DEUT1644 In how many ways should a person hold himself to an accounting before God? I say that there are a multitude of ways in which to make such an accounting. Of these, I will point out thirty. They can clarify to a person what he owes God, if he will bring them to mind and undertake to reflect on them and remember them always. God's Book and one's attitude toward it. … 5. One should make a personal accounting of his delay in coming to understand God's Torah and of his contentedness with not grasping its contents. He would not act this way in regard to a book that came to him from a human King, in the event that he was not sure of its meaning, for example, because of incomprehensible handwriting or diction; the depth, subtlety, or complexity of its material; or its rhetorical style. Rather, he would focus his mind and concentrate all his thoughts in order to understand its meaning, and he would be greatly distressed until he understood its intention. Now, if he would go to such lengths to understand the book of a human being, weak and mortal like himself, how much greater is it his obligation to go far beyond this in order to understand the Book of his God, which is the source of his life, as it says: “For it is the source of your life and long endurance” (Devarim 30:20). How could you permit yourself, my brother, to neglect it and be content with what is easily understood and readily apparent, while disregarding the rest? Do you realize how faulty and disreputable your behavior has been in this regard? Does it not resemble the conduct of the one of whom it was said, “You praised the Gods of silver and gold, of bronze and iron, of wood and stone, who do not see or hear or know anything; but the God in Whose hand are your soul and all your ways, you did not glorify ” (Daniyel 5:23).