Eikev

Eikev, Ekev, Ekeb, or Eqeb (עקב — Hebrew for “if [you follow],” the second word, and the first distinctive word, in the parshah) is the 46th weekly Torah portion (parshah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the third in the book of Deuteronomy. It comprises Jews in the Diaspora generally read it in August.
==Summary==
===Blessings of obedience===
Moses told the Israelites that if they obeyed God's rules, God would faithfully maintain the covenant, would bless them with fertility and agricultural productivity, and would ward off sickness. () 
===Taking the land===
Moses directed the Israelites to destroy all the peoples whom God delivered to them, showing no pity and not worshiping their gods. () Moses told the Israelites not to fear these nations because they were numerous, for the Israelites had but to recall what God did to Pharaoh and the Egyptians and the wonders by which God liberated them. () God would do the same to the peoples whom they feared, and would send a plague against them, too. () God would dislodge those peoples little by little, so that the wild beasts would not take over the land. () Moses directed the Israelites to burn the images of their gods, not to covet nor keep the silver and gold on them, nor to bring an abhorrent thing into their houses. () 
God made the Israelites travel the long way in the wilderness for 40 years to test them with hardships to learn what was in their hearts and whether they would keep God's commandments. () God subjected them to hunger and then gave them manna to teach them that man does not live on bread alone, but on anything that God decrees. () Their clothes did not wear out, nor did their feet swell for 40 years. () God disciplined them as a man disciplines his son. () 
Moses told the Israelites that God was bringing them into a good land, where they might eat food without end, and thus when they had eaten their fill, they were to give thanks to God for the good land that God had given them. () Moses warned the Israelites not to forget God, not to violate God's commandments, and not to grow haughty and believe that their own power had won their wealth, but to remember that God gave them the power to prosper. () Moses warned that if they forgot God and followed other gods, then they would certainly perish like the nations that God was going to displace from the land. () Moses warned the Israelites not to believe that God had enabled them to possess the land because of their virtue, for God was dispossessing the land's current inhabitants because of those nations’ wickedness and to fulfill the oath that God had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ()
===The golden calf===
Moses exhorted the Israelites to remember how they had provoked God to anger in the wilderness from the day that they left Egypt until that day. () At Horeb they so provoked God that God was angry enough to have destroyed them. () Moses ascended the mountain, stayed on the mountain 40 days and nights, and ate no bread and drank no water. () At the end of the 40 days, God gave Moses two stone tablets that God had inscribed with the words and the covenant that God had addressed to the Israelites. () God told Moses to hurry down, for the people whom Moses brought out of Egypt had acted wickedly and had made a molten image. () God told Moses that God was inclined to destroy them and make of Moses a nation far more numerous than they. () Moses started down the mountain with the two tablets in his hands, when he saw how the Israelites had made themselves a molten calf. () Moses flung the two tablets away, smashing them before their eyes, and threw himself down before God, fasting another 40 days and nights. () And God gave heed to Moses. () God was angry enough with Aaron to have destroyed him, so Moses also interceded for Aaron. () Moses burned the calf, broke it to bits, ground it into dust, and threw its dust into the brook that came down from the mountain. ()
Moses reminded the Israelites how they provoked God at Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah. () And when God sent them from Kadesh-barnea to take possession of the land, they flouted God's command and did not put their trust in God. () 
 
When Moses lay prostrate before God those 40 days, because God was determined to destroy the Israelites, Moses prayed to God not to annihilate God's own people, whom God freed from Egypt, but to give thought to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and ignore the Israelites’ sinfulness, else the Egyptians would say that God was powerless to bring them into the land that God had promised them. () And God agreed not to destroy them. ()
Thereupon God told Moses to carve out two tablets of stone like the first, come up to the mountain, and make an ark of wood. () God inscribed on the tablets the Ten Commandments that were on the first tablets that Moses had smashed, and Moses came down from the mountain and deposited the tablets in the ark. ()
===Aaron’s death===
