Ekev (Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25; Isaiah 49:14-50:3) Clinging to a Quest

Many blessings will come, our Torah reading this week says, “’ekev” – “pursuant to” or “following upon” our heeding the covenantal imperative to walk in divine ways. The word “'ekev” is built on the same Hebrew letters as the name of our ancestor Jacob, Ya’akov, a name he receives for clinging at birth to the heel of his twin, Esau, forefather of Edom, Rome, as later Judaism reads the genealogy. “Look to Abraham your father,” Isaiah says in this week’s prophecy, “and to Sara who bore you.” Following triumphal nationalism as an end is vanity; but a voice calls to us this week saying, “Listen to me, pursuers of justice, seekers of the Eternal One!” What might follow on the heels of that? In his “Iron Wall,” Jabotinsky declared Zionism moral and just and asserted, “There is no other morality.” This week’s readings, however, insist that Israelite nationhood must be a constant quest for righteousness. Ya'akov becomes Yisra'el through struggle. “Look to the rock from which you were hewn,” says the prophet, and Israel may yet become “like the garden of the Lord, joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody.” Hang on tight – and onward!