PROBLEMS IN GOD’S LAND

This week’s Parasha begins with the story of Abraham, our first patriarch. God blesses Abraham repeatedly, assuring him that numerous peoples and civilizations will come from him and inherit the precious land of Canaan (Israel). But things happen differently than Abraham would have expected. Shortly after arriving in Israel, a tremendous famine hits the region, probably due to a lack of rain. The Midrash says that there was never such a famine in the land of Israel, and Abraham is forced to escape. But he does not return to the north, where he came from. Abraham traveled south to Egypt, which, thanks to the generous Nile, was not affected by droughts.

PROBLEMS IN THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS

Abraham arrives in Egypt as a refugee escaping from starvation. In Egypt, he is a foreigner who can be easily abused. And besides, he has a very delicate problem. Despite her advanced age, his wife Sara was still a very beautiful woman. And Abraham knows the duplicity of Egyptian morality. For the Egyptians, adultery was forbidden, and marriage was sacred. And not even Pharaoh could take a married woman. But there was no moral or legal problem in taking a widow! Therefore, it was very tempting for any Egyptian to kill Abraham and take his wife. Human life in those times was worth nothing, especially that of a foreigner. Foreseeing all this, and with few other options, Abraham devises a plan: posing Sara as his sister. That way, Abraham when the Egyptians would come to Abraham asking for his “sister’s” hand, he would negotiate for months… He would start by demanding an exorbitant dowry for Sara, leading to long negotiations, and in the meantime, Abraham could sell all the merchandise he brought with him, buy some food, and return to Israel as soon as possible. The plan is perfect!

MURPHY LAWS
But Abraham’s plan did not work as he expected. Why? Because Abraham underestimated his wife’s beauty. And he never suspected that Pharaoh himself would be interested in Sara! When the king’s men saw her, there were no negotiations. Pharaoh’s men took Sarah by force, without Abraham’s consent, and then showered “her brother Abraham with gifts”, probably exceeding any exorbitant sum Abraham expected to be offered as a fake dowry.  Abraham is now desperate. God is not communicating with Abraham to tell him what to do, and he could not be sure if Sara’s kidnapping was part of a Divine plan to return to Israel and look for another wife to have children or if he had to wait for some type of Divine intervention.

REPARATIONS

Miraculously, and while Sara is still untouched, Pharaoh and his entire court suffered a rare affliction that the monarch correctly interpreted as a sign of Divine punishment. Pharaoh discovers the actual marital status of Sara, and he summons Abraham, rebukes him, and returns Sara to him. Then he expels Abraham from Egypt. Without knowing what had exactly happened in Pharaoh’s palace, Abraham is now safe, sound, and ironically “rich”. He returned to the land of Canaan with his beloved wife Sara.

THE GENERATION OF THE FLOOD
When God created man, He granted him a neshama, a soul: his intelligence. The ability to think, analyze and make choices. The Biblical text defined these faculties as “the image and likeness of God”. Unlike all living beings, humans were conceived as supernatural beings endowed with free will. That is the possibility of choosing good and evil, following the word of God or the drives of their earthly instincts.
Ten generations after being created, man chose the path of evil. Humanity began to decline. The Tora tells us that rape and corruption became widespread in that generation. The stronger abused the weak (Genesis 6). And the law of the land was the law of the jungle: the survival of the strongest. Man degraded himself, forgot his Divine image, and followed his instincts. This tenth generation after Creation is known as Dor haMabbul, a corrupt generation that deserved to be erased from the face of the Earth by the Flood. But this Flood did not mean the end of humanity. A man named Noah turned out to be the exception to the rule. Noah was an individual who, concerning the rest of the world (or despite widespread corruption, according to another opinion) behaved with integrity and lived conscious of God’s existence, something other humans chose to ignore.
God saved Noah to save humanity, giving us a second chance. Noah builds the ark and, together with his wife, their three children, and their wives – 8 people – survives the devastating Flood.

