Devarim: I Thought I Was The Favorite!

Sometimes, it feels like the divide among various religious groups is comparable to rivalries like the Bloods & Crips, Hatfields & McCoys, or Red Sox & Yankees. Everyone's gotta pick a side!! 

What I especially find distasteful and toxic about this concept in relation to religions, is that it perpetuates the notion that there is One Truth, or that God has One Chosen (and thus "Favorite") Group. Not only has this widely held principle caused wars, destruction, misery, and devastation, but it's also false. Look, the Torah does use the language of our having a special relationship with God... but it never purports that no one else can therefore EVER have an equally unique and loving bond with The Divine. It would be like saying that you and your mom are super-super close... which somehow (I guess) must mean that your mother couldn't care less about your siblings! Furthermore, even though the Torah uses terms that denote exclusivity, it is also a LONG book, with many contradictory messages. Sometimes we're told that preserving life is more important than anything EVER... while other times we're instructed to stone to death someone who gathers firewood on Shabbat! Viewing religions as bitter rivals is a choice, not a given... and I prefer the message in this week's Torah reading instead.

That last sentence may have been surprising to you. You see, Devarim/Deuteronomy is a long monologue - or even a soliloquy - by Moses. Standing at the border of the Promised Land, Moses makes a (proverbial) 

sweeping gesture with his hand, and preaches to the people that "all this will be yours." Doesn't he? Well, sort of. In fact, the text is fascinatingly specific about which parts of the land are indeed designated for the Israelites... and which parts are NOT. In chapter two, God instructs the people, through Moses, saying: "You will pass through the land of the descendants of Esau... be very careful not to provoke them, for I will not give you of their land, not even so much as a footprint's worth!" (2:4-5) So God's being pretty clear here. God has a relationship with the children of Esau AS WELL, so you have no right to dispossess them of their land. Ok, fine, but that's unique to Esau, right? Surely that's the exception to... Um, hang on. Four verses later, the text states: "Do not harass the Moabites or provoke them to war, for I will not give you and of their land as a possession." (v. 9)

There goes that theory... But we also know that Ruth, the great-grandmother of King David, would eventually come from the Moabites, so maybe... Wrong again? "Do not harass [the Ammonites] or start a fight with them, for I will not give any part of their land to you as a possession" (v. 19). Three different times, the text tells us that other peoples live in this region, and we are not to disturb them. What I find particularly striking, is how Moses speaks of God having relationships with those people, making promises to the various groups, and not wanting everyone in the entire region wiped out in deference to the Israelites. 

We mustn’t ever forget either side of this coin: We DO have a special relationship with God... but it is NOT - in any way - to the exclusion of God’s other relationships 

with basically everyone on earth. We should be proud Jews, wrestling audaciously with God and with our religious tradition, but we have no right to place ourselves above other people. Or see anyone else as “less than.” The Torah is even using the language of “footprint,” which might (should?) make us think of our own carbon footprint; the importance of not taking up more space or resources than we need. Sometimes it’s hard letting go of the notion of being “The Favorite.” But I think if we stop for a moment and examine the repercussions of such thinking, we’re actually much better off with a humbler approach. If it can work for good parenting everywhere, I’m confident God can love us all equally as well!

 

CC images in this blog post, courtesy of:

1. Pixabay

2. Pixabay

3. zeevveez on Flickr

4. Peakpx