9/13/2018

Tishri 6 (Tishri 4 according to New moon sighting form Yisrael) – 5779 - Parashat 46 Portion 151 – ‘’Ekev’’ Dev 7:12-8:20 – Yesh 54:10-11; 55:6-13 – Ps 116:1-117:2



Bar’chu et YHVH ha-m’vorach, Baruch YHVH ha-m’vorach l’O’lam va-ed! Baruch ata YHVH Eloheinu melech ha-olam asher bachar banu m’kol ha-amim, v’na-tan lanu eht Torah-to. Baruch atah YHVH, noteyn ha-Torah. Ameyn.”

(Bless YHVH the blessed One; Blessed is YHVH, the blessed One for all eternity. Blessed are you, YHVH, our Elohim, King of the Universe, you have selected us from among all the peoples, and have given us your Torah. Blessed are you, YHVH, giver of the Torah. Ameyn        

Deu 7:12  “And it shall be, because you hear these right-rulings, and shall guard and do them, that יהוה your Elohim shall guard with you the covenant and the loving-commitment which He swore to your fathers, 

‘’If you guard the Torah, the Torah will guard you.’’

 ‘’ekev’’ first appears in Gen 3:15  “And I put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed.b He shall crush your head, and you shall crush His heel.”(‘’ekev’’) Footnote: bFirst promise of the Messiah – (‘’crush’’ ‘’shuf’’ - to bruise, crush, gape upon, desire?, seize?, strike out?)

‘’Ekev’’ is also the root of ‘’Yakov’’by adding a ‘’yud’’ to the word ‘’ekev’’ According Strongs 6118/9 ‘’ekev’’ can mean ‘’consequence’’ or ‘’footprint.’’
‘’Footprint’’ reminds us of our ‘’halacha’’ or ‘’walk’’ in YHVH’s Truth – YHVH’s Torah. The consequences (''ekev’’) of our ‘’footprints’’ (akvot) will determine our blessing.

Psa 19:7  The Torah of יהוה is perfect, bringing back the being; The witness(‘’edut’’) of יהוה is trustworthy, making wise the simple; ….. Psa 19:11  Also, Your servant is warned by them, In guarding them there is great reward – (‘’ekev’’) or consequences.

First mention of Yakov’s name - Gen 25:26  And afterward his brother came out, with his hand holding on to Ěsaw’s heel, so his name was called Ya‛aqoḇ. And Yitsḥaq was sixty years old when Rivkah bore them. 

Some say Esau – the father of the Edomites – was trying to crush Yakov in his mother's womb. This was the reason Yakov grabbed his heel (ekev). This same genocidal aggression persists until today between these two peoples that come from Yakov and Esav see ‘’Obadiah’’

Deu 7:13  and shall love you and bless you and increase you, and shall bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He swore to your fathers to give you. 
Deu 7:14  “Blessed are you above all peoples – there is not going to be a barren man or a barren woman among you or among your livestock. Deu 7:15  “And יהוה shall turn away from you all sickness and put on you none of the evil diseases of Mitsrayim which you have known, but He shall put them on all those who hate you. Deu 7:16  “And you shall consume all the peoples whom יהוה your Elohim is delivering over to you – your eye shall not pardon them. And do not serve their mighty ones, for that is a snare to you. Deu 7:17  “When you say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I, I am unable to drive them out,’ Deu 7:18  do not be afraid of them. Remember well what יהוה your Elohim did to Pharaoh and to all Mitsrayim, Deu 7:19  the great trials which your eyes saw, and the signs and the wonders, the strong hand and the outstretched arm, by which יהוה your Elohim brought you out. יהוה your Elohim does so to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. Deu 7:20  “And יהוה your Elohim also sends the hornet(Heb- tzira) among them until those who are left, who hide themselves from you, are destroyed. Deu 7:21  “Do not be afraid of them, for יהוה your Elohim, the great and awesome Ěl, is in your midst. Deu 7:22  “And יהוה your Elohim shall drive out those nations before you, little by little. You are not allowed to destroy them at once, lest the beasts of
the field become too numerous for you. Deu 7:23  “But יהוה your Elohim shall deliver them over to you and destroy them with a great destruction until they are consumed. Deu 7:24  “And He shall give their sovereigns into your hand, and you shall destroy their name from under the heavens. No one is going to be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them. Deu 7:25  “The carved images of their mighty ones you are to burn with fire. Do not covet the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be snared by it, for it is an abomination to יהוה your Elohim. 
Deu 7:26  “And do not bring an abomination into your house, lest you be accursed like it. Utterly loathe it and utterly hate it, for it is accursed. 
Deu 8:1  “Guard to do every command which I command you today, that you might live, and shall increase, and go in, and shall possess the land of which יהוה swore to your fathers. Deu 8:2  “And you shall remember that יהוה your Elohim led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you, prove you, to know what is in your heart, whether you guard His commands or not. 
Deu 8:3  “And He humbled you, and let you suffer hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, to make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word that comes from the mouth of יהוה.a Footnote: aSee also Mat_4:4 and in Luk_4:4. Deu 8:4  “Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. 
Deu 8:5  “Thus you shall know in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so יהוה your Elohim disciplines you, 
Deu 8:6  therefore you shall guard the commands of יהוה your Elohim, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. 
Deu 8:7  “For יהוה your Elohim is bringing you into a good land, a land of streams of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills, Deu 8:8  a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey, Deu 8:9  a land in which you eat bread without scarcity, in which you do not lack at all, a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you dig copper. Deu 8:10  “And you shall eat and be satisfied, and shall bless יהוה your Elohim for the good land which He has given you. Deu 8:11  “Be on guard, lest you forget יהוה your Elohim by not guarding His commands, and His right-rulings, and His laws which I command you today, 
Deu 8:12  lest you eat and shall be satisfied, and build lovely houses and shall dwell in them, Deu 8:13  and your herds and your flocks increase, and your silver and your gold are increased, and all that you have is increased, 
Deu 8:14  that your heart then becomes lifted up, and you forget יהוה your Elohim who brought you out of the land of Mitsrayim, from the house of bondage, Deu 8:15  who led you through that great and awesome wilderness – fiery serpents and scorpions and thirst – where there was no water, who brought water for you out of the flinty rock, Deu 8:16  who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, in order to humble you and to try you, to do you good in the end, 
Deu 8:17  you then shall say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand have made for me this wealth!’ 
Deu 8:18  “But you shall remember יהוה your Elohim, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, in order to establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is today. Deu 8:19  “And it shall be, if you by any means forget יהוה your Elohim, and follow other mighty ones, and serve them and bow yourself to them, I have warned you this day that you shall certainly perish. Deu 8:20  “Like the nations which יהוה is destroying before you, so you are to perish, because you did not obey the voice of יהוה your Elohim. 

‘’There’s a story told about the Berditchever Rebbe, that he asked a certain uneducated man, who was unable to read and understand the liturgy, what that man said to his Creator on Yom Kippur. The man told the Rebbe, “I say to him, Master of the World, I have sinned, it’s true. I am a poor man, and sometimes I have to work on Shabbos. Sometimes, in travelling, I can’t find kosher meat, and I eat treyf. I never found much time to learn Torah, and when I do have time, I am so tired, I usually just sleep. But You– You take children from their parents, and parents from their children; You permit wars to be fought and blood to be shed; You permit sickness and misfortune of all kinds; and Your treasured people, Your zisse yidn, that You swore to protect– You permit them to be abused and robbed and killed by non-Jews. So I’ll make you a deal, Master of the World: you forgive my sins, and I will forgive Yours.”

To which Reb Levi Yitzchak is said to have replied,
“Why would you let Him off so easily? With that argument, you could bring about the coming of the Moshiach.”

Zec 12:7  “And יהוה shall save the tents of Yehuḏah first, so that the comeliness of the house of Dawiḏ and the comeliness of the inhabitants of Yerushalayim would not become greater than that of Yehuḏah. Zec 12:8  “In that day יהוה shall shield the inhabitants of Yerushalayim. And the feeble among them in that day shall be like Dawiḏ, and the house of Dawiḏ like Elohim, like the Messenger of יהוה before them! Zec 12:9  “And it shall be in that day that I seek to destroy all the nations that come against Yerushalayim. 

Him Whom They Have Pierced
Zec 12:10  “And I shall pour on the house of Dawiḏ and on the inhabitants of Yerushalayim a spirit of favour and prayers. And they shall look on Me whom they pierced, and they shall mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son. And they shall be in bitterness over Him as a bitterness over the first-born. Zec 12:11  “In that day the mourning in Yerushalayim is going to be great, like the mourning at Haḏaḏ Rimmon in the valley of Meḡiddo.

Isa 55:9  “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. 
Isa 55:10  “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from the heavens, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, and give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 
Isa 55:11  so is My Word that goes forth from My mouth – it does not return to Me empty, but shall do what I please, and shall certainly accomplish what I sent it for. 



Baruch atah YHVH, Eloheynu, Melech ha-‘Olam, asher natan lanu Toraht-emet, v’chay-yeh o’lam nata-b’tochenu. Baruch atah YHVH, noteyn ha-Torah. Ameyn.”

(Blessed are you Yahweh, our Elohim, King of the Universe, you have given us your Torah of truth, and have planted everlasting life within our midst. Blessed are you, YHVH giver of the Torah – Ameyn)