FIRST LAW
When Noah descends from the ark, he builds an altar and offers sacrifices to God in an unmistakable gesture of gratitude for saving his life. God blesses Noah, tells him to reproduce and repopulate the Earth, and presents him with a code that contains two explicit laws. The first law has to do with animals. God allows Noah and his children to eat animal flesh (Genesis 9: 3), which until then was not allowed since the diet that God indicated to the first man consisted solely of plants: seeds, vegetables, and fruits. Now God will enable humans to kill animals for food. However, the Creator establishes a prerequisite that must be fulfilled before consuming animal flesh. Men can not mutilate a living animal to consume its meat, as carnivorous predators do with their prey.
Before consuming its meat, the animal should be slaughtered.

SECOND LAW
The second law that God commands Noah is about murder, killing another human being. This law is formulated in a very basic way. Instead of the “You shall not kill” that we find in the 10 Commandments, this law determines that murder will be punished with execution. “If a man sheds the blood of another man, his blood will be spilled, because the human being has been created in the image of God. “(Genesis 9: 6). This law mentions again that man was created in the image and likeness of God. A reference to the widespread corruption that the Tora denounced in Genesis 6, explaining that powerful men (bene elohim) were abusing the weaker men (adam). God reminds Noah that every human, regardless of social status, deserves to be treated with respect for having been created in the image and likeness of God.

THE COVENANT BETWEEN GOD and NOAH
In the next verses (Genesis 9: 8 to 9:17) God establishes a covenant with Noah and his children. God promises not to bring another flood. The rainbow will be the reminder that rain will eventually stop and God will never again erase humanity from the face of the Earth. We can see then that the covenant between God and Noah establishes, on the one hand, that human beings will respect the life of other human beings and the right of an animal to a dignified death. And the Creator, on the other hand, commits Himself not to bring another flood, a universal cataclysm that would destroy humanity.

To summarize: the Divine formula to prevent future corruption of humanity and its own destruction is the establishment of Law and Order. These two basic laws are part of what is known as the seven universal laws.
Let’s clarify that according to Jewish tradition, God had already ordered Adam, the first man, six basic laws. In the times of Noah, God made from these Laws a covenant, adding the law that regulates the consumption of animal flesh and establishing the death penalty for murder. The Seven Laws of the Children of Noah (which also include: the prohibition of idolatry, blasphemy, theft, incest, and the commandment to set courts of justice) constitute the first Biblical code of the Divine Law that God conceived for humanity.

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Tomorrow morning, God willing, we will start rereading the Tora from the beginning: BERESHIT. Genesis.

After writing my first book, “Awesome Creation”, which deals with the first three verses of Genesis, which narrate the creation of our planet, I started my new book. What did God create on the Fifth Day? The name of my new book is: “Dinosaurs in the Bible”, which I have not yet published in English (see the Portuguese version here).

In the following lines, I will share with the readers of Halakha of the Day a text from the introduction of my new book. In this introduction, I briefly describe the process of creation, which is fully discernible to man and contemporary science. I chose to share some ideas about the Fourth Day of Creation because I think it is the least understood. In kindergarten, we are taught that God “created” the Sun, the Moon, and the stars on the Fourth Day. But this prevalent idea does not follow the opinion of the vast majority of Jewish Sages, especially those like Rashi, or Radaq, who specializes in the textual and grammatical part (peshat), that is, in the non-mystical interpretation of the Tora.

Besides, it would be a great intellectual challenge to suppose that the plants created on the Third Day could have existed without sunlight or that the Earth’s atmosphere created on the Second Day did not depend on the sun. Or even the day/night transition of the First Day did not occur through the sun. Today we know that the existence of a planet depends on the star around which it orbits and that all the planets we know exist, obviously, within a solar system.

This issue will be clarified in the following lines, Although I am sure that many readers will be surprised because it will be the first time they read this. I apologize that the text I will copy is a bit longer than usual. Still, I hope it will help you better understand the Creation text and appreciate that the more we know the science, the more we admire the exquisite precision of our Tora.

Genesis 1:14

And God said (on the Fourth Day): Let there be lights in the heavenly sky, and separate the day from the night; and let them be signs of the times, the days, and the years.

