Summary:
Following the giving of the 10 Commandments, our portion begins with interpersonal laws ranging from the treatment of slaves to the exhibition of kindness to strangers are listed. Cultic laws follow, including the commandment to observe the Sabbatical Year, a repetition of the Sabbath injunction, the first mention of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals, rules of sacrificial offerings, and the prohibition against boiling a kid in its mother's milk. Finally, the people assent to the covenant. Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel ascend the mountain and see God. Moses goes on alone and spends forty days on the mountain.
Lessons from our Haftarah – Jeremiah 34:8-22 and 33:25-26:
Can we bargain with God? We all have probably done it. If I get a good grade on this exam I promise to study in the future! If my loved one recovers from their illness, I’ll be a better person. How often when our condition is fulfilled, do we go back on our promise?
This is precisely what happens in our haftarah this week. In a moment of mortal danger to the people, as the Babylonians besieged the city of Jerusalem, the wealthy people of Israelite society promised to free their slaves. When the siege was actually lifted, when they sensed the danger had passed, they reverted to their former habits and enslaved their servants once again. Eventually, the Babylonians return and conquer the city and destroy the Temple.
For Jeremiah, when society silenced the voice of morality the future of the nation was clearly in danger. Jeremiah believed deeply that God and Israel play a joint role in history. Israel prospers not when she makes empty promises but instead when she follows divine law. Moses at Mt. Sinai gave the people a choice. Follow divine law and succeed. Contravene the divine will and suffer.
Rather than focus on the hollow promise of the people in our haftarah – a promise that led to an ultimate act of destruction, the haftarah ends with a hopeful promise. God pledges that the allegiance with the people of Israel will endure and that God will restore the fortunes of the nation, taking them back in love.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Don Goor