Ekev | Why Does the Section of Shema Precede the Section of Ve-haya Im Shamo'a?

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Our parasha includes the second section of Keri'at Shema. The first section is found in the previous parasha (Devarim 6:4-9), and the third section is located in the book of Bemidbar (15:37-41). Despite the distance between the first two sections, the connection between them seems natural, owing to the clear linguistic connections between them. But it is precisely this fact that calls into question the connection to the third parasha.[1] In an effort to reveal the solution to this riddle, let us trace a surprising phenomenon.

At the beginning of our parasha, Scripture points to a doubt that might arise in the heart of the generation that will inherit the land:

1.  If you shall say in your heart: These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them? You shall not be afraid of them; you shall well remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh, and to all Egypt: the great trials which your eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, whereby the Lord your God brought you out; so shall the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. (7:17-19)^[2]

Later in our parasha, the nation's heart is mentioned several times and serves as the focus of considerable attention:

2.  And you shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that He might afflict you, to prove you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not…  And you shall consider in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you. (8:2-5)
3.  Beware lest you forget the Lord your God, in not keeping His commandments, and His ordinances, and His statutes, which I command you this day; lest when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built goodly houses, and dwelt therein… then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage… and you say in your heart: My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth. (8:11-17)
4.  Speak not you in your heart, after that the Lord your God has thrust them out from before you, saying: For my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land; whereas for the wickedness of these nations the Lord does drive them out from before you. Not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart do you go in to possess their land; but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord does drive them out from before you… Know therefore that it is not for your righteousness that the Lord your God gives you this good land to possess it; for you are a stiff-necked people. (9:4-6)
5.  And now, Israel, what does the Lord you God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul… Behold, to the Lord your God belongs the heaven, and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is therein. Only the Lord had a delight in your fathers to love them, and He chose their seed after them, even you, above all peoples, as it is this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked. (10:12-16)
6.  And it shall come to pass, if you shall hearken diligently to My commandments which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, that I will give the rain of your land in its season, the former rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your corn, and your wine, and your oil… Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; and the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and He shut up the heaven, so that there shall be no rain, and the ground shall not yield her fruit… Therefore shall you lay up these My words in your heart and in your soul… And you shall teach them your children, talking of them, when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. (11:13-19)

We could trace the internal connections between the various occurrences of the word "heart,"[3] but from a general perspective, it seems that focusing on the heart of the listener is a broad phenomenon in the book of Devarim.

 

"And rend your hearts, and not your garments"

The human heart is an essential organ, and as a result the Torah attaches crucial importance not only to its physical dimension, but also to its spiritual and emotional dimension. Throughout the Torah it is mentioned dozens of times as the seat of man's decision-making and the guide of his path.

Sometimes the Torah refers to a man's heart as his "lev," and sometimes it refers to it as his "levav." We tend not to attach importance to this miniscule difference. Even the Radak (R. David Kimchi) includes both forms under a single heading, without noting a significant difference between them (Sefer Ha-Shorashim [Berlin, 1847], s.v. levav):

"But I have understanding [levav] as well as you" (Iyov 12:3); "A perverse heart [levav]" (Tehillim 101:4)… The plural is found in a feminine form: "For the Lord searches all hearts [levavot]" (I Divrei Ha-Yamim 28:9), and in a masculine form: "Tabering upon their breasts [levaveihen]" (Nachum 2:8). And with the absence of the second bet, "lev," and in the feminine form "liba": "How weak is your heart [libatekh]" (Yechezkel 16:30), and the plural libot: "And to them that are upright in their hearts [be-libotam]" (Tehillim 125:4). Since the heart is the seat of the intellect, it says: "He that gets wisdom [lev]" (Mishlei 19:8), as if it had said: "He that gets wisdom [da'at]." "And with a double heart [lev be-lev] do they speak" (Tehillim 12:3) – he who shows with his mouth that his heart is good, but it is evil, when he speaks, he speaks with two hearts. And similarly: "And that could order the battle array, and were not of double heart [lev va-lev]" (I Divrei Ha-Yamim 12:33) – that they did not have two hearts in the war, but rather they would fight with a whole heart, as it is stated: "That could order the battle array, came with a whole heart" (ibid. 12:38).

 

"Lev" – "Levav"

When we follow the instances of these words in the Torah, an interesting and challenging picture emerges before our eyes. The first time the word appears in the Torah is in Bereshit 6:5:

And the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart [libo] was only evil continually.

From then on, in the first four books of the Torah, the Torah uses the word "lev" in various inflections. Only in three places in these books does the word levav appear, in different inflections.