1. Jewish tradition holds that the luminaries—the sun, the Moon, and the planets of our solar system—were not “created” on the Fourth Day, but on the First Day of Creation. To be more precise, God created the sun, the Moon, and the universe during the first Act of Creation (Genesis 1:1). On the Fourth Day, then, God established the final positioning of the Sun and the Moon in their respective celestial orbits (requia’ hashamayim). This is not a minor detail. The temperature of our planet, which allows the existence of water in a liquid state, or the evaporation/precipitation cycle that produces fresh water, etc., depends on the fine-tuned distance between our planet and the sun. Our verse says: “Let there be luminaries in the expanse of the heavens”, but in reality, we should understand it in this way: “let the luminaries be positioned/ relocated in [their precise place in] the expanse of the heavens”. The Divine order does not refer to the creation of the luminaries but to their relocation “in the expanse of the heavens”, that is, in their definitive celestial orbit. This is the opinion of the majority of the rabbis of the Talmud. According to our Sages, Rashi (Gen. 1:14), this verse indicates what the final and definitive location of the luminaries will be. Rashi explicitly quotes the expression of the Sages: teliyat hameorot , “the suspension of the luminaries” in their respective orbits) and not their creation. To better appreciate that this verse does not refer to the “creation” of the luminaries, notice the absence of the verb bara, which is used in the Tora to describe an act of creation from nothing. In this verse, the Biblical text does not use the word “bara” but the Hebrew word “yehí”.
In the formation of the atmosphere (Genesis 1:6), for example, there was no act of creation from nothing, and the Tora uses the word “yehi”, not the expression “bara” to describe the establishment of a new mechanism, produced from something previously created.

2. Next, our text announces the mission of the luminaries. Once relocated in their final orbits, they will no longer be limited to the exclusive task of determining the transition between day and night, as they have been doing until now. From their new delicately calibrated orbits, the luminaries will also indicate other more complex time units, such as months, seasons, and years. However, the cycle of “the week” (Shabbat) is independent of any astronomical reference and will be established directly by the Creator.

Genesis 1:15

and that they act as luminaries from the celestial sky to illuminate the Earth. So it was.

From its new and carefully calculated distance from Earth, what modern scientists call “the galactic habitable zone,” sunlight will benefit future Earth dwellers, living things that need a very precise temperature. The Sun will have a special mission, explicitly mentioned in this verse: lehair ‘al haarets. That is: radiating the energy and heat necessary for life from a distance that does not cause too much or not enough heat/radiation. The Earth’s average temperature, 14 degrees Celsius, is incredibly stable and falls within a very narrow and privileged range. This delicately balanced temperature does not allow the oceans to freeze as they would if the Earth had the temperature of Mars or Jupiter, nor that they evaporate, as would happen in the case of Venus or Mercury. The water of the terrestrial oceans will be able to remain in a stable liquid state, and the climatic system will continue to produce rain as necessary, thanks to the temperature, exquisitely tuned by the Creator, which results from the ideal positioning of the Earth, the Sun and the Moon. This is the habitability zone necessary for the appearance on the Fifth Day of this phenomenon so delicate and fragile that we call: “life”.

Genesis 1:16

And God made the two great luminaries. The greater luminary to rule during the day, and the smaller luminary to rule during the night, and the stars.…the Moon is 400 times smaller than the Sun but 400 times closer to Earth than the Sun. The Moon is located at an exact distance from Earth, from which it exerts enough gravity to keep our planet aligned in the habitable zone. Maintaining the Earth’s axial tilt and elliptical orbit that produces the four seasons and the sea ​​tides are responsible for stable temperatures and life in the oceans.

Genesis 1:17

And God placed them in the celestial sky to illuminate the Earth.

