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The name of this week’s portion is Eikev, or heel. This is remind us to be as careful of the “minor” commandments as we would the “major” ones.

The 10th Commandment stresses that we not be jealous of others. The Torah is for equality of opportunity but not of outcome. That is dependent on our abilities and willingness to use them to improve ourselves.

When Moses discusses the boundaries of the Land we realize that the Jews would be in the middle of the world. This is because God’s plan is that the world is to observe how be a holy nation.

Taking God’s Name in vain can have a number of meanings. One of the most important is when a religious person commits a crime. Then the secular view it as “this is what a religious person does.” That is taking God’s Name in vain.

Today is the 9th of Av. It is a day in which many disasters have befallen the Jewish people. The reason is that God chose us to be a light unto the nations & when we forget this then God withdraws His protection from us.

The problem with an accidental killing is that someone died. That this comes during the week of the 9th of Av teaches us that we have to be careful with how we react to commandments of man to man.

The ancients believed if they lost a war it was because their gods were weak. The Jews took the exact opposite view. We lost wars because we did not behave properly one to the other, that it was a punishment from God.

The Torah admonishes judges numerous times about being careful in judgement. That they cannot be concerned over the social or economic status of those before them pervert their judgement. They can only deal with the law.

The Torah informs us that our leaders need wisdom. Knowledge was not a prerequisite since people with knowledge but no wisdom make bad judgements. But people with wisdom know how to apply knowledge.

When Moses is recounting the wars that we had to fight he points out that we went to war to defend our people and mission. We do not go to war to conquer others. We try for peace.