Parashat Vaetchanan - Seventh Aliyah

The aliyah opens with a clear warning ahead of the entry into the land: seven nations, “rabim va’atzumim mimeka” (many and mightier than you, Deuteronomy 7:1), dwell in the land, yet God will place them before Israel. The command is unambiguous: “hacharem tacharim otam lo tichrot lahem brit velo techanem” (you shall utterly destroy them, you shall make no covenant with them and show them no favor, Deuteronomy 7:2). Rashi on the verse reads “velo techanem” in two ways, do not grant them favor, and by another reading do not grant them a foothold in the land. Immediately after comes the prohibition of intermarriage, and the reason is stated openly in the text: the child will be turned away from following God and will serve other gods.

Confronting the culture of these nations demands action and not only abstention: to tear down altars, shatter pillars, cut down sacred trees and burn carved images. In this the people guard what makes them distinct, a holy people, a treasured people.

And then the turning point of the aliyah arrives. The choice of Israel does not follow from size or from strength, quite the opposite: “merubchem mikol ha’amim chashak Adonai bachem vayivchar bachem ki atem ham’at mikol ha’amim” (not because you are more numerous than all the peoples did Adonai desire you and choose you, for you are the fewest of all the peoples, Deuteronomy 7:7). The only reason the Torah names is love and an oath: “me’ahavat Adonai etchem umishamro et hashvu’ah asher nishba la’avoteichem” (because of Adonai’s love for you and His keeping of the oath He swore to your fathers, Deuteronomy 7:8), and from these came the exodus from Egypt and the redemption from the house of bondage.

From here an important principle emerges: the bond between God and Israel is not conditioned on achievement, yet neither does it release anyone from responsibility. God is “hane’eman shomer habrit vehachesed le’ohavav” (the faithful God who keeps the covenant and the kindness for those who love Him, Deuteronomy 7:9), and against that, “lo ye’acher lesono” (He does not delay with the one who hates Him, Deuteronomy 7:10), judgment is not postponed. The aliyah ends with the command to keep the commandments, the statutes and the laws, as the ground of the people’s life in the land.

A thought for life: The aliyah sets side by side a love that depends on nothing and a responsibility that does not compromise. Being chosen is a gift, and precisely for that reason it asks for guarding of identity and of boundaries. Someone who keeps their inner boundaries is not made smaller by it, they are made stronger. A boundary is not a wall that shuts things out, it is what allows an identity to remain itself.