources than their adult children as well as fewer economic responsibilities, this duty also includes paying the tuition (or part of it) for their grandchildren's Jewish day school or religious school education, camp, or youth group. Grandparents may feel good about themselves in doing this, but not too good: after all, they are simply fulfilling their Jewish legal duty!

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DEUT47 ... to refuse to care for others is to deny God Himself: “Rabbi Judah said: When a man denies the duty of lovingkindness, it is as though he had denied the Root (i.e.., God]” (Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7:1, par. 4). Conversely, engaging in acts of chesed is nothing less than modeling yourself after God: “To walk in all His ways” (Deuteronomy 11:22). These are the ways of the Holy One: “Compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness (chesed) and faithfulness, extending kindness to the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin …” (Exodus 34:6). This means that just as God is compassionate and gracious, you too must be compassionate and gracious... Just as God is kind, you too must be kind...” The Lord is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His actions” (Psalms 145:17): Just as the Holy One is righteous, so you too must be righteous; Just as the Holy One is kind (loving, chasid), so too you must be kind (loving). – Sifrei Deuteronomy, Ekev. Finally, it is one of the three values on which the very existence of the world depends, as we learn in this famous passage from the Mishnah’s tractate, Ethics of the Fathers (Pirkei Avot), famous both because it comes at the very beginning of the tractate and also because in modern times it is often sung: “The world depends on three things: on Torah, on worship, and on acts of loving kindness” (1:2). (Continued at [[DEUT311]] Deuteronomy 6:18 sight DORFFWITO 19-20)

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DEUT593 See [[DEUT44]] Deuteronomy 4:2 add DORFFWITO 52-3

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DEUT606 See [[LEV270]] Leviticus 19:2 holy DORFFWITO 117-8

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DEUT623 (Continued from [[LEV613]] Leviticus 19:17 reprove DORFFWITO 83). … Another kind of situation in which a person should say something negative about someone else is if that person is doing something wrong. That is precisely the case where the Torah demands that even the closest of relatives shun the person and contribute to the person's death ... (Deuteronomy 13:7-12). Although Jewish courts no longer have the authority to execute people, presumably if someone is leading Jews astray theologically (e.g., Jews for Jesus) or morally (e.g., to take drugs or to harm someone), then we clearly must argue against what they advocate, maybe even to the point of suggesting (or, in the case of family or close friends, urging or even demanding) that one stay away from such people. Along these lines, some recent research suggests that complaining publicly about slackers or those who threaten a group's identity or success in other ways can have the positive effects of defining group membership and reinforcing group norms. It also alerts people, especially newcomers, to guard against those in the group who are not reliable or trustworthy. These cases involve speaking negatively about others to avoid a clear harm, not just for the sake of feeling superior. The research indicates, though, that sometimes gossip and slurs function in a socially and psychologically healthy way even when all they do is relieve loneliness and self-doubt by confirming that other people are having the same problems you are. Defining the line where such speech becomes prohibited lashon hara is not always easy.

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DEUT722 As Owner of everything, God also has the prerogative to make demands about how the world's property is distributed. Thus the most straightforward reason in the tradition that we must care for others is that God commands is to do so. So, for example, with regard to the poor, the Torah says this: “If there is a needy person among you, one of your kinsmen in any of your settlements in the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not harden your heart and shut your hand against your needy kinsman. Rather, you must open your hand and lend him sufficient for whatever he needs... For there will never cease to be needy ones in your land, which is why I command you: open your hand to the poor and needy kinsman in your land (Deuteronomy 15: 7, 8, 11).

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