The Israelites marched to Moserah, where Aaron died and was buried, and his son Eleazar became priest in his stead. () From there they marched to Gudgod, and on to Jotbath. () 
===Levites’ duties===
God set apart the Levites to carry the ark of the covenant, to stand in attendance upon the Tabernacle, and to bless in God's Name, and that was why the Levites were to receive no portion of the land, as God was their portion. ()
===Exhortations to serve God===
Moses exhorted the Israelites to revere God, to walk only in God's paths, to love God, to serve God with all their heart and soul, and to keep God's commandments. () Moses noted that although heaven and earth belong to God, God was drawn to love their fathers, so that God chose the Israelites from among all peoples. () Moses described God as supreme, great, mighty, and awesome, showing no favor and taking no bribe, but upholding the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and befriending the stranger. () Moses thus instructed the Israelites to befriend the stranger, for they were strangers in Egypt. () Moses exhorted the Israelites to revere God, worship only God, and swear only by God's name, for God was their glory, who wrought for them marvelous deeds, and made them as numerous as the stars. ()
Moses exhorted the Israelites to love God and always keep God's commandments. () Moses asked the Israelites to note that they themselves witnessed the signs that God performed in Egypt against Pharaoh, what God did to Egypt's army, how God rolled upon them the waters of the Sea of Reeds, what God did for them in the wilderness, and what God did to Dathan and Abiram when the earth swallowed them. () Moses instructed them therefore to keep all the law so that they might have the strength to enter and possess the land and long endure on that land flowing with milk and honey. () Moses extolled the land as a land of hills and valleys that soaks up its water from the rains, a land that God looks after. () 
Then Moses told them words now found in the Shema prayer (): If the Israelites obeyed the commandments, loving God and serving God with heart and soul, God would grant the rain in season and they would gather their grain, wine, and oil. () God would provide grass for their cattle and the Israelites would eat their fill. () Moses warned them not to be lured away to serve other gods, for God's anger would flare up against them, God would suspend the rain, and they would soon perish. () Moses urged them to impress God's words upon their heart, bind them as a sign on their hands, let them serve as a symbol on their foreheads, teach them to your children, and recite them when they stayed at home and when they were away, when they lay down and when they got up. () Moses instructed them to inscribe God's words on the doorposts of their houses and on their gates, so that they and their children might endure in the land that God swore to their fathers as long as there is a heaven over the earth. () 
Moses promised that if they faithfully kept all the law, loving God, walking in all God's ways, and holding fast to God, then God would dislodge the nations then in the land, and every spot on which their feet tread would be theirs, and their territory would extend from the wilderness to Lebanon and from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean Sea. ()
==In inner-biblical interpretation==
===Deuteronomy chapter 9===
1 Kings reports a parallel story of golden calves. King Jeroboam of the northern Kingdom of Israel made two calves of gold out of a desire to prevent the kingdom from returning to allegiance to the house of David and the southern Kingdom of Judah. () In Exodus
 the people said of the Golden Calf, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” Similarly, in Jeroboam told the people of his golden calves, “You have gone up long enough to Jerusalem; behold your gods, O Israel, that brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” Jeroboam set up one of the calves in Bethel, and the other in Dan, and the people went to worship before the calf in Dan. () Jeroboam made houses of high places, and made priests from people who were not Levites. () He ordained a feast like Sukkot on the fifteenth day of the eighth month (a month after the real Sukkot), and he went up to the altar at Bethel to sacrifice to the golden calves that he had made, and he installed his priests there. ()
==In classical rabbinic interpretation==
===Deuteronomy chapter 7===
A midrash likened the second word of eikev (“if” or “because”) to the word akeivai (“footsteps”) in Psalm which the midrash interpreted to mean: “Why should I fear in the days of evil? The iniquity of my footsteps encompasses me.” The midrash taught that people sometimes fail to observe minor commandments, thus trampling those commandments beneath their heels. The midrash thus taught that the Psalmist feared the day of judgment because he may have trampled minor commandments. (Midrash Tanhuma Devorim Eikev 1.)