Biblical commentators explained that the words: “leha-or ‘al ha-arets”, which literally means: “to illuminate the earth”, should be understood as: “for the benefit of the Earth”. In his commentary, Rashi analyzes the Biblical text and suggests understanding the word -arets, “earth”, as ‘olam “world”. In Hebrew and English, “earth” refers exclusively to our planet. In contrast, the expression “world” can also refer to the “inhabitants of the earth.” Sifté Chachamim, a commentary on Rashi’s commentary, explains that Rashi indicated that from the Fourth Day on, the luminaries were relocated for the benefit of the inhabitants of the world (‘olam), and not just for the benefit of the physical planet ( erets), which does not need such delicately balanced solar energy. This view is consistent with the idea that during the Second and Third Days of Creation, a more powerful sunlight was operated by the Creator to modify the surface of our planet. But from the Fourth Day, the Sun was relocated to its new orbit to support life, benefiting the animals and people living on Earth. This concept was beautifully developed by the biblical commentator Seforno (Italy, 1475-1550), in his explanation of the verse in Genesis 1:15: “Now [on the Fourth Day] light with a balanced temperature (or memuzag) will come from the luminaries in the proper measure for the inhabitants of the earth.”

To summarize: our text seemingly reports two actions that took place on the Fourth Day (Genesis 1:16 – 1:17). But based on the rabbis’ words, these two actions must be seen as one action. Genesis 1:16 and 1:17 should be understood as a continuum: (Gen. 1:16) «God made [=modified] the sun (Gen. 1:17), relocating it at reqia’ haShamayim, at the distance from which it will radiate a light fit for life and the inhabitants of the Earth.”

Genesis 1:18

…to rule over the day and the night and to separate the light from the dark

And God saw that it was good.

The steps from the creation of our planet to its adjustment to support life were masterfully illustrated by R. Menashe Ben Israel (1604-1657). The following text is based on his words. “The Creator is our world’s architect, builder, and interior designer. His project, Planet Earth, resembles the construction of a house. First, God creates the most basic materials: the skeleton of the house and its walls (Genesis 1:1-2). During the Second Day (Genesis 1:6-7), God builds the roof and the plumbing mechanism that guarantees a permanent drinking water supply to this house’s future inhabitants. On the Third Day (Genesis 1:9-14), the Creator builds the floor of the house and a sophisticated bio-engineering system to produce a constant supply of food and oxygen: the plants. On the Fourth Day (Genesis 1:16-19), once everything else is in place, the Creator sets up the house’s electrical system: lighting, air conditioning, and heating. The house is now habitable. The walls, ceiling, floor, and all essential systems are in place and working perfectly. And the food is prepared on the table, waiting for the guest of honor: humans”.

Genesis 1:19

AND IT WAS EVENING, AND IT WAS MORNING. FOURTH DAY

And on the Fifth Day, God created life.

Recently, thank God, I set up one of the spaces in my house to use as an office. Now I have more comfort for studying, writing, reading, making photocopies, checking my email, etc. But inevitably, every two or three days of use, my office turns into chaos: books piled up on the desk, papers everywhere, snacks that I sometimes bring from the kitchen, etc. At least once a week, I have to intervene and dedicate time to put things back in order.

What happens with my office has a name: entropy. If we want to be more academic, my office suffers from the second law of thermodynamics, which states the inevitability of a closed system transitioning from order to chaos. Nothing goes from chaos to order by itself, without the intervention of an external factor. See Note below *

Physics and Marriage

The second law of thermodynamics also applies to marriage. In a romantic relationship, entropy manifests as emotional disorder and distance that can grow between two people if neither takes action to prevent it. In other words: if a couple feels like they’re growing apart, it’s normal, especially when neither actively does anything to prevent it. If marriage is left to manage itself, by inertia, it’s practically impossible to avoid chaos and centrifugal forces that gradually separate spouses.

