Who has forsaken whom?
“And Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.” (Isaiah 49:14)
For the past three weeks, we have been experiencing health issues at home, to the point of us giving up, unable to find the cause of certain symptoms. We were physically, morally, and spiritually exhausted due to my wife’s health crisis.
I believe that God often leads us to depths of despair (Isaiah 51:1, Psalm 40), to moments filled with darkness, without light (Isaiah 50:10), to moments of humiliation or suffering (Isaiah 54:6), or to moments of feeling abandoned, exiled, and rejected (Isaiah 49:19). And it is precisely in these moments that Ekev appears to nourish the soul.
Ekev means “heel,” or “as a consequence of,” or “because.” The heel is the lowest part of the body, touching the ground and connecting the human being to the earth, allowing for movement and travel from one place to another. The Torah is a tool that teaches us to live fully on this earth, yet it must be practical, lived daily, providing a foundation, sustainability, and leading to balance, all depicted in the heel. Ekev depicts a connection to the atmosphere (to a higher realm) by teaching us that our relationship with God is not demonstrated solely by how our steps touch the earth but also by looking toward the heavens.
In the context of this parashah, Moses is preparing the new generation to enter the land of Canaan, giving them instructions on how to live at this new stage. The blessings, as a consequence of obedience, are presented first with the condition that … “if you listen to these decrees…”
Second, he calls us to remember the forty years in the desert, as a filter for Israel, since without the desert, these expressions “to humble you, test you, teach you” would not appear. How important are these three actions! Without them, there is no growth or maturity. Perhaps that is why, at this stage, God takes away the bread and makes us depend on the manna. The scarcity in the desert fueled their dependence on God; now, there would be houses, vineyards, silver, gold, livestock… and that is when he tells us: “Do not say: My power and the strength of my hand have brought me this wealth.” Memory keeps our feet firmly planted on the ground (Ekev), eliminating pride, and forgetting (opposite of remembering) leads us to idolatry.
Third, he talks about the merits of the land: “It was not because of your justice…” Three times he states, it is not because of you… In fact, he reminds us of the episode of the Golden Calf; the breaking of the first set of tablets; he makes us see that it is because of God’s love and faithfulness that we are receiving the land. Furthermore, the merit of living on the land depends on our actions. The previous inhabitants were being expelled for their actions, and although the land is promised to the children of Abraham, the merit to live on it will depend on Israel’s behavior.
Fourth, the story of the second tablets appears, but more than telling the story, the message is that, despite life’s mistakes, God is the God of second chances, the God of starting over. On the first set, Divine perfection appeared; the second tablets represent the restoration of people who will do teshuva. And now, actions appear for our development: Fear Him, Walk in His ways, Love Him, Serve Him, Keep His Commandments, and Circumcise our hearts, because the heart must be sensitive to God.
Fifth, Moses asks us to choose the blessing, reminding us of moments on the journey in Egypt and in the desert, of Korach, and of miracles. This land would not be like Egypt, which enjoyed the Nile; in this land, our survival would depend on the rain from Heaven.
Finally, the second Shema appears (11:13-21), along with the idea of serving and loving God. Moses issues warnings against prosperity and idolatry, and asks us to remember through repeated actions, like the mezuzah, tefillin, and the constant teaching of the Torah to our children.
In summary, in Ekev, we see that the blessing is to obey, since it brings consequences of physical, emotional, spiritual and national well-being. Memory protects us from pride; prosperity can be more dangerous than scarcity; obedience is a consequence of a circumcised heart; and God forms our character through trials.
In the haftarah portion, we see how Zion expresses her pain that God has forgotten them. In the historical context, it is the most natural thing: a people taken as slaves to an unknown land, beaten, mistreated and humiliated. The question is profound: why, if we are Your people, would You allow this misfortune to happen to us? How often have I uttered these words! Especially in moments of extreme sadness, weakness and constant fragility. God does not only respond: “Ah, because of your sins you are in this condition.” No! God also answers: “Can a woman forget her nursing child?” In Ekev, God calls us to remember, not to forget the Eternal. In the Haftarah, Isaiah tells us: “Even if you think that God has forgotten you, God has not forgotten you.”
