In this week’s portion we see what happens when someone marries for lust. They end up hating each other. The results is the rebellious son. To avoid this marry for the right reasons.

The Torah warns us about following false prophets. That they will always lead us astray. We should remember that the followers of totalitarian regimes think of their leaders as prophets.

The reason the Torah seem to harp on the evils of idolatry is that it is based on human morality, which changes with the times. God’s morality is unchanging.

The Torah calls on judges to seek justice. Not to do justice. The important distinction is that we are human and bound to make mistakes but that our goal should always be to do our best to be just in judgements.

The Torah first worries about how we behave privately, then as a community. Finally, it shows how a Torah government should act. Here we see how the judges should judge.

The danger of a false prophet is that though what he says seems to be true it is not and will therefore lead people astray. This will cause idolatry and then the courts will have to take action against people committing idolatry.

The Torah is against us treating slaves as property. The slave has rights that the master cannot violate. This means that the Torah was against the institution of slavery. The anti-slavery movement of the 18th & 19th centuries was based on the Torah.

The Torah states that we should no do what is right in our own eyes but what the Torah says is right. The problem of doing what is right in our eyes is that we will justify the evil that we do. The Nazis and Communists felt that they were moral even though they committed horrible acts.

The commandment to destroy all vestiges of idolatry in the Land of Israel is to teach the Jews not to follow the ways of the idolators. That we should be a light unto the nations by the Torah’s vision of morality, ethics and justice.