This Torah portion, Va’Etchanan, has it all. The Sh’ma. A repeat of the Ten Commandments. The question that our Haggadah ascribes to the wicked child (although nothing in the Torah portion indicates any negative connotations to the question ‘what do these laws, decrees and rules…mean to you?’). But the main concern and focus of the portion, as is the main theme and theology of the entire book of Deuteronomy, is the emphasis on strict adherence to God’s laws, in order to merit the fulfillment of the promise of the land of Israel.
The theology of Deuteronomy is difficult for Reform Jews to buy into, this idea of reward and punishment for adherence to or straying from obedience to the Law. Even by the time of Job, we Jews were wrestling with the reality that the most pious among us aren’t always the most prosperous and blessed and the wicked aren’t always poor or unhappy. But the underlying lesson, that a nation depends on the rule of law to be sustainable and just, is one we can recognize as eternally relevant and vital for all societies in all times.
-Rabbi Bonnie Margulis
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