Author: Shlomo Bar-Ayal

When Moses is speaking to the Jewish people about their responsibilities, he makes it a special point that all are equal, form the great and powerful to the lowest of society.

The IDF does not want a war but when a war is forced on us we go. We do not forget that we are a Jewish army. Today, every morning the shofar is sounded in all units to remind the soldiers of this.

When we read the curses, we realize that they come due to a lack of respect one to the other. Our greatest disasters as a people were due to our mistreating our fellows.

When we follow the Torah then we will be blessed in miraculous ways, if we do not then we will be cursed to be a normal nation that will suffer the fate of other normal nations.

This portion makes clear that God took us out of Egypt to be a light unto the nations. That our purpose is to show the world what a Godly nation is. When we do not do our job then we suffer.

We are all required to tithe. Even the poor. The lesson is that we are part of a community. All have to do their part, rich or poor. We cannot just take, we have to help each other and our institutions.

We went to war with Amalek because he attacked those outside the camp. These were outside the camp because they had committed sins. This is to teach us that all are important, even a sinner has importance to us.

We are reminded about the evil Amalek right after we are commanded to be honest in business. This is to teach us that if our society is corrupt and divided then Amalek will take advantage to try to destroy us.

One of the major concepts of the Torah is that holiness is not an entitlement, it has to be earned by our actions.

When a criminal is hanged for his crime we do not leave the body up overnight but bury it as soon as possible. The reason is that all people, no matter how low they are, were created in God’s image.