Another midrash played on two possible meanings of the second word of eikev, “as a consequence” and “the end.” Israel asked God when God would grant reward for the observance of commandments. God replied that when people observe commandments, they enjoy some fruits now, but God will give them their full reward in the end, after death. (Deuteronomy Rabbah 3:1.)
Another midrash played on two possible meanings of the second word of eikev, “as a consequence” and “heel.” The midrash interpreted the words “upon Edom I cast my shoe” in and to mean that God says that when Israel repents, then God will tread with God's heel, so to speak, on Israel's enemy Edom. And the midrash taught, in the words of that “it shall come to pass, because (eikev) you hearken.” (Deuteronomy Rabbah 3:2.)
Rabbi Samuel bar Nahmani interpreted the words “that the Lord your God shall keep for you” in teaching that all the good that Israel enjoys in this world results from the blessings with which Balaam blessed Israel, but the blessings with which the Patriarchs blessed Israel are reserved for the time to come, as signified by the words, “that the Lord your God shall keep for you.” (Deuteronomy Rabbah 3:4.)
thumb|right|150px|Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah) (painting by Simeon Solomon)
Rabbi Bibi ben Giddal said that Simeon the Just taught that the law prohibited a Jew from robbing a non-Jew, although a Jew could take possession of a non-Jew's lost article. Rav Huna read to prohibit a Jew from robbing a non-Jew, because provided that the Israelites were to take from the enemies that God would deliver to them in time of war, thus implying that the Israelites could not take from non-Jews in time of peace, when God had not delivered them into the Israelites’ hands. (Babylonian Talmud Bava Kamma 113b.)
Chapter 3 of tractate Avodah Zarah in the Mishnah, Jerusalem Talmud, and Babylonian Talmud interpreted the laws of not deriving benefit from idols in (Mishnah Avodah Zarah 3:1–10; Jerusalem Talmud Avodah Zarah ch. 3; Babylonian Talmud Avodah Zarah 40b–49b.)
The Rabbis told the story that God, Daniel, and Nebuchadnezzar conspired to keep Daniel out of the fiery furnace. God said: “Let Daniel depart, lest people say that Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were delivered through Daniel’s merit instead of their own.” Daniel said: “Let me go, so that I will not become a fulfillment of the words (in ), ‘the graven images of their gods you shall burn with fire.’” And Nebuchadnezzar said: “Let Daniel depart, lest people say that the king has burned his god in fire.” (Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 93a.)
The Gemara deduced from the command of “you shall not bring an abomination into your house, lest you be a cursed thing like it,” that whatever one might bring into being out of an idolatrous thing would have the same cursed status. (Babylonian Talmud Kiddushin 58a.)
Rabbi Johanan in the name of Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai noted the word “abomination” in common in both and Proverbs and deduced that people who are haughty of spirit are as though they worshiped idols. (Babylonian Talmud Sotah 4b.)
thumb|350px|left|The Seven Species
===Deuteronomy chapter 8===
The Mishnah taught that first fruits were brought only from the Seven Species (Shiv'at Ha-Minim) that noted to praise the Land of Israel: wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olive-oil, and date-honey. But first fruits could not be brought from dates grown on hills, or from valley-fruits, or from olives that were not of the choice kind. (Mishnah Bikkurim 1:3.)
Rabbi Awira told — sometimes in the name of Rabbi Ammi, and sometimes in the name of Rabbi Assi — that the angels asked God whether God was not showing favor to Israel. And God asked the angels how God could not show favor to Israel, when required them to bless God when they had eaten and were satisfied, but the Israelites bless God even when they have eaten only the quantity of an olive or an egg. (Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 20b.)
Rabbi Johanan deduced from that people who are haughty of spirit are as though they had denied the fundamental principle of God's existence. (Babylonian Talmud Sotah 4b.)
===Deuteronomy chapter 9===
A Baraita taught that because of God's displeasure with the Israelites, the north wind did not blow on them in any of the 40 years during which they wandered in the wilderness. Rashi attributed God's displeasure to the Golden Calf, although the Tosafot attributed it to the incident of the spies in Numbers
 (Babylonian Talmud Yevamot 72a.)
