JANUARY 20, 2023 Deuteronomy 6:5-6 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. In Judaism, the phrase “And you shall love” is known as the v’ahavta –- literally, the “And you shall love.” It […]
JANUARY 19, 2023 Deuteronomy 6:4-5 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. In Hebrew, the word Sh’ma (“hear”) is written with the Hebrew letters shiyn, mem and ayin. The Hebrew word echad (“one) is written with the letters alef, chet […]
JANUARY 18, 2023 Deuteronomy 6:4-5 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. These verses, known as the Sh’ma, essentially sum up the first two commandments given to Israel at Mount Sinai. Just to refresh our memories, they are, “I am […]
JANUARY 17, 2023 Deuteronomy 6:4-5 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. After relating the Ten Commandments to the next generation of Israelites, Moses proceeded to declare to them the fundamental creed of Israel — six Hebrew words that are […]
JANUARY 16, 2023 Deuteronomy 5:22 These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly, in the mountain from the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and He added no more. And He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. There is tradition in Judaism that […]
JANUARY 15, 2023 Deuteronomy 5:17-21 You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife; and you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or […]
JANUARY 14, 2023 Deuteronomy 5:11 You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain. Growing up, many of us considered this instruction to mean that we were not to attach God’s Name to a swear word. While I certainly believe to do so […]
JANUARY 13, 2023 Deuteronomy 5:9-10 For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. This is another reminder that the God of Israel is a jealous God, unwilling to […]
JANUARY 12, 2023 Deuteronomy 5:7-8 You shall have no other gods before Me.You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. In our previous devotion, we established that if the God of Israel […]
JANUARY 11, 2023 Deuteronomy 5:3-4 The Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, those who are here today, all of us who are alive. The Lord talked with you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire. There are some renderings of this verse that suggest Moses said, “not with the fathers alone but with […]
JANUARY 10, 2023 Deuteronomy 5:1 And Moses called all Israel, and said to them: “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your hearing today, that you may learn them and be careful to observe them.” Again and again, Moses exhorted Israel to “hear” the commands and then to “learn” and “do” […]
JANUARY 9, 2023 Deuteronomy 4:40 You shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time. It is made abundantly clear in this […]
