A WHOLE MAN

4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” Deuteronomy 6:4-7  The Shema generally limited to Deuteronomy 6:4-9, is one of the most important pieces of Scripture for a Jew. It is so influential in the Jewish life and is commonly the first memorization passage for children. It is recited every morning and evening and is often the very last phrase on the lips of a Jew before their death. The reason for this is not that they like the way that it sounds or tha...

In the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first of the month, Moses told the Israelites everything the LORD had commanded him to say to them.  Deuteronomy 1:3  The book of Deuteronomy is a book that has been somewhat misunderstood by the general population. It derives its name from the Latin Septuagint’s translation meaning a copy of the law or second law in the Greek. And so, some have misunderstood this book to simply be a second set of laws that are given to the people of Israel. But this book is not really a new set of laws, but more of an amplification of the laws that already had been given to the nation of Israel at Mt. Sinai. Additionally, secular academia has been misjudged this book as nothing more than an ancient