A midrash explained why Moses broke the stone tablets. When the Israelites committed the sin of the Golden Calf, God sat in judgment to condemn them, as says, “Let Me alone, that I may destroy them,” but God had not yet condemned them. So Moses took the tablets from God to appease God's wrath. The midrash compared the act of Moses to that of a king's marriage-broker. The king sent the broker to secure a wife for the king, but while the broker was on the road, the woman corrupted herself with another man. The broker (who was entirely innocent) took the marriage document that the king had given the broker to seal the marriage and tore it, reasoning that it would be better for the woman to be judged as an unmarried woman than as a wife. (Exodus Rabbah 43:1.)
===Deuteronomy chapter 10===
Rabbi Hanina deduced from that everything is in the hand of Heaven except the fear of Heaven, for says: “What does the Lord your God ask of you, but only to fear the Lord your God.” The Gemara asked whether the fear of Heaven was such a little thing that says “only.” Rabbi Hanina said in the name Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai that God has in God's treasury nothing but a store of the fear of Heaven, as Isaiah says: “The fear of the Lord is His treasure,” and thus the fear of Heaven must be a great thing. The Gemara responded that for Moses, the fear of Heaven was a small thing, for he had it. Rabbi Hanina illustrated with a parable: If a man is asked for a big article and he has it, it seems like a small article to him; if he is asked for a small article and he does not have it, it seems like a big article to him. (Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 33b.)
Rav Awira (or some say Rabbi Joshua ben Levi) taught that the Evil Inclination has seven names. God called it “Evil” in Genesis
 saying, “the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” Moses called it “the Uncircumcised” in saying, “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart.” David called it “Unclean” in Solomon called it “the Enemy” in Isaiah called it “the Stumbling-Block” in Ezekiel called it “Stone” in Ezekiel and Joel called it “the Hidden One” in Joel (Babylonian Talmud Sukkah 52a.)
Rabbi Joshua ben Levi said that the men of the Great Assembly were so called because they restored the crown of the divine attributes — the enumeration of God's praise — to its ancient completeness. For in Moses called God “the great, the mighty, and the awesome.” Then when Jeremiah saw foreigners despoiling the Temple, he asked where God's awesome deeds were, and thus in Jeremiah he omitted “awesome.” And then when Daniel saw foreigners enslaving the Israelites, he asked where God's mighty deeds were, and thus in Daniel he omitted the word “mighty.” But the men of the Great Assembly came and said that these circumstances showed God's mighty deeds, because God suppressed God's wrath, extending longsuffering to the wicked. And these circumstances showed God's awesome powers, for but for the fear of God, how could the single nation of Israel survive among the many nations. The Gemara asked how Jeremiah and Daniel could alter words established by Moses. Rabbi Eleazar said that since Jeremiah and Daniel knew that God insists on truth, they did not want to ascribe false attributions to God. (Babylonian Talmud Yoma 69b.)
The Gemara deduced from that it is a positive commandment to fear the Lord. (Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 56a.)
A midrash taught that the Israelites were counted on ten occasions: (1) when they went down to Egypt (); (2) when they went up out of Egypt (); (3) at the first census in Numbers (); (4) at the second census in Numbers (); (5) once for the banners; (6) once in the time of Joshua for the division of the land of Israel; (7) once by Saul (1 Samuel ); (8) a second time by Saul (); (9) once by David (); and once in the time of Ezra (Ezra ). (Midrash Tanhuma Ki Sisa 9.)
===Deuteronomy chapter 11===
The first three chapters of tractate Berakhot in the Mishnah, Jerusalem Talmud, and Babylonian Talmud and the first two chapters of tractate Berakhot in the Tosefta interpreted the laws of the Shema in and (Mishnah Berakhot 1:1–3:6; Tosefta Berakhot 1:1–2:21; Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 1a–42b; Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 2a–26a.)
