Voices of WRJ: Va-et’chanan

This week’s Torah portion, Va-et’chanan, Deuteronomy 3:23 – 7:11, is replete with significance for us as Jews, including the Sh’ma, the V’ahavta and the Ten Commandments. In addition, this parasha sets out the Jewish argument for free will – human action will influence God’s reaction.  All of these precepts work together to assert that we are not God’s pawns, but rather work within God’s guidelines to create a moral world of peace and prosperity. In The Torah: A Women’s Commentary, “Frymer-Kensky noted that biblical monotheism thus comes with a mandate:  as God’s partners, it becomes humanity’s responsibility to maintain God’s universe through right behavior and social justice” (p. 1082). Girded with the dictates of Va-et’chanan we find instruction to approach our broken world – at this juncture, racism.  

The Sh’ma is a personal and global covenant between man and God. It states the singular relationship between each individual and God as it speaks to the universality of God to all humanity. “Hear O Israel, the Eternal is our God, the Eternal alone” (Deut 6:4). In The Torah A Modern Commentary Plaut states “…the One God was seen to imply one humanity and therefore demanded the brotherhood of all: it spoke of the world as the stage for the ethical life and linked monotheism and morality” (p. 1210). We are in this life together, all of us, with the singular God.

The Ten Commandments signifies the terms of the relationship between mankind and the sole God while serving as a social contract defining people’s relationships with one another – monotheistic morality. This is command and consequence; we are actively engaged in outcomes. As a social contract, the Ten Commandments gives us, as Reform Jews, instruction to embrace equality and social justice. In discussion of Sabbath observance, we are reminded that we were liberated from Egyptian slavery and we must be mindful of all who are now slaves, and treat them fairly. Plaut states, “Week after week, the humanity of the servant is brought into the focus of social conscience. In consequence Judaism became a religion in which social justice, equity and decency occupied a central position” (The Torah: A Modern Commentary, p. 1208). As contemporary Jews, the Ten Commandments is our call to action and negates complacency.

In the V’ahavta, an extension of the Sh’ma, we are instructed how to be mindful of the Sh’ma and the Ten Commandments and we are told how to observe these dictates ourselves and to teach them to our progeny. And we have! From generation to generation, the Sh’ma, the Ten Commandments, and the V’ahavta are the cornerstones of our faith. Additionally, we must teach our children, and they must teach their children, that equality and social justice are implicit values of our faith and must be fought for and guarded eternally.

This is our agreement with God: each of us shall employ our free will and respond to the spirit of Va-et’chanan to fight and eradicate the racism we have not yet excised from our collective and individual consciences. This is an internal as well as external battle. Racism is corrosive for both the racist and the victim of racism. The destructive and dehumanizing manifestations of racism demand that we embrace the universality of the Sh’ma while respecting the implicit need for and benefits of the social contract of the Ten Commandments. We must unite with those who share our world to end racism, combat inequality and promote justice.

Karen Sim is a WRJ Board member and WRJ Central District Executive Board member. She serves on the URJ Board and as a member of the Board of Overseers for the HUC-JIR Central Region. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio and is a member of Isaac M. Wise Temple and Isaac M. Wise Temple Sisterhood.