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The Torah column is supported by a generous donation from Eve Gordon-Ramek in memory of Kenneth Gordon.

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Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25

By the 10th chapter in the book of Deuteronomy, the Israelites have reached a pivotal stage in their journey from slavery in Egypt to hope in the Promised Land. For the first time in many years, the people of Israel will be exposed to foreign cultures and alien religious practices and ideas.

Since their own monotheistic religion is still in a nebulous and fragile state, the possibility of outside influence, particularly idolatry, is a looming danger and a grave concern. They need clarity, and Moses tries to provide it in the wide-ranging discourses and sets of laws in this chapter and the others around it.

Moses is at a pivotal point in his journey as well: He is near the end of his life. When he is gone, the Israelites will be in need of strong guidance. As their current leader, Moses makes the judgment that what his people will need is not just clarity about their religious practice, but clarity about their existential purpose. So he asks them:

“And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God demand of you? Only this: to fear the Lord your God, to walk only in His paths, to love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and soul, keeping the Lord’s commandments and laws, which I enjoin upon you today, for your good.” (Deuteronomy 10:12–13)

Moses’ question is profoundly teleological. And because he proffers an answer in the same verse, it is also rhetorical and pedagogic. What is the purpose of the lives of the people of Israel — and, by extension, the lives of all those generations that follow?

Understood more broadly, what is our “mission” as human beings?

The answer to this seemingly straightforward question is not a simple one. In fact, it is not even clear from the structure of the text whether the response to the question is a single “answer,” an answer with subcategories or multiple and coequal answers.

In my view, there are five separate and distinct (yet interrelated) components to the response, that appear in the following order after Moses’s initial, all-encompassing, teleological question, “What does the Lord your God demand of you?” They are as follows:

1. Fear God.
2. Walk in God’s paths.
3. Love God.
4. Serve God with heart and soul.
5. Keep God’s commandments and laws.

If we group all five of these elements together into a single answer, we are left with a response so general and vague that it is functionally useless. Do all five attitudes and actions have the same value? Must we feel or perform each one at the same time — and, if so, how is that possible? What, if any, relationship exists between them?

Another response is to treat the first “requirement” as the primary answer to the question, and to view the others as its subcategories, or secondary (and explanatory) answers. With the fear of God at the top of the list, this approach creates a sense of hierarchy and supports the need for prioritization: If we start by keeping the commandments, we can progress up the spiritual ladder to the more important and meritorious experience of “yirah,” or fear.

A third way of interpreting the response is to read all five requirements as independent yet interrelated and coequal parts of the same answer. Rather than viewing the different components as variations on a theme or secondary explanations, this approach treats each one as a discrete obligation; while every one of them is necessary to fulfill our sacred mission, none of them is sufficient in and of itself. There may be no hierarchy or particular order by which we must observe the requirements, but together they constitute a pathway that is multivalent and indivisible.

Moses’ question and the responses that follow generate multiple interpretations and great ambiguity. And if we can’t fully understand what exactly his words mean, then how can we possibly fulfill our mandate as human beings? Has the Torah presented us with a “mission impossible” or a roadmap for more purposeful lives?

One thing is clear: Biblical Judaism appears to advocate a hybrid approach to the way we realize our life’s purpose. When we combine ethical and ritual practices, when we focus not only on how we act but also on how we feel and what we believe, we gain the possibility of achieving our existential ideals as Jews. That complicated mixture of behavior and belief will be different for each one of us who pursues this path. 

Judaism does not promote a one-size-fits-all approach to life. Yet while every one of us has a unique mission in this world, what binds us all together is the covenant that has linked the Jewish people with our God for millennia.