Parshat Eikev

Moses, fearing that the Israelites will ignore G-d's laws once they enter the Promised Land without him, entreats his flock to remember its humble past.

"For the Lord your G-d is bringing you into a good land, a land with streams and springs and fountains issuing from plain and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines, figs, and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey...where you will lack nothing…(B)eware lest your heart grow haughty and you forget the Lord your G-d--who freed you from the land of Egypt, the house of bondage; who led you through the great and terrible wilderness...and brought forth water for you from the flinty rock; who fed you in the wilderness with manna....."

Perhaps his biggest worry is that the next generation of Israelites will forget it owes eternal gratitude to G-d for its good fortune in the beautiful land of Israel. And that's when, as the saying goes, bad things happen to good people.

"Take care not to be lured away to serve other gods and bow to them. For the Lord's anger will flare up against you...and you will soon perish from the good land that the Lord is assigning you."

And so:

"'...Impress these My words upon your very heart: bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead, and teach them to your children...and inscribe them on the door posts of your house and on your gates--to the end that you and your children may endure, in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to assign to them, as long as there is a heaven over the earth.'"

Amen!

Shabbat Shalom