I have no personal stories this week, and no inspiration of my own, so I’m drawing from Mary Oliver, and from things other rabbis’ have said about this week’s Torah reading.

 

So what’s it about?

 

It’s about walking in God’s ways.

 

What does that mean?

 

Well, for one, it means opening our hearts—and our country—to “the stranger.”

 

It means that if we are prosperous, we should respond with humility.

 

Moses reminds the Israelites that their accomplishments are not solely because of their own efforts, but also Divinely given; God gave them manna, so we should always be grateful for the food we have.

 

It also means that our success comes on the heels (“Eikev” means “heel”) of others who have come before us.

 

Maybe it means being reminded that “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” is just not a thing. Because there was always something, someone, who influenced or helped in some way. So we need government policies…

 

Or it means Kamala Harris recognizing that Hillary Clinton paved the way for her—as did many other women—if she should be elected.

 

Or like me recognizing these ideas I’m sharing have been influenced by other rabbis and teachers in my life.

 

Or that our actions have consequences, and that we have to take care of our Earth, as the Torah specifically says again this week. (So we need government policies…)

 

And that maybe war and killing do not lead to peace.

 

I leave you with a poem by Mary Oliver called Whistling Swans:

 

Do you bow your head when you pray or do you look

up into that blue space?

Take your choice, prayers fly from all directions.

And don’t worry about what language you use,

God no doubt understands them all.

Even when the swans are flying north and making

such a ruckus of noice, God is surely listening

and understanding.

Rumi said, there is no proof of the soul.

But isn’t the return of spring and how it

springs up in our hearts a pretty good hint?

Yes, I know, God’s silence never breaks, but is

that really a problem?

There are thousands of voices, after all.

And furthermore, don’t you imagine (I just suggest it)

that the swans know about as much as we do about

the whole business?

So listen to them and watch them, singing as they fly,

Take from it what you can.

 

Shabbat Shalom.