Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Subject: A Byte Of Torah I,XXXVII Eikev
From: ToraByte <CFRQC@CUNYVM.BITNET>
Date: Wednesday, 19 Aug 1992 23:57:20 EDT
Organization: City University of New York/ University Computer Center

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                                     A                                   BS"D
   Volume I                       B Y T E     The Electronic
     Issue XXXVII                   O F          Torah Weekly
                                 T O R A H
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                           Dvar Torah of the Week
                           ----------------------

"... on the land that He swore to your forefathers to give to you. Blessed
shall you be from all the nations. You will not have among you or your
animals, sterility or barreness. And Hashem will remove from you all
sickness; and all the evil diseases that afflicted Egypt, of which you know,
will not be placed within you, but they will be placed upon all your
enemies." (Deutoronomy 7:14-15)

 These verses are puzzling. What does the Bible mean by, "Blessed shall you
be from all the nations?" There are several possible meanings. One, the
Children of Israel will be blessed more than any other nation (Rabbeinu
Bachya). Two, all the nations will bless the Children of Israel. This can be
due to a couple of reasons. Either, they are astounded by the heights
reached by the Children of Israel (Rabbeinu Bachya), or they will be
thankful to the Children of Israel for bringing them blessings from the
Land of Israel (Keli Yakar).
 What does the Bible mean by, "and all the evil diseases that afflicted
Egypt"? Was that not included in the previous statement of "And Hashem
will remove from you all sickness"? These two phrases are actually
refering to two different types of sickness. "And Hashem will remove from
you all sickness" refers to normal types of sickness. However, Egypt was
afflicted with extraordinary types of sickness. Both of these will be
eliminated from afflicting the Children of Israel when they act
properly (Rabbeinu Bachya).


                             Mussar of the Week
                             ------------------

"... and Hashem our G-d will keep for you the Covenant and the kindness
that He swore to your forefathers." (Deutoronomy 7:12)

 This verse is mystifying. In what way will Hashem "keep" for us the
kindness that He swore to our forefathers? Hashem gave the Children of
Israel as a nation, three special traits that are unique: to be merciful,
to be easily embarassed, and to do kind deeds unto others (Midrash Rabah).
Hashem's way of "keeping" the kindness was to instill within us an inate
quality of being kind (Midrash Rabah). This can explain why the Jew is
sensitive to the suffering and difficulties of other people. For this, we
should be inspired to be thankful to Hashem who chose us from all the
other nations and bestowed us with these gifts.

Please direct any comments, questions, etc. back to me here at CFRQC@CUNYVM,
or on internet CFRQC@cunyvm.cuny.edu. Please pass it on to a friend. If you
want to subscribe, please send e-mail to listserv@israel.nysernet.org
with the msg: SUB bytetorah <first name> <last name>.  --Zev Itzkowitz
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Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish