Ekev (Deuteronomy 7:13-11:25)
LA JOLLA, California — For my purpose, this particular parasha is especially difficult and challenging. This is largely due to the limitations of Internet searches. Any multi-word inquiry of the internet results in responses off target because the search engine makes separate inquiries of each word and not of a more complex phrase. This requires creativity on my part to trick the search engine. I’ve become a bit skilled at this, but not so well as I’d like.
With that off my chest, I have chosen four passages for intended comparison with texts from ancient Israel’s pagan neighbors regarding patience, living on bread alone, giants, and powerless gods.
I. Deuteronomy 7:22 “The Lord …will dislodge those peoples before you little by little, you will not be able to put an end to them at once, else the wild beasts would multiply to your hurt.”
‘Little by little’ is a figure of speech, useful in both ancient Hebrew and English. However, the parasha is inconsistent on the matter, since in 9:3, the dislodge matter is described as “quickly dispossess and destroy them…”
In any case, I found no equivalent statement on the internet with regard to conquests by pagans. I did find ancient quote sentiments that alluded to patience. (i) Epictetus, a Greek stoic (55-155 CE), is credited with: “Happiness and freedom begin with one principle. Some things are within your control and some are not.” (ii) Seneca the Younger, a Roman stoic (4 BCE-66 CE), said “Difficulties strengthen the mind as labor does the body.” (iii) Confucius, a Chinese philosopher (551-479 BCE), recorded, “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” And also: “Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fall.” [1] [2]
II. Deuteronomy 8:3 “He subjected you to…hardship…in order to teach you that man does not live on bread alone…”
On the internet, I could find no pagan equivalent to this classic saying. There is, however, the famous Egyptian “Tale of Sinuhe,” (c.1875 BCE) which resembles the Bible story of Joseph, taken to Egypt as a slave, and via fits and starts rose to prominence. Its writer has been likened to the ‘Egyptian Shakespeare.’ Clearly neither figure lived on symbolic bread alone. [3]
As an aside, nutritionists have weighed in on a ‘diet of bread alone,’ with the clear conclusion that humans cannot get necessary essentials to long survive from any one or combination of grains. [4]
III. Deuteronomy 9:1-2 “…O Israel! You are about to…disposess nations greater…than you…a people great and tall, the Anakites…”
The Anakites were a mythic legendary people in ancient times. They were portrayed as the giant evil, chaotic hybrid offspring of angels and human women. King Og, who we met in the parasha two weeks ago, was depicted as such a giant whose bed was 13-1/2 feet long by 6 feet wide.
The religious myth of the Hurrians, of the Bronze Age (Anatolia, Syria and Northern Mesopotamia), includes “giant heroes.” [5]
Also Greek mythology includes the story of the Titans, giants who were the pre-Olympian gods. [6]
IV. Deuteronomy 9:26-28 “I prayed…pay no heed to the stubbornness of this people…its wickedness…Else the country from which you freed us will say, It was because the Lord was powerless to bring them to the land that He had promised…”
This appeal by Moses, placing God in a defensive position, has no equal in pagan literature that I sourced in the internet. Was Baal or any other pagan god powerless? I’d say, only in the stories by the Hebrews. [7]
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NOTES
[1] https;//www.lifehack.org/361884/17-ancient-quotes-that-can-fuel-your-success
[2] https://www.inc.com/wanda-thibodeaux/50-quotes-from-ancient-philosophers-that-are-business-relevant-1000s-of-years-la.html
[3] “Not by Bread Alone,” Journal of Hebrew Scriptures, Volume 9 (2009)
[4] https://quora.com/Can-a-human-live-on-bread-alone
[5] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327175384_The_Nephilim_A_tall_story_Who_were_the_Nephilim_ND how_did_they_survive_the_flood
[6] www.greekmyths-greekmythology.com
[7] Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Irv Jacobs is a retired medical doctor who delights in Torah analysis. He often delivers a drosh at Congregation Beth El in La Jolla, and at his chavurah.