1.  Bereishit 20:3-6: But God came to Avimelech in a dream of the night, and said to him: “Behold, you shall die, because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man's wife.” Now Avimelech had not come near her; and he said: “Lord, will You slay even a righteous nation? Did not he himself say to me: She is my sister? And she, even she herself said: He is my brother. In the simplicity of my heart [levavi] and the innocence of my hands have I done this.” And God said to him in the dream: “Yea, I know that in the simplicity of your heart [levavekha] you have done this, and I also withheld you from sinning against Me. Therefore I did not allow you to touch her.” 
2.  Bereishit 31:19-28: Now Lavan was gone to shear his sheep. And Rachel stole the terafim that were her father's. And Yaakov outwitted Lavan the Aramean, in that he did not tell him that he fled. So he fled with all that he had… And it was told Lavan on the third day that Yaakov was fled. And he took his brothers with him and pursued after him… and he overtook him in the mountain of Gil'ad. And God came to Lavan the Aramean in a dream of the night and said to him: “Take heed to yourself that you speak not to Yaakov either good or bad.” And Lavan came up with Yaakov… And Lavan said to Yaakov: “What have you done, that you have outwitted me [va-tignov et levavi], and carried away my daughters as though captives of the sword? Why did you flee secretly and outwit me; and did not tell me, that I might have sent you away with mirth and with songs, with tabret and with harp; and did not allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Now have you done foolishly.”
3.  Vayikra 26:36-41: And as for them that are left of you, I will send a faintness into their heart [be-levavam] in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a driven leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee as one flees from the sword; and they shall fall when none pursues… And you shall perish among the nations… And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them. And they shall confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, in their treachery which they committed against Me, and also that they have walked contrary to Me. I also will walk contrary to them, and bring them into the land of their enemies; if then perchance their uncircumcised heart [levavam] be humbled, and they then be paid the punishment of their iniquity.

In the book of Devarim, on the other hand, we find extensive use of the word "levav" in various inflections. It is found for the first time at the beginning of the book, in the story of the spies:

Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God; and you murmured in your tents, and said: “Because the Lord hated us, He has brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our heart [levaveinu] melt, saying: The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.” (1:26-28) 

Even in relation to Sichon, Scripture prefers using this word:

But Sichon king of Cheshbon would not let us pass by him; for the Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart [levavo] obstinate, that He might deliver him into your hand, as appears this day.[4] (2:30)

From the following instance onwards, in many places throughout the book, the term is used in relation to the people of Israel:

Only take heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes saw and lest they depart from your heart [mi-levavekha] all the days of your life; but make them known to your children and your children's children. (4:9) 

Despite the many verses that use the word "levav," we also find anomalies in the book of Devarim, verses that use the term "lev" in different inflections:

1.  28:64-5: And the Lord shall scatter you among all peoples, from the one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; and there you shall serve other gods, which you have not known, you nor thy fathers, even wood and stone. And among these nations you shall have no repose, and there shall be no rest for the sole of your foot; but the Lord shall give you there a trembling heart [lev], and failing of eyes, and languishing of soul.
2.  29:1-3: And Moshe called to all Israel, and said to them: You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land; the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs and those great wonders; but the Lord has not given you a heart [lev] to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, to this day.
3.  29:17-18: Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart [levavo] turns away this day from the Lord our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations; lest there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood; and it come to pass, when he hears the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart [be-levavo], saying: I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart [libi], that the watered be swept away with the dry.

The last verse is the most unusual, since it is the only verse in the Torah that uses both terms, "lev" and "levav."

The data speaks for itself. Up until the book of Devarim, Scripture makes ample use of the word "lev."[5] Against this background, the preference for the word "levav" throughout the book of Devarim is striking.[6]

 

"These are the words which Moshe spoke to all Israel"

The heart stands out in the book of Devarim in another way as well. Over the course of the book, various events about which we have already read are mentioned. Regarding some of them we find that the account in the book of Devarim incorporates a reference to the heart of those involved in the event, whereas in the previous account of the event this aspect is missing. 

1. In the story of the spies:

But the men that went up with him said: “We are not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.” And they spread an evil report of the land which they had spied out to the children of Israel, saying: “The land through which we have passed to spy it out is a land that eats up its inhabitants; and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature…” And all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried; and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moshe and against Aharon; and the whole congregation said to them: “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would we had died in this wilderness! And why does the Lord bring us to this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be a prey…” And they said one to another: “Let us make a captain and let us return to Egypt.” (Bemidbar 13:31-14:4)

In contrast, in the account in the book of Devarim, the story incorporates the feelings in the people's hearts:

Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God; and you murmured in your tents, and said: “Because the Lord hated us, He has brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. Where are we going up? Our brethren have made our heart melt, saying: The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.” (1:26-28)

 2. According to the story of the revelation at Mount Sinai in the book of Shemot, the frightened people sought to interrupt the event for fear of their lives, and Moshe in his response reassured them and revealed to them the purpose of the event:

And all the people perceived the thundering, and the lightning, and the voice of the horn, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled, and stood afar off. And they said to Moshe: “Speak you with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.” And Moshe said to the people: “Fear not; for God is come to prove you, and that His fear may be before you, that you sin not. (Shemot 20:14-16)

In the book of Devarim, the corresponding account focuses on the heart of the people:

And it came to pass, when you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, while the mountain did burn with fire, that you came near to me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders; and you said: “Behold, the Lord our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice out of the midst of the fire; we have seen this day that God speaks with man, and he lives. Now therefore why should we die? For this great fire will consume us… Go you near, and hear all that the Lord our God may say; and you shall speak to us… and we will hear it and do it.” And the Lord heard the voice of your words, when you spoke to me; and the Lord said to me: “I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken to you; they have well said all that they have spoken. O that they had such a heart as this always, to fear Me, and keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever!” (5:19-25)

3. We find a similar phenomenon even in a marginal description relating to the conduct of Sichon. In the book of Bemidbar we read:

And Israel sent messengers to Sichon king of the Amorites, saying: “Let me pass through your land; we will not turn aside into field or into vineyard; we will not drink of the water of the wells; we will go by the king's highway, until we have passed your border.” And Sichon would not allow Israel to pass through his border; but Sichon gathered all his people together, and went out against Israel into the wilderness, and came to Yahatz; and he fought against Israel. And Israel smote him with the edge of the sword, and possessed his land from the Arnon to the Yabok, even to the children of Amon; for the border of the children of Amon was strong. (Bemidbar 21:21-24)

In the book of Devarim, on the other hand, we are told that of a decision that he made in his heart:

And I sent messengers out of the wilderness of Kedemot to Sichon king of Cheshbon with words of peace, saying: “Let me pass through your land; I will go along by the highway, I will neither turn to the right hand nor to the left. You shall sell me food for money, that I may eat; and give me water for money, that I may drink; only let me pass through on my feet…” But Sichon king of Cheshbon would not let us pass by him; for the Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that He might deliver him into your hand, as appears this day. (2:26-30)

 

"And You shalL love the LORD Your God with all YOur heart and with all Your soul"

It may be suggested that the very use of the elongated form of the word "lev" is intended to attract the attention of the reader, who is required to devote another syllable to it.[7] The earliest (and perhaps the only[8]) source that refers to the uniqueness of the word "levavekha" is the midrash:

"With all your heart" means with your two impulses, the evil impulse as well as the good impulse. Another explanation: "With all your heart" – that your heart not be divided about God. (Sifrei Devarim, Va'etchanan 32; Berakhot 9:5)

It stands to reason that the midrash is based on the phonetic ring of the word "levav," which brings to mind a repeated pronunciation of the word "lev." According to the midrash, this word refers to the heart in a more complete manner. It is also possible that the word "levav" alludes to the complexity of the heart and its various tendencies.

This suggestion remarkably reconciles the only verse that uses both words:

Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart [levavo] turns away this day from the Lord our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations; lest there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood; and it come to pass, when he hears the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart [be-levavo], saying: I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart [libi], that the watered be swept away with the dry. (Devarim 29:17-18) 

On the other hand, an interesting exception stands out. The section of the rebuke in the book of Vayikra uses the word "levav" (Vayikra 26:36-41, cited above), whereas the parallel rebuke in the book of Devarim uses the word "lev," as was noted in the list of exceptions above.

 

"That you go not about after your own heart"

Let us now go back to our comments at the beginning of this discussion. The truth of the matter is that the list we presented regarding the use of the word "levav" in the first four books of the Torah is only partial, since it refers only to the narrative part of the Torah. If we add the part containing the mitzvot, we encounter two more places:

1.  Vayikra 19:17: You shall not hate your brother in your heart [be-levavekha]; you shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him.
2.  Bemidbar 15:39: And it shall be to you for a fringe, that you may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the Lord, and do them; and that you go not about after your own heart [levavekhem] and your own eyes, after which you use to go astray.

In light of our study, this phrase connects us directly to the book of Devarim. In light of our suggestion regarding the word "levav," the use of that term is reasonable in both places, though there is a difference between the two. The use of the word "levav" in Vayikra is localized and relates to a specific command. The content of the verse in the passage dealing with the mitzva of tzitzit goes beyond the specific mitzva, connecting to the content of the messages in the book of Devarim, which are also directed to the hearts of the hearers. It is possible, therefore, that this is the linguistic marker by way of which Scripture alludes that this section is connected to later sections that will follow.

 

The uniqueness of the Book of Devarim

Following our approach, we learn something else. From the beginning of the book of Devarim, the commentators observed that we are dealing with a unique book that combines new and old material, the old material being illuminated by the new perspective. The Abravanel devoted a lengthy discussion in his introduction to the book to the fact that most of the book is phrased in the first person, with Moshe speaking to the people. In contrast, the first four books of the Torah are formulated in the third person, as they describe the events from the side. Devarim is a book with unique features.

We would like to illuminate another marker from a different angle – the book's being the "Mishneh Torah," which recreates historical events in the spirit of the hour, on the eve of Israel's entering the land. Our study indicates that Moshe seeks not only to present the people with a historical presentation and to update them on the details of the events. The purpose of his oration is to make the audience listen, to deepen their understanding, and to bring them to contemplate the sequence of events from the proper perspective, and thus to draw lessons and internalize the messages that emerge from them. This was in order that they be able to implement the conclusions in the land and thus justify the Divine course that accompanied and guided them from the time of the exodus from Egypt.