The Gemara reported a number of Rabbis’ reports of how the Land of Israel did indeed flow with “milk and honey,” as described in and 17, and Leviticus
 and and and 15, and Once when Rami bar Ezekiel visited Bnei Brak, he saw goats grazing under fig trees while honey was flowing from the figs, and milk dripped from the goats mingling with the fig honey, causing him to remark that it was indeed a land flowing with milk and honey. Rabbi Jacob ben Dostai said that it is about three miles from Lod to Ono, and once he rose up early in the morning and waded all that way up to his ankles in fig honey. Resh Lakish said that he saw the flow of the milk and honey of Sepphoris extend over an area of sixteen miles by sixteen miles. Rabbah bar bar Hana said that he saw the flow of the milk and honey in all the Land of Israel and the total area was equal to an area of twenty-two parasangs by six parasangs. (Babylonian Talmud Ketubot 111b–12a.)
==Commandments==
According to Sefer ha-Chinuch, there are 6 positive and 2 negative commandments in the parshah.
*Not to derive benefit from any ornamentation of an idol () 
*Not to take any object from idolatry into our possession, to derive benefit from it () 
*The precept of blessing the Almighty for the food we receive () 
*The precept of love for converts to Judaism () 
*The precept of reverent awe for the Eternal Lord () 
*The precept of prayer to the Almighty () 
*The mitzvah of associating with Torah scholars and adhering to them () 
*That whoever needs to take an oath should swear by the Name of the Eternal Lord () 
(Sefer HaHinnuch: The Book of [Mitzvah] Education. Translated by Charles Wengrov, 4:304–57. Jerusalem: Feldheim Pub., 1988. ISBN 0-87306-457-7.)
==Haftarah==
The haftarah for the parshah is The haftarah is the second in the cycle of seven haftarot of consolation after Tisha B'Av, leading up to Rosh Hashanah.
 
==In the liturgy==
In the Blessing after Meals (Birkat Hamazon), Jews sometimes quote the Scriptural basis for the Blessing after Meals, immediately before the invitation (zimun), and quote it again at the close of the second blessing (for the Land of Israel). (Menachem Davis. The Schottenstein Edition Siddur for the Sabbath and Festivals with an Interlinear Translation, 159, 165. Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 2002. ISBN 1-57819-697-3.)
The opening sentence of the Amidah quotes Moses's characterization of God in as “the great, the mighty, and the awesome.” (Reuven Hammer. Or Hadash: A Commentary on Siddur Sim Shalom for Shabbat and Festivals, 35a–b. New York: The Rabbinical Assembly, 2003. ISBN 0-916219-20-8.)
The Passover Haggadah, in the magid section of the Seder, quotes (Menachem Davis. The Interlinear Haggadah: The Passover Haggadah, with an Interlinear Translation, Instructions and Comments, 44. Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 2005. ISBN 1-57819-064-9. Joseph Tabory. JPS Commentary on the Haggadah: Historical Introduction, Translation, and Commentary, 90. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2008. ISBN 978-0-8276-0858-0.)
 is the second of three blocks of verses in the Shema, a central prayer in Jewish prayer services. Jews combine , and to form the core of K’riat Shema, recited in the evening (Ma’ariv) and morning (Shacharit) prayer services. (Hammer, at 30–31, 112–13, 282–83.)
==Further reading==
The parshah has parallels or is discussed in these sources:
===Biblical===
* (blessings of health and fertility); (driving out the Canaanites); (the Golden Calf); 
* 
* (blessings).
*
* (circumcise your heart).
* (God loves); (God's loving kindness); (remember God's wonders); (their idols became a snare); (God led the people through the wilderness); (God loves).
===Early nonrabbinic===
*Pliny the Elder. Natural History 26:3, 5. 1st Century C.E. (Egyptian diseases).
*Josephus. Antiquities of the Jews 4:8:2–3. Circa 93–94. Reprinted in, e.g., The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged, New Updated Edition. Translated by William Whiston. Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Pub., 1987. ISBN 0-913573-86-8.
*Matthew (not live by bread alone).
