"HaShem will drive out all these nations from before you"

(Deuteronomy 11:23)
Av 22, 5775/August 7, 2015

Three times in this week's Torah reading of Eikev, Moshe warns the children of Israel against falling prey to the allure of the idolatries she will confront when entering and settling the land of Israel. In verse twenty five of chapter seven (Deuteronomy), Israel is warned against coveting the silver or gold images of idolatry, "lest you be ensnared by it, for it is an abomination to HaShem, your G-d." Again, in chapter eight, verse nineteen, Israel is told she "will surely perish," should she be seduced by idolatry. Finally, in chapter eleven, verse sixteen, Israel is told, "Beware, lest your heart be misled, and you turn away and worship strange gods and prostrate yourselves before them."

Many more verses are concerned with instructing Israel to follow G-d's commandments, for adherence to the Torah itself is Israel's sole guarantee and Divine assurance of peace and blessing in the land. If Israel heeds Moshe's exhortations, and faithfully fulfills the Torah commandments in the land, then are the three stern admonitions necessary? Can an individual immerse himself fully in performing G-d's commandments yet still fall prey to idolatry? Can an entire nation?

Today's idolatries come in many different guises. Gone are the days of stone and wooden statues. Today's idolatries come in the form of politically correct catechisms, pseudo-moralities, mulitcultural gospels, and popular doctrines of moral equivalency. Today's pagan values are enshrined in the temples of the UN, the EU, and the International Court of Justice. Today's pagan preachers are political pundits and journalists, heads of phoney human rights organizations, self righteous sovereigns and apologists for atrocities committed in the name of Islam.

Many in Israel today have indeed succumbed to these idolatrous enticements and, instead of possessing the land of Israel according to the formula prescribed by Moshe: adherence to Torah, steadfastness in the battle against her enemies, and an uncompromising love and fidelity to the land, find themselves steadily retreating from the heart and soul of the living Torah, while still going through the external motions of Torah life.

Moshe knew four thousand years ago that the Torah received at Sinai would not meet the criteria of the twenty first century doctrine of the politically correct. He warns repeatedly in the words of this week's parashat Eikev against the temptation to "look good" in the eyes of the nations, or to adopt non-Torah systems of weights and measures in determining the justice or the justification of conquering, possessing, occupying, and settling the land of Israel, and doing so for the sole purpose of creating within the land of Israel a society based on the way of Torah.

The more Israel tries to accommodate the contemporary idolatries, the more she is rejected by them and the more she is rebuked by G-d . In the ultimate choice between good and bad, right and wrong, allegiance to G-d and Torah, or not, the spurious notion of "politically correct" does not exist. So be it. Eikev closes with words so thoroughly "incorrect" in the eyes and ears of today's idolaters, but so absolutely correct for Israel to truly possess the land and fulfill her historical mission of bringing the knowledge and the intimate presence of G-d to all mankind:

"For if you keep all these commandments which I command you to do them, to love HaShem, your G-d, to walk in all His ways, and to cleave to Him, then HaShem will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will possess nations greater and stronger than you. Every place upon which the soles of your feet will tread, will be yours: from the desert and the Lebanon, from the river, the Euphrates River, and until the western sea, will be your boundary. No man will stand up before you; HaShem your God will cast the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land upon which you tread, as He spoke to you." (ibid 11:22-25)

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