Torah Tips for a Tough Text

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Parashat Va’etchanan, Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11

David Wein, Tikvat Israel Messianic Synagogue, Richmond, VA

I’ve been dialoguing with a Jewish friend of mine who is reading through the Torah and asking me questions. Recently, he asked me something I’ve heard other folks ask as well, “What does it mean that the Jewish people are chosen? Isn’t that kind of self-centered?” In response, I thought of Sha’ul’s encouragement to the community in Corinth: 

For you see your calling, brothers and sisters, that not many are wise according to human standards, not many are powerful, and not many are born well. Yet God chose the foolish things of the world so He might put to shame the wise; and God chose the weak things of the world so He might put to shame the strong; and God chose the lowly and despised things of the world, the things that are as nothing, so He might bring to nothing the things that are—so that no human might boast before God. (1 Cor. 1:26-29, TLV)

Paul is suggesting that chosenness is a matter of God’s favor on the “weak” who are strong in Hashem. But I wanted to give my friend an equivalent encouragement from the Hebrew Scriptures, so I suggested he read Deuteronomy 7, which is in this week’s parashah:

It is not because you are more numerous than all the peoples that Adonai set His love on you and chose you—for you are the least of all peoples. Rather, because of His love for you and His keeping the oath He swore to your fathers, Adonai brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (Deut 7:7-8)

“Same idea,” I thought. “This will be encouraging,” I thought. Israel was chosen not because they were great and mighty but because they were weak and through them God’s redemption would unfold. However, I forgot about the verses right before this passage:

When Adonai your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out many nations before you—the Hittite and the Girgashite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you—and Adonai your God gives them over to you and you strike them down, then you are to utterly destroy them. You are to make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. You are not to intermarry with them—you are not to give your daughter to his son, or take his daughter for your son. For he will turn your son away from following Me to serve other gods. Then the anger of Adonai will be kindled against you, and He will swiftly destroy you. Instead, you are to deal with them like this: tear down their altars, smash their pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their carved images with fire. For you are a holy people to Adonai your God—from all the peoples on the face of the earth, Adonai your God has chosen you to be His treasured people.

My friend came back to me, after my recommendation:

“I read Deuteronomy 7.”  

“So, what’d you think?” I inquired.

“You know, it’s this sort of thing that turned me off from Judaism and the Torah many years ago.” (It was here that I remembered the bit in this chapter about utterly destroying those seven nations.) 

“Ah, yes,” I stammered.

“Why does God say to destroy these other people in the land?”

“Well, I can offer some explanation now, but let me do some research and get back to you on that.”

So, as an open letter to my friend, here is the result of that research, starting with seven interpretive Torah tips for tough texts:

  1. Look to the immediate context 

  2. Look to the halakhah 

  3. Look to the morality in Torah 

  4. Look to the ancient near east worldview

  5. Look to the Shema 

  6. Look to the messianic era

  7. Look to Yeshua

First, let’s look to the immediate context. Notice in the original text, that it has already begun to be interpreted. The interpretation of the “destruction” (kherem in Hebrew) comes as “don’t intermarry with them” and “get rid of their high places and idols.” In other words, it’s a caution against idolatry. Intermarriage seems to function well in the Scriptures (as with Ruth) when the non-Israelite spouse clings to the God of Israel, and the people of Israel. Otherwise, as with King Solomon, it can lead to idolatry. 

This brings us to halakhah, which is tip number two. First, how is this interpreted later in the Scriptures themselves? The theologian Matthew Lynch provides this example:

In the book of Kings, we read how the High Priest Hilkiah found the long lost ‘Book of the Law’ in the Temple, which most think is the book of Deuteronomy. When Josiah heard the book read, he was horrified that he and the people were not in compliance. 

So, Josiah went on a rampage, tearing down every known place of illicit worship. The narrator of Kings makes a point of the fact that Josiah carried out all the commands of Deuteronomy 7:5 (the kherem text), but not against Canaanite peoples. Instead, he carried out kherem against (Israelite!) places of worship.

In other words, Josiah carried out the kherem command of Deuteronomy 7:5, yet without exterminating entire people groups. He didn’t go hunting for Hivites and Girgashites, but instead, understood the true sense of the law by seeking radical differentiation from all forms of “Canaanite” religion.

Later halakhah within Judaism follows the logic of the righteous king, Josiah: worshiping the God of Israel alone.  

This brings us to tip number three: look to the morality in Torah. The general thrust of the ethic in Torah is very clear on this matter: be kind to the stranger, because you were strangers in Egypt. The laws and counsel about compassion for the ger (resident immigrant) abound, and were probably used as the backbone for Paul’s counsel and encouragement towards non-Jews in the body of Messiah. These are part of the immutable laws (covenant) that is binding on Israel for all time, always. The kherem instructions are always bound by a specific circumstance; not so with the covenantal laws.  

Would that I could elaborate on tips four through seven, but this drash has a word limit, so I suppose for the rest of the story, you’ll have to listen to my sermon this week in person, via zoom, or later on the Tikvat Israel podcast (available wherever fine podcasts are downloaded). Shameless plug notwithstanding, I will close with a bit of tip number seven. Some words from Yeshua, the living Torah, on how we should treat our enemies:

You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. (Matthew 5:43-45)

Russ Resnik