The Haftarah goes on to say that there are “unmistakable signs” through which God is working and revealing Himself, but often our pain, our self-pity, or our preconceived notions of how God will save us, distort our vision of the obvious. I remember when my wife and I were just friends, getting to know each other; I was the blind one who couldn’t see the obvious. My wife wanted me to ask her to be my girlfriend, but my doubts and lack of confidence stopped me from taking the next step even though everyone else around me saw the obvious. It’s just like the words of the song by the Latin group Bacilos: “What’s all the fuss about? I wonder. I don’t think she’s planning on gossiping, is she? Look at the way she’s looking at him, and come up with another story. What nonsense! She’s going to let it slip….” In other words, I wasted time and might even have lost her because of my fear. The signs of Zion’s restoration were evident: Zion is empty, her children are returning swiftly, her destroyers are disappearing; gradually, Zion will be filled again. This is why the verse says, “Lift up your eyes all around and see: they are all gathering together, they are coming to you.” That is to say, “Stop looking only at what you see now and look at what I am doing.” In short, Isaiah is saying, “Don’t interpret your current situation as the end of the story.”
Then we see that God is asking some questions in response to the initial one in the passage where Zion claims that God has forgotten them, which is somewhat like saying, “God doesn’t love me anymore.” And here appears: “Where is the certificate of divorce from your mother by which I sent her away?” “Who among my creditors is he to whom I sold you?” “Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.” The two questions are: Is there a certificate of divorce? Or is there any legal document that implies the sale of Israel? God then recalls Ekev… The exile was a consequence of Israel’s transgressions.
Now God replies to these questions: “Why did I come and there was no one? Why did I call and no one answered?” This is a way of saying: You say I abandoned you, but in reality, who abandoned whom? Because I called, I sought you, but you didn’t answer… It’s a call to conscience. Could it be that the problem wasn’t that God left, but that we stopped responding? And He returns with a deeper question: “Is My hand too short to redeem?” The hand too short refers to inability. He continues: “Do I not have the power to deliver?” The problem wasn’t God’s incapacity, nor that God had stopped loving; the problem was Israel’s part in the breakdown of the relationship.
If we look at Ekev and the Haftarah, in both, God calls us to listen (shema); He speaks of circumcising the heart, i.e., understanding and recognizing, and He concludes by walking (Ekev). What you hear with your ear ends up appearing in your steps. So, what do we truly hear? What do we understand? What do we remember? What do we see?
I would like to close with Isaiah 50:10, which says: “Who among you fears God and listens to the voice of His servant, who walks in darkness and has no light, and trusts in the name of the LORD and relies on his God?” It is clear that there is an implicit process in this verse: Bitachon (trust) is a process that results from listening and walking in obscurity, even when we cannot see the light, and yet we trust so that we can rely on God. Verse 11 continues: “Behold, all you who kindle a fire, you give power to the flames; go forth in the flame of your fire, and in the flames which you have kindled; this has come to you from My hand; you shall lie down in pain.” In other words: “You have decided to fabricate your own light; now walk in the light that you yourselves have produced.” That is to say, those who fear God choose to walk in darkness, while there are people who make their own light, and the final consequence is that they will lie down in torment. God says, in other words: “You chose your own path; but even the consequences of that path are under My control.” That is to say, self-sufficiency is the opposite of Bitachon. It is a modern-day disease: “I no longer need to depend on God; I can produce my own security.” Ekev calls us to “Do not say: my strength did this to me,” and Isaiah: “Do not kindle your own light to replace God.” The problem is turning the gift received into a source of independence from the One who gave it.
So, if today you are experiencing a trial, pain, affliction, trauma, or spiritual amnesia that causes you to ask, “Why have you forsaken me?” the answer is that God has not forgotten nor abandoned you; He even allowed this trial to happen to you to bring out what was inside you, so that we may remember to live trusting in His processes and see from our past that He saves us, loves us, and that we can live supported by Him.
My prayer is that we may have the courage to circumcise our hearts, so that we may walk in obedience and trust in God.
Shabbat Shalom
Mauricio Quintero