A Couple of Tips to Prevent Entropy in Marriage

FOR MEN

1. One of the most important gestures a wife needs from her husband is to feel valued. For him to pay attention to what she does in the house, for him or for the children, and let her know. A woman who doesn’t feel appreciated by her husband can enter a cycle of emotional entropy. The Torah portion of this week, Ki Tavo, teaches us that it’s essential to express our appreciation and thankfulness “with words” — not just in our hearts — for what God does for us. The Jewish farmer must bring the first fruits of his harvest to the Beit Hamikdash and there perform a whole ceremony of verbal gratitude, not silently. And why should this ritual of gratitude be performed? Actually, God doesn’t need it! Many Sages explain that verbal gratitude helps to value, and thus a positive cycle is created: gratitude leads to valuing and valuing leads to gratitude. If we apply this to our wives, there won’t be room for emotional entropy.
2. Dedicating time to the wife is actually a Mitzvah (religious obligation) of the Torah, derived from the commandment of “‘Onatah”, which literally means “her times” and indicates that the Jewish husband must dedicate intimate time with his wife. Intimacy, especially emotional intimacy, is an imperative need for any wife and a prerequisite for her to feel “attracted” to her husband. For a woman, “love” means sharing time together. The husband must allocate time to his wife each day or week: taking walks together, going out to eat together, or even not doing anything specific, but being “together”. This is absolutely essential to prevent entropy.

FOR WIVES

1. Many wives believe that by criticizing their husbands, they are doing them a favor. They think that it’s a virtue to point out their mistakes in what he does, says, and thinks. They might say to themselves, “If I don’t show my husband what he’s doing wrong, who will do it for him?” However, constant criticism, even when coming from a well-intentioned place (“I want to help my husband”), doesn’t help. In reality, it only serves to increase the level of entropy and distance in the marriage. The best (and only) strategy a wife can adopt to help her husband is positive reinforcement of her spouse’s actions: praising and rewarding him when he does something right. This approach is similar to that of a pet trainer, who never criticizes, yells at, or punishes the animals being trained, but instead focuses on rewarding and reinforcing appropriate behaviors. And this method works perfectly with husbands too!
2. It’s very important for both the husband and wife to understand that happiness is not just a “mood”, but a choice. The Torah teaches this repeatedly, for example, when it commands us to “be” happy during our holidays or to “make others happy”. This “active” happiness can start by forcing myself to smile or put on a cheerful face when I’m with my loved ones. Remember that a good employee, a secretary, a flight attendant on an airplane, or a teacher who wants to keep their job, have to put on their best face around others. Incredibly, when you make an effort to project happiness, you start to feel happier. If a wife adopts a positive attitude and projects happiness, she becomes a true emotional magnet for her husband, who will feel much more drawn to spend additional time with her and seek activities to do together. A wife who radiates happiness is irresistible to any husband.

SHABBAT SHALOM

• By the way, for me, entropy is the best evidence that the world was created by God and didn’t arise on its own, since assuming a universe that arose and developed from the original chaos of the Big Bang without the intervention of a Creator would go completely against this fundamental physical law. They should teach this in all schools!

Rabbi Yosef Bitton

ואחר כן תבוא אליה…ולקחת לך לאשה
רש”י :לא דברה תורה אלא כנגד יצר הרע

WAR CRIMES
Throughout human history, the military leaders of all the peoples of this planet motivated their warriors to conquer the enemy, encouraging them with the promise of obtaining the tempting spoils of war: money, land… and the women of the enemy. They were part of the booty that belonged to the victor. And a great incentive to fight with more courage and adrenaline. Captured women were treated like objects, at the will of the soldier. After being abused the poor victims were killed or in the best case scenario sold as slaves. Wartime sexual assault was never questioned but normalized. And is not a  just thing of the past. In this article with the surprising title “”Challenging a tradition that enjoys impunity” we can read about the prevalence and normalization of wartime rape, even in the 20th century.

