{"id":61132,"date":"2019-08-15T11:07:06","date_gmt":"2019-08-15T08:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=61132"},"modified":"2022-09-11T13:11:33","modified_gmt":"2022-09-11T10:11:33","slug":"va-etchanan-there-is-none-other-gods-love-is-everywhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/va-etchanan-there-is-none-other-gods-love-is-everywhere\/","title":{"rendered":"Va-etchanan: There Is None Other – God\u2019s Love Is Everywhere"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[395,384,368],"acf":{"old_id":"61132","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":36663,"related_cahpter":"1057","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"The sentiment that God is everywhere, is consoling. It can\u2019t be eradicated or misplaced","content":"

If you start off at a distance you can only come closer.\u00a0This portion is what we read on the heels of Tisha B\u2019Av when we commemorate a panoply of catastrophes that have occurred in the Jewish calendar.\u00a0If the intention in reading this section is to provide something that will assist us in taking baby steps toward being comforted after the destructions of the first and second Temple, what here will provide that?<\/p>\n

Vaetchanan (I pleaded)<\/em> contains two core components that shape our understanding of the Jewish tradition: the reiteration of the 10 utterances or commandments, in Deuteronomy 5:6-18 and the section about loving God in Deuteronomy 6:5-9 that the rabbis shaped into the first paragraph of the Shema prayer uttered twice daily.\u00a0Our portion also mentions “love” both in 4:37 and 7:6. Jeffrey Tigay states that \u201cDeuteronomy is the first book of the Torah to speak of God loving and choosing Israel.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

The \u201cvoice\u201d (4:12) is the most significant aspect of how the Israelites have perceived and communicated with God.\u00a0God asks whether \u201cany people have heard the voice of God speaking out of a fire as you have and lived?\u201d (4:33). This appeal to the historical relationship between God and Israel and the proof of how God as acted for the Israelites through history affirms God\u2019s connection and love for the people. It is no accident then that Va\u2019etchanan is the portion on which the fifteenth of Av, Tu B\u2019Av, a type of Jewish match-making day (see Taanit 30b) falls and that this Sabbath is called Shabbat Nachamu, the sabbath of comfort after the opening of the prophetic reading Isaiah 40:1-26 paired with Va\u2019etchanan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Jewish mystical notion that God is everywhere comes from the following verse, \u201cthere is none other\u201d (Deut 4:35 \u2013 see image). It was inscribed on the kipah my husband was wearing on October 27, 2018, as he fled from the Tree of Life building. That kipah is still missing, though we\u2019ve replaced it with another with the same inscription; the sentiment that God is everywhere, is consoling. It can\u2019t be eradicated or misplaced.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

That is the parsha in a nutshell.\u00a0Moses can\u2019t go into the land, but God gives the people an enduring historical covenant, even a hint that God is ever present. Neither the destruction of the Temples nor a crazed white nationalist shooter can uproot it.\u00a0And that in itself should be comforting as we strive to become better people and better Jews in these seven weeks until Rosh Hashanah.\u00a0The rest of Deuteronomy as well will be paired with prophetic portions called the sheva d\u2019nechemta<\/em>, the “seven of consolation” as they all speak of the comfort we can find in repair and repentance, leading up to the Yamim Noraim, Days of Awe.<\/p>\n

The love spoken of in Va\u2019etchanan <\/em>exists to bring us all closer, to God and each other, as well as to comfort us.<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":61151,"id":61151,"title":"va-etchanan - ein od milvado","filename":"va-etchanan-ein-od-milvado.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/va-etchanan-ein-od-milvado.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/va-etchanan-there-is-none-other-gods-love-is-everywhere\/va-etchanan-ein-od-milvado\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"va-etchanan-ein-od-milvado","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":61132,"date":"2019-08-15 08:06:46","modified":"2019-08-15 08:07:03","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":224,"height":398,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/va-etchanan-ein-od-milvado-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/va-etchanan-ein-od-milvado-169x300.jpg","medium-width":169,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/va-etchanan-ein-od-milvado.jpg","medium_large-width":224,"medium_large-height":398,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/va-etchanan-ein-od-milvado.jpg","large-width":224,"large-height":398,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/va-etchanan-ein-od-milvado.jpg","1536x1536-width":224,"1536x1536-height":398,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/va-etchanan-ein-od-milvado.jpg","2048x2048-width":224,"2048x2048-height":398,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/va-etchanan-ein-od-milvado.jpg","post_full_size-width":224,"post_full_size-height":398,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/va-etchanan-ein-od-milvado.jpg","home_baner-width":224,"home_baner-height":398}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"Parashat Va-etchanan 5779","main_caption":"There Is None Other: God\u2019s Love Is Everywhere","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"The sentiment that God is everywhere, is consoling. 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