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כי טוב לו עמך

For it is good for him with you. (15:16)

The Talmud Kiddushin 20a teaches that the eved Ivri, Jewish bondsman, enjoys the same standard of living as does his owner. Imcha b’maachal u’b’mishteh, “With you in food and drink. You should neither eat white bread while the eved eats black bread, nor should you sleep on cushions while he sleeps on straw.” This teaches us that one who purchases an eved is actually purchasing an adon, a master, for himself. Tosfos question why the bondsman becomes the master, on a higher level than the owner. Why does the owner not simply have equal status with the eved? Why would…

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כי עם קדוש אתה לד' אלקיך

For you are a holy people to Hashem, your G-d. (14:2)

Rashi explains that our personal kedushah, sanctity, is endowed to us by our forebears, our ancestors. In my opinion, herein lies one of the most inspiring principles of Judaism: we are descendants of a holy, illustrious lineage, and, as such, we have a responsibility to maintain this pedigree. This is perhaps one of the reasons that so many assimilated Jews have no impetus to return. They have no idea of their heritage, who they are, and from whom they have descended. The German reformers who initiated the break with traditional Judaism first erased Jewish history. They were acutely aware that,…

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אבד תאבדון את כל המקומות אשר עבדו שם הגוים אשר אתם ירשים אתם את אלהיהם על ההרים הרמים ועל הגבעות ותחת כל עץ רענן

You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations that you are driving away worshipped their gods: on the high mountains and on the hills, and under every leafy tree. (12:2)

The Torah instructs us to destroy the idols and the places where they were worshipped. Actually, halachah dictates that only the idol itself is destroyed – not the place upon which the idol was set. Furthermore, if a hill, mountain, or tree attached to the ground was designated as an idol, it did not have to be destroyed. What is the meaning of the Torah’s exhortation to “destroy all the places”? Horav Michel Feinstein, zl, explains that, obviously, idols have no power whatsoever. They consist of nothingness; they are simply a ruse to fool their worshippers. One of the methods…

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ראה אנכי נתן לפניכם היום ברכה וקללה

Behold! I set before you today the blessing and the curse. (11:26)

“It is either/or,” writes Targum Yonasan: Ana mesader kadameichou birkesa v’chilufta, “I arranged for you today a blessing and its opposite. Sforno writes, “Perceive that your affairs are not of an intermediate nature – as is the case concerning other nations. The fate of other nations is not marked by full prosperity or complete devastation – as is ours. Theirs is not a condition of extremes: of blessing and curse.” The lot of Hashem’s People, His children, is destined to be the most uncommon, in which there will be no middle course. We will either be blessed or cursed. Klal…

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