THE TORA IS DIFFERENT
In this week’s Parsha we see that the Tora demands of the Jewish soldier an exceptional behavior, completely different from the Gentile soldier. An attitude of respect towards the enemy that has no precedent or parallel in the annals of history, probably until well into the 20th or 21st century (remember, for example, Japan’s invasion of Nanjing, China, in 1937; or the behavior of the Russian soldiers in Germany, or even the abuse of ISIS in the XXI century). The Tora, with an incredible and perhaps unappreciated sense of anticipation for human rights, refers in this week’s Parsha to “the rights of female prisoners of war”. If the soldier wished to be intimate with that woman, he was obliged to marry her (something the Tora, in this suggestive way, discourages). If the Jewish soldier married her—these prisoners of war, or ‘ebed kena’aní, were automatically converted to Judaism—he had to allow her to mourn her family, grow her nails and shave her hair (following the customs of Gentile civilizations in biblical times) and only later could he marry her. Furthermore, once married, he could not discriminate against her or her children or make her work as a servant. All these “regulations” went through the soldier’s head and in a certain way made him reflect on whether it was really OK for him to get carried away by his impulse “now” and have to go through all this process “later”. The idea, obviously, is that all these regulations managed to dissuade the Jewish soldier from taking advantage of that defenseless woman.

POSTPONEMENT AS A STRATEGY IN LIFE

We should be amazed at the mental training, education, and control, that the Tora demands of a Jewish man. The Tora —attentive to the psychological state of a victorious soldier facing an attractive and defenseless woman in the enemy camp, where adrenaline easily combines with testosterone—doesn’t tell the soldier “you can’t be with that woman,” period. First, since most probably a simple “no” in these circumstances might bring the unintended consequences: abuse and rape. The Tora designed a strategy for the soldier to “take his time, think and reflect” and not get carried away by his impulse in the midst of war. This “mental mechanism” that the Tora designed is: positive procrastination. Rashi explains that this biblical commandment goes beyond the specific case of a soldier on the battlefield. The Tora  is teaching us a strategy to deal with our own yetser hara’: our physical urges, instincts and desires, when they are inappropriate. Instead of saying “NO”, the Tora tells the soldier: “YES, but NOT NOW.” Delayed gratification is a well-known psychological tool that educates the individual and trains him to control his impulses, and mature.

ONE NOW OR TWO A LITTLE LATER

The 1972 marshmallow experiment was a study on “delayed gratification.” It was led by psychologist Walter Mischel, a professor at Stanford University. In this study, children were offered a choice between a single marshmallow now or two marshmallows, if he or she waited a period of time. Once he explains this to the child, the researcher leaves the room for about 10 minutes and then returns with the second marshmallow in hand for those who resisted the temptation of immediate gratification. In follow-up studies, researchers found that children who were able to wait longer and control the urge to eat one marshmallow NOW tended to have better youth and adult life outcomes, better scores on SAT, educational achievements, and even the right body-mass index (weight), and other matters that demand “delaying gratification in the present” for greater gratification in the future

NEGATIVE PROCRASTINATION

But procrastination is a double-edged sword. Delaying a good and healthy project, which we know is necessary to improve our lives, is usually one of the most common psychological traps we set for ourselves. For example, when we need to lose weight, and we know we have to follow a strict diet, many times instead of saying to ourselves: “I’m not going to do it”, “I’m giving up good health”–an argument that our common sense and our guilt would not tolerate– we use the psychological strategy of procrastination, but in a negative way: we delay the diet from one week to the next. In this way, our guilt is silenced, because “we have decided to do it”,  but time will eventually bring oblivion, and the good resolution will probably die…

In the area of ​​our spiritual improvement, procrastination is also a lethal trap. During the month of Elul, and as we get closer to Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur, we commit ourselves to adopting new habits and we resolve to make some major improvements in our Jewish lives. For example: “This year I will dedicate an hour every morning to study Tora”, “To read this very good book that has been highly recommended to me.” But then, when we find this project a bit difficult, we suspend it, but without giving it up completely! We tell ourselves that we are not really giving up. We’re just delaying this project until we find a better time. We convince ourselves that right now, we are very busy, business is very demanding, etc. …  The trap is that by not giving up on the idea altogether… by delaying this project into the future, we make it easier for our minds and guilt to abandon it, and eventually it will “die by procrastination”. The destructive side of our imagination — yester hara’ as Maimonides defines it — set us up psychologically, and we became victims of this old syndrome.

