Deut. 7:12 - 11:25
Précis: Moses continues his recapitulation of the commandments to the people, reminding them to be obedient to God’s laws in their forthcoming struggle with the Canaanites. He describes in detail all of the blessings which God had already provided them, and reminds them to bless and thank God for the bounty they receive. On the other hand, they should follow the rebelliousness of their fathers, including the incident of the Golden Calf, punishment will occur.
Deut. 8:11-19 “Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God... Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery... You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ ... If you ever forget the Lord your God... I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed.”
What is the real challenge in keeping a free society? As is often the case, Rabbi Sacks had an insightful answer based on the verses above. (Rabbi Sacks Legacy, 8/122/24).
In these verses, Moses is speaking to a new generation about to enter the Promised Land. He is telling them, in effect, that if you thought the last 40 years of wandering in the desert was difficult, and that your problems will end when you conquer the Land, you better think again. That is when the real spiritual challenge will occur.
That real challenge, Sacks tells us, is not poverty but affluence, not insecurity but security, not slavery but freedom. Moses seems to intuit that when a civilization becomes great, its elites get used to luxury and comfort, and the people as a whole lose their social solidarity. Citing the great English philosopher Bertrand Russell, he notes that the two great peaks of civilization were reached in Greece and Renaissance Italy. But their greatness contained the seeds of their destruction: traditional moral restraints disappeared, and the anarchy and treachery which inevitably resulted made them collectively impotent, and they fell, to nations less “civilized” but not so destitute of social cohesion. The West rose to dominance because of its six “killer applications”: competition, science, democracy, medicine, consumerism and the Protestant work ethic. Today however it is losing belief in itself and is in danger of being overtaken by others.
All of this was said for the first time by Moses, and it forms a central argument of the book of D'varim. He warns that unless we are “careful” to follow God’s commandments, the rich will become self-indulgent and the poor will feel excluded. There will be social divisions, resentments and injustices. Society will no longer cohere.
How can we avoid such a fate, since all civilizations in recorded history have failed? (This seems to be an important question for 21st century America.) Simply, everyone must share the responsibility of society as a whole. Sacks lays out several rules which seem so applicable today, based on Moses’ teachings 3,000 years ago: Rule 1: Never forget where you came from, and establish courts and the rule of law; Rule 2: Never drift from your foundational principles and ideals, and recognize a power greater than ourselves; Rule 3: A society is as strong as its faith. Only faith can motivate us to act for the benefit of a future we will not live to see. Only faith can stop us from wrongdoing.
It is indeed a challenge for all of us to find the strength to follow these rules.