===Classical rabbinic===
*Mishnah: Berakhot 1:1–3:6; Bikkurim 1:3; Sotah 7:8; Avodah Zarah 1:9, 3:1–10; Tamid 5:1. Land of Israel, circa 200 C.E. Reprinted in, e.g., The Mishnah: A New Translation. Translated by Jacob Neusner, 3–7, 167, 458–59, 662, 664–67, 869. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988. ISBN 0-300-05022-4.
*Sifre to Deuteronomy 37:1–52:1. Land of Israel, circa 250–350 C.E. Reprinted in, e.g., Sifre to Deuteronomy: An Analytical Translation. Translated by Jacob Neusner. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1987. ISBN 1-55540-145-7.
*Jerusalem Talmud: Berakhot 1a–42b, 72b, 88b; Peah 23a; Kilayim 30a; Sheviit 42b; Challah 18b; Sukkah 20b; Avodah Zarah ch. 3. Land of Israel, circa 400 C.E. Reprinted in, e.g., Talmud Yerushalmi. Edited by Chaim Malinowitz, Yisroel Simcha Schorr, and Mordechai Marcus, vols. 1–3, 5, 6b, 11, 22. Brooklyn: Mesorah Pubs., 2005–2009.
*Babylonian Talmud: Berakhot 2a–26a, 32a–b, 33b–34a, 35a–b, 36b–37a, 38a, 40a–41b, 44a, 48b, 51b, 55a; Shabbat 31b, 32b, 82b, 105b, 108a; Eruvin 4a; Pesachim 36a, 49b, 53a, 87b, 101b, 104a, 119a; Yoma 3b, 11b, 69b, 72b, 74b, 75b, 79b, 81b; Sukkah 5b, 26b, 35a, 52a; Rosh Hashanah 7a, 8a–b, 17b; Taanit 2a, 3b–4a, 6a–b, 7b, 9b, 26b; Megillah 19b, 21a, 25a, 31a; Chagigah 12a–b; Yevamot 78b; Ketubot 47b, 111a; Nedarim 7b, 32a, 38a; Sotah 4b–5a, 11a, 33a; Gittin 62a; Kiddushin 29b–30b, 36a, 58a; Bava Kamma 113b; Bava Batra 9b, 14b, 19a, 21a, 110b, 121a; Sanhedrin 4b, 56a, 90b, 93a, 99a, 110a, 113a; Makkot 7b; Shevuot 30b; Avodah Zarah 15a, 21a, 40b–49b, 52a, 54b; Horayot 13a; Zevachim 16a; Menachot 28b, 31b, 37b, 43b, 84a–b, 99a; Chullin 84b, 120b, 135b, 140a; Bekhorot 6b, 44b; Arakhin 4a; Temurah 3b, 28b, 30b; Niddah 16b, 70b. Babylonia, 6th Century. Reprinted in, e.g., Talmud Bavli. Edited by Yisroel Simcha Schorr, Chaim Malinowitz, and Mordechai Marcus, 72 vols. Brooklyn: Mesorah Pubs., 2006.
===Medieval===
*Rashi. Commentary. Deuteronomy 7–11. Troyes, France, late 11th Century. Reprinted in, e.g., Rashi. The Torah: With Rashi’s Commentary Translated, Annotated, and Elucidated. Translated and annotated by Yisrael Isser Zvi Herczeg, 5:83–118. Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 1997. ISBN 0-89906-030-7.
*Judah Halevi. Kuzari. 1:97; 2:14, 47–48, 56. Toledo, Spain, 1130–1140. Reprinted in, e.g., Jehuda Halevi. Kuzari: An Argument for the Faith of Israel. Intro. by Henry Slonimsky, 68–69, 89, 111–12, 119. New York: Schocken, 1964. ISBN 0-8052-0075-4.
*Benjamin of Tudela. The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela. Spain, 1173. Reprinted in The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela: Travels in the Middle Ages. Introductions by Michael A. Singer, Marcus Nathan Adler, A. Asher, 91. Malibu, Calif.: Joseph Simon, 1983. ISBN 0-934710-07-4. (Anak).
*Zohar 3:270a–. Spain, late 13th Century. Reprinted in, e.g., The Zohar. Translated by Harry Sperling and Maurice Simon. 5 vols. London: Soncino Press, 1934.
