Mindful Torah...and more

In this week's parashah /portion, Ekev ( Devarim /Deuteronomy 7:12 - 11:26), Moses tells the people that they shall be rewarded if they obey God's commandments and punished if they disobey. He recounts how God freed them from slavery in Egypt, gave them victory over enemies in the desert, and brought them to the border of the land flowing with milk and honey. However, God did not do this because of any virtue that the people possessed. Rather, God blessed the people because they were God's "chosen" and "special people." This in spite of the fact that they were stiff-necked and often rejected or rebelled against God and Moses during the 40 years of wandering. In fact, Moses reminds them that he actually had to plead with God not to destroy the people after they built the Golden Calf (among other times)! The verses upon which I would like to focus are found near the end of the parashah . As they are not contiguous, I will cite them below in the ord...

There is an old Yiddish proverb which is among the most overly quoted of all the overly quoted     Yiddish proverbs: Mentsch tracht, Gott lacht. Man [sic] plans, God laughs. In a moment you will see why this dictum has been ringing in my ears more than usually in the past few days.  But first, I would like to provide a framework for my musings. This commentary is tangentially connected to this past week’s Torah reading, Va’etchanan ( Devarim /Deuteronomy 3:27-7:11).  But it is also connected to the fast day of Tisha B’Av , which occurred last week, and the fact that this past Shabbat was Shabbat Nahamu /the Sabbath of Comfort.  Tisha B’Av commemorates the destruction of the First Temple by the Babylonians in 586 BCE and the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 CE.  Both of these events, as well as other tragedies, are believed to have occurred on or around Tisha B’Av (the 9th day of the month of Av).  And so it has traditionally been a day...