40 years after leaving Egypt and slavery the children of Israel are ready to enter into the promised land.    There is one small problem, however. The land is not empty. In fact, there are seven large nations and dozens of scattered tribes and peoples against whom we must fight and prevail. Because this land needs to be conquered. This is not a small challenge. Remember that 40 years ago the fear of fighting paralyzed an entire generation that ended up dying in the desert. Now, Moshe addresses the new generation. He gives them a long speech, which occupies most of the book Debarim. What is the content of this speech? Normally, in these circumstances, you would have expected the leader of the army to harangue his soldiers and motivate them to fight. Normally, the leader would use some strong sounding phrases like “Kill or die”, or “Fredoooom”, or “fight till the end”, etc, etc. Or some unusual act to demonstrate that they need to win, as Julius Cesar did burning the ships when his army was about to invade Britannia.

But rather surprisingly in his speech Moshe Rabbenu is not concerned with the details of the battle. He almost does not mention anything practical about the imminent war… Moshe is not worried about military strategies or the fighting spirit of his soldiers. Moshe knows that this war will be won, because HaShem promised so. And because the Almighty will fight alongside Israel.

What does concern Moshe then?  The aftermath of victory.

Moshe is concerned about the spiritual effects of success and material wealth.

Israel is a rich and fertile land, with material surplus (Debarim 8: 7-9) “[Israel is …] a land with streams and springs of waters, that water the valleys and the hills; a land of wheat and barley, vineyards and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey, a land where bread is not scarce,  [and a land] where you will lack nothing “

Moshe, unlike any other political leader in history, fears the spiritual consequences of stability and wealth. He fears that once the people settle in their new mansions and rich lands, they would forget who they are, and who they should be …

(Debarim 8: 10-19) “[Once you settle in the land and] you have eaten, and you are satisfied … beware not to forget HaShem your God, and abandon His commandments … lest your herds and flocks multiply, and your silver and gold increase, and all you have abound … and then, your heart might become proud, and you might forget HaShem your God, who brought you out of Egypt, the land of slavery …. and then, you would persuade yourself saying, ‘It was my own power and the might of my own hand that produced this wealth for me’ … and when you forget HaShem your God, you would seek other gods and you would bow down to them” 

There is a psychological and spiritual chain reaction which begins with wealth and ends with a special form of idolatry.

1. Wealth and affluence can lead man to forget God. This is a phenomenon which, unfortunately, is not uncommon. The more we suffer poverty, disease and tragedy, the more we must remember God. And vice versa.

2. When we forget HaShem, we become arrogant. “Everything I have, I achieved it by myself, with my own efforts.”

3. This dysfunctional perception leads to (or is a form of) ‘aboda zara (idolatry), which in this context must be understood as “egolatry” or self-worshipping. Human nature does not tolerate emptiness. And when an individual removes HaShem from his or her life, usually he would replace the Divine with his own ego.

Now, we can finally understand that waging war against the enemy does not worry Moshe. Moshe’s great concern is the battle between man and his own arrogance. The Tora warns us that material success can be dangerous. Because once you do not “need” anymore to beg God for bread and water, you are very close to forget and ignore Him.

Now, what is the solution to the moral challenge of wealth and success? Should we give up the aspiration of material well-being, to not risk a spiritual collapse? In fact, the Tora presents “wealth” as a Divine blessing (“berakha” literally means “abundance”) to which we are entitled to aspire. And if we win our bread honestly, the Tora does not impose us to make a voluntary vow of poverty.

  We read in the Shema ‘Israel, we must love (= keep in mind .., think of…) HaShem, our God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our possessions. We must have HaShem in mind by rereading these words every day, day and night. We must repeat this message to our children. And place it in front of our hearts, and as a crown on our heads. And have it in writing, as a permanent reminder, in each one of the doors through which we enter and go out, every day of our lives.

The solution of the Tora to the conflict  “wealth > pride” is not to avoid wealth but to prevent “oblivion”. The Jewish antidote to forgetfulness is the permanent study of Tora and the fulfillment of its Mitsvot.