===Modern===
*Thomas Hobbes. Leviathan, 2:26; 3:40; 4:45. England, 1651. Reprint edited by C. B. Macpherson, 319, 504–05, 672, 676–77. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Classics, 1982. ISBN 0140431950.
*Samson Raphael Hirsch. Horeb: A Philosophy of Jewish Laws and Observances. Translated by Isidore Grunfeld, 35–43, 47–50, 175–80, 187–89, 376–77, 406–16, 448–52, 471–78, 525–30, 544–47, 565–67. London: Soncino Press, 1962. Reprinted 2002 ISBN 0-900689-40-4. Originally published as Horeb, Versuche über Jissroel’s Pflichten in der Zerstreuung. Germany, 1837.
*Abraham Isaac Kook. The Moral Principles. Early 20th Century. Reprinted in Abraham Isaac Kook: the Lights of Penitence, the Moral Principles, Lights of Holiness, Essays, Letters, and Poems. Translated by Ben Zion Bokser, 176. Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press 1978. ISBN 0-8091-2159-X.
*Thomas Mann. Joseph and His Brothers. Translated by John E. Woods, 788. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005. ISBN 1-4000-4001-9. Originally published as Joseph und seine Brüder. Stockholm: Bermann-Fischer Verlag, 1943.
*Abraham Joshua Heschel. Man's Quest for God: Studies in Prayer and Symbolism, 36. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1954.
*Bob Dylan. Gates of Eden. Columbia Records, 1965. (“Aladdin and his lamp sits with Utopian hermit monks side saddle on the Golden Calf”).
*Martin Buber. On the Bible: Eighteen studies, 80–92. New York: Schocken Books, 1968.
*Moshe Weinfeld. Deuteronomy 1-11, 5:357–455. New York: Anchor Bible, 1991. ISBN 0-385-17593-0.
*Joel Roth. “Homosexuality.” New York: Rabbinical Assembly, 1992. EH 24.1992b. Reprinted in Responsa: 1991–2000: The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative Movement. Edited by Kassel Abelson and David J. Fine, 613, 615. New York: Rabbinical Assembly, 2002. ISBN 0-916219-19-4. (interpreting the term “abhorrence”).
*Elliot N. Dorff. “Artificial Insemination, Egg Donation and Adoption.” New York: Rabbinical Assembly, 1994. EH 1:3.1994. Reprinted in Responsa: 1991–2000: The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative Movement. Edited by Kassel Abelson and David J. Fine, 461, 462, 464. New York: Rabbinical Assembly, 2002. ISBN 0-916219-19-4. (children among life's chief goods).
*Jacob Milgrom. “‘The Alien in Your Midst’: Every nation has its ger: the permanent resident. The Torah commands us, first, not to oppress the ger, and then to befriend and love him.” Bible Review. 11 (6) (Dec. 1995).
*Jeffrey H. Tigay. The JPS Torah Commentary: Deuteronomy: The Traditional Hebrew Text with the New JPS Translation, 88–115, 438–46. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1996. ISBN 0-8276-0330-4.
*Elliot N. Dorff. “Assisted Suicide.” New York: Rabbinical Assembly, 1997. YD 345.1997a. Reprinted in Responsa: 1991–2000: The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative Movement. Edited by Kassel Abelson and David J. Fine, 379, 380. New York: Rabbinical Assembly, 2002. ISBN 0-916219-19-4. (implications for assisted suicide of God's ownership of the universe).
*Elie Kaplan Spitz. “On the Use of Birth Surrogates.” New York: Rabbinical Assembly, 1997. EH 1:3.1997b. Reprinted in Responsa: 1991–2000: The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative Movement. Edited by Kassel Abelson and David J. Fine, 529, 536. New York: Rabbinical Assembly, 2002. ISBN 0-916219-19-4. (promise of abundant offspring).
==External links==
*Masoretic text and 1917 JPS translation
*Hear the parshah chanted
Category:Weekly Torah readings
fr:Eikev
he:פרשת עקב