While our parashah this week begins and ends with references to war, what it actually covers is fairness, justice, and treatment of others.  It exposes our baser instincts, and acknowledges these by way of laws addressing potential and actual behavior regarding these desires.  Another way to say this is we are focusing our attention on the battles involved in day-to-day living.

       We are to respect and revere life above all else but Adonai.  Not just our being alive physically, but also the quality of life.  We are being led by the context of the words to discover our need to be mindful of the consequences of our actions for ourselves, and for others whom we affect by our deeds.  It comes down to the fact that there are long-term consequences involved, all of which impact ourselves and others.  The recurring theme:  we are all connected.

        As human beings with the powers of reason, choice, and conscience, impulsive behavior that hurts others is not considered mitigating circumstances by Adonai.  In order to help ourselves to be the best versions of ourselves, we should take steps to do whatever is possible to keep ourselves out of situations and environments that lend themselves towards negative or evil behaviors.

        This includes the importance of the company we keep.  We must be mindful of the negative or evil behaviors of others, and how bad behavior, if excused or ignored, only leads towards further bad behavior.  Conversely, while the rewards may not be immediately perceived, good behavior towards others definitely comes back to us.  We also have example after example of our responsibility to remove ourselves from temptations, and are exhorted many times in this week’s parashah to remove evil from our midst.

        We are shown through the examples of the applications of Adonai’s laws how our actions and behaviors affect our families as well as our communities.  Adonai adds that even when a daughter gets married, the parent’s responsibility to protect her doesn’t end.  If the husband defames her character with libel, the parents of the wife must go to the elders and prove he is lying.  They are responsible for her virtue, and her standing in the community.  It is also in this Torah portion we are told of the responsibility of the parents to ensure their sons aren’t gluttons, liars, thieves, etc.  The parents must protect the community at large from behaviors which the son/s may not have done to others yet, but if they lie/cheat/steal from their parents, eventually they will do this to others too.  Therefore, the parents must stop this behavior when or if it surfaces.  We affect each other, and we need to protect and support one another.

        There is a lot of discussion this week about marriage and sexual temptations.  In the meat - figuratively speaking - of the sandwich whose bread is about war, you might be thinking.  I don’t believe this shocks anyone when I remind you the raping, exploiting, and otherwise mistreatment of women is all too common in times of war.  The father’s obligation to leave an inheritance to his children, and double the share to the firstborn son of the “despised” wife, if he is the father’s firstborn, teaches quite a lot. (The laws we are given in this parashah alone about marriage, sex, and children as products of marriage, and how all of this affects far more than simply the man and the woman, could fill pages upon pages of at least one book!  I urge you to take a closer look at this passage, and consider its wisdom and profundity.)  Life may be made up of lots of individual moments, but they are not exclusive to the particular time they happen.  Consequences are felt by all for years afterwards.

        To this end, marriage, divorce, children, parents, and courts are all brought into view this week by way of laws about rape, kidnapping, cheating, lying, stealing, and even money.  To quickly sum up the monetary parts, we are taught about different aspects of life relating to the poor and downtrodden, and how we must not, by our actions, put people in a position of desperation which can, as we know, all too often lead to criminal behaviors.

        This parashah delves deeper into the admonition to “love your neighbor as you love yourself” by reminding us how it affects quality of life for everyone.  It even ends by telling us to remember Amalek and how his group not only acted cowardly in going after the stragglers of the Israelite group, but to add insult to injury, they did it when we were “thirsty”, and in need of water.  It is because the Israelites worked together with each other and with Adonai, Amalek was defeated.

        This parashah focuses on such a wide variety of everyday life situations, and smoothly integrates Adonai’s expectations for us, and love for us.  In answer to a long debated question about just how much concern and involvement G-d would have for our individual lives, one need only take a cursory look at the details discussed in our parashah.  Believe it or not, it even tells us about carrying a stake, in case you need to defecate outside, so you can bury it!  A little surprising perhaps, that this is discussed in our Bible!  The fact that it is, along with so many other intricate and intimate details, including nocturnal emissions, speaks volumes about how concerned Adonai is with all aspects of our individual lives.

        Of course, we learn here too, we are to always be mindful of how all we do affects others, we are responsible for each other, and Adonai should never be far from our thoughts.  We are responsible for governing our own behaviors.  To this end, we are told a son should not be punished for his father’s crimes, and a father should not be punished for the crimes of his son - at least not by a court.  We battle our desires and environment every day, and sadly, we battle with each other too.

        Perhaps the most relevant lesson we should take from our parashah concerning the modern world we live in is to never place someone or cause someone to feel they are in a desperate situation, as it will lead to crime.  If you think large-scale, no, not every individual who is in dire need will resort to immoral behavior, but we all know that generally speaking, it will.  Adjoining this lesson, we learn to make certain no one feels alone and unloved with nowhere to turn.  Don’t turn your back and pretend not to see, and for G-d’s sake, protect and care for your children all of the days of your life, and leave your inheritance mostly to them.  We are responsible for what we do while alive, as well as for the effects our actions and inactions have on our generations.  Again, I ask you to study this parashah well as we near Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

        Shabbat Shalom,  I’d love to know what you think.