EXOD189 ... when the Jewish people left Egypt, [the Torah] says that the Jews left "Chamushim." The word has many explanations, but one translation is that they left armed with weapons. In fact this is the explanation of the Ibn Ezra, the Rashbam, and Rabbeinu Bechaye. The Jews knew they would be fighting battles in the desert and to conquer the land of Israel, and therefore needed weapons for these wars. Based on these explanations, weapons were a "necessary evil" for the Jewish people, and were needed to accomplish the national task to defeat the enemy (on the occasions when God did not do so by Himself, miraculously, as by the Red Sea, the Sea of Reeds). Though the Jews relied on God as well, they also had to fight other nations by natural means, using the weapons of the day, says Rabbeinu Bechaye. In fact, King David attributes to God not only his successes in wars, but also considers God his teacher to become an expert in using weapons for his many battles.(Samuel II:22:35). Thus, Judaism clearly recognizes the need of weapons on the battlefield as a necessary part of life. (continued at [[EXOD503]] Exodus 20:21-22 AMJV 121)

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EXOD232 The fact that doctors hold an important place in Jewish communities does not negate the fundamental Jewish belief that all healing does not come about due to any medicine or a particular doctor, but only through God. God is called "your doctor" in Scripture (this verse) including the healing that is derived from medicines and the advice of doctors. In fact, traditional Jews pray three times daily for God to relieve their illnesses without placing their faith on doctors or medicines. (Tenth blessing of the daily Shemoneh Esreh). Thus, in Judaism, prayer is no less an effective "medicine" to achieve healing than any physical pill or treatment.

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EXOD233 There is an essential existential dilemma: if Jews believe that events and many experiences in their lives come directly from God (including sickness), then what right does man have to interfere with the desires of God (for a person to suffer through sickness) and take away that malady and pain? It is for this reason that many religions actually forbid physicians from treating the ill (Christian scientists, for example). The Rabbis discuss this issue and martial sources on both sides of this moral question. On the one hand, is very clear in Jewish thought that sickness comes directly from God, often as a reaction to immoral actions by man. That is why God promises a life of health without sickness for those that follow in God's ways. King David said that God, not doctors, protects individual from sickness and keeps a person alive, (Psalms 41:2–3) and each weekday traditional Jews pray to God three times a day, as the ultimate doctor and healer, to remove any and all sicknesses. (Eighth blessing of Shemoneh Esreh). How then are doctors ever allowed to step in and heal according to Jewish thought? Where is the logic? Since the Torah itself discusses paying doctor bills as part of restitution for damages, the Talmud citesthis verse as "permission" for doctors to heal.(Exodus 21:19, Berachot 60a). But how does it work? Since God knows that doctors exist and have the ability to heal in society, when He brings sickness upon an individual, God wants that doctor to administer medicine and heal the patient. Therefore, if a person contracts an illness that would normally take three weeks to heal without medicine, and the doctor can eliminate the malady in a week, then God intentionally wanted the person to be ill for a week, not three weeks. In this way, the physician actually partners with God in healing human beings. But even as the doctor prescribes treatment, Jews believe that the healing still comes from God-not the doctor. Chovot Halevavot, chapter 4.

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EXOD241 … the Midrash explains that this refers specifically to how a Jew behaves towards others in business, and then states that any Jew who treats others properly in commerce, it is as if that person has fulfilled the entire Torah. Mechilta, Beshalach 1. … proper behavior to others is the most important aspect of Judaism and life in general...

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EXOD302 The only specific Torah reference to this word ["Betza"] refers to one quality needed for Jewish leadership, specifically the judges that Yitro-Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, advised him to appoint. One of their necessary qualities must be that they "despise greed." Nachmanides explains that for people to be proper judges, they must despise even the idea of money in general, the obtainment of physical possessions, and they should not even care about their own wealth at all. Therefore, such a person can never be tempted to accept bribes when they're offered to him. Reva explains that since his own possessions are meaningless to him, if this judge is threatened by a litigant that he will burn down the judge's field if the judge rules against him, the threat will not faze or cause fear in this judge. Rabbeinu Bechaye brings this explanation, but then adds that hating greed signifies that a judge despises people who intentionally steal from others in order to gain wealth. Tur also explains that such a judge has no desire to be rich, which inoculates him from ever accepting a bride.

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EXOD310 Tolerance of all Jews, no matter their backgrounds, beliefs, or lifestyles, leads to the ultimate goal-Jewish unity. It was only that one and only time when the Jewish people united as one, expressed through the singular use of the verb in the verse (of camping), that they were worthy to hear God's voice. In fact, every Jew is commanded to be responsible for every other Jew, not only the Jews who agree with a particular viewpoint, lifestyle, or behavior pattern. Shavuot 39a When there is cohesive feeling and action, Jewish unity results. The Midrash states that the Jews are compared to one large sheep, because just as when one limb suffers pain, the entire animal feels the hurt, so too when one Jew suffers, the entire Jewish people should also feel the pain. Rabbi Shimon compares the situation to a person who bores a hole in a ship, and as the others get upset that the entire ship will go down causing everyone to drown, the man says, "I only put a hole in the area that belongs to me." So it is with the Jewish people. Every action by every Jew affects the entire Jewish people. Vayikra Rabah 4:6.

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EXOD317 Scripture tells us that the world and everything in it belongs to God. (Psalms 24:1). Therefore, in a literal sense, no human can own anything in the world. At the very moment that He designates the Jewish people for a special relationship with Him, God tells us that the entire world belongs to Him.

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EXOD335 See [[EXOD118]] Exodus 7:16 let AMJV 198

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EXOD341 When it comes to Jewish thought, there is no one book that encompasses the correct Jewish view on any issue. Nor should there be. Unlike Jewish law, i.e., Jewish actions, when it was necessary to come to a consensus in order to form a generally unified Jewish practice, Jewish thought always permitted various viewpoints. This is even alluded to in the Torah itself. The Torah, on two separate occasions, tells us that when the Jewish people originally accepted the Torah and said, "We will do it." [This verse] This acceptance of practicing the Torah was said by the Jews in unison, as a total unified people. But a few verses later, when the acceptance by the Jewish people of the Torah practice and its ideas is recorded as, "We will do it and we will understand it," there the unity and the words "Yachdov"-"unified" and "Kol Echad"-"one voice," are conspicuously missing. From the very beginning, Jews understood that there could not be unanimity when it comes to Jewish thought. There is no one "right" idea or monolithic value concerning Jewish beliefs and outlook on life. Thus, referring to the joy gained from understanding of Jewish or Torah life, King Solomon wrote that the paths of Torah are pleasant, not the one singular path, but paths in plural, because there are many ways to understand the Torah in Judaism properly and legitimately. Maimonides makes the same point in his Mishna commentary (on Sanhedrin 10:3). He states that unlike Jewish law, which necessarily must come to one conclusion and follow one practice, when it comes to Jewish thought, one need not rule like any one of the various opinions. Judaism makes room for more than one attitude within the structure of traditional Judaism. Within the framework of Jewish tradition, there can be more than one proper path when it comes to philosophical ideas, ethics, and beliefs.

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EXOD368 God's relationship with the Jewish people is compared to that of a scorned lover, (Midrash Tanchuma 94:6) much like the Sotah and her jealous husband [Numbers 5:14]. One commentator [Rabeinu Bechaya on this verse] notes that the only time in the entire Bible that God is referred to as jealous is in the context of idol worship, to demonstrate that special husband-wife relationship between the Jewish people and God.

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