How to Do Life

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Well, the commandments God gave to the children of Israel were not just about how to worship

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him, but how to live life, how to engage with the people and world around them.

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The laws covered all of religious and civil life, agriculture, business, family relationships,

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and on and on.

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As a result, Judaism developed a great value for the world around it and believes obedience

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to these laws sanctifies the world.

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They have a strong belief in what Hebrew is, tikkun olam, to repair the world.

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So welcome to this week's Shabbat Shalom devotional, when I seek to share a little inspiration

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and bring a little piece to the close of your very busy week.

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This week's Torah portion is taken from Deuteronomy 21 verse 10 through 25 verse 19.

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It is called ki titsai, when you go out, meaning when you go out to battle.

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So this week we're still in the midst of the stipulation section of Deuteronomy.

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As I explained last week, these are the commandments of God as part of his covenant, his agreement

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with his people.

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So this week we open up with the section about the principles of warfare.

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So I find it very interesting, a couple of verses I saw that it says, you know, when

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you go to war, do not fear because the Lord your God is with you and he will give you

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victory.

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But if you do fear, you said, go home.

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So you don't influence the rest of those going to war.

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Isn't that interesting?

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Kind of like the spies going out, how that that influence of the 10.

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So he's saying, if you have fear, just go home.

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Don't influence the fighting army.

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Then they were to, when the army approached the enemy, they were first to offer peace.

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Isn't that great?

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And then it says, but if they don't reciprocate with peace and instead attack, then you're

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to wipe them out.

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It's that simple.

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You know, war is an ugly thing.

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I know a lot of people struggle with the existence of war and bloodshed in the Bible.

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War is ugly.

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I don't care if it was then or if it's now.

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But this seems pretty fair to me that they are supposed to go and offer peace first.

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Then after this, we read laws about if you take female captives in war.

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And then we get into another section about inheritance laws, all kinds of laws.

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And laws about who is allowed into the congregation of Israel to be a part of the people.

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And it says the Ammonites and the Moabites, no way they are not to be let in because

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they mistreated the Israelites.

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But then what is so interesting, it says, but you shall not abhor an Egyptian because

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you were an alien in his land.

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Now very interesting here.

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It doesn't say this, I'm just conjecturing, but it seems that God understood it was the

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Pharaoh of Egypt that enslaved the Israelites.

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It wasn't the people of Egypt.

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There were actually some very good people in Egypt, like the midwives that tried to

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defy Pharaoh.

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Even Pharaoh's own daughter defied Pharaoh.

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So there were some really good spots in the Egyptian story, and it seems that the people

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of Egypt really had been kind to the Hebrew slaves and to the Israelites when they first

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came in.

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And therefore God is saying, do not abhor the Egyptian.

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You were once an alien in their land, so welcome them and take care of them in yours.

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I love it.

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And there's a very interesting part about cleanliness in the camp and about how you should

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have your outhouse outside of the camp and how to clean up and how to deal with that

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refuse.

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And then it says, because the camp should be clean and why?

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Well, in chapter 23 verse 14, it says, let me read it.

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For the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and give your enemies

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over to you.

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Therefore your camp shall be holy, that he may see no unclean thing among you and turn

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away from you.

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So for all of you clean freaks in the audience like me, that we really like a clean house,

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so does the Lord.

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You can use that verse to back you up when anybody tries to argue with you.

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Our God likes a clean camp.

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Okay, moving on.

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The law is not just about how to worship God and walk with him.

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It is a civil law and it's about all areas of life, how to engage the world and the peoples

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around them.

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It was about treating others right as well as treating each other's right.

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And in so doing, you were sanctifying the world around you.

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So Judaism is very much about sanctifying the world.

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And they have developed a Hebrew term which is in their daily prayers, t'kun olam, and

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it means repairing the world.

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You know, I think as tedious as some of these laws become as we're trying to read through

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a whole book, there is so much that we can learn from them, from the Jewish people and

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from the book of Deuteronomy.

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And with that, I wish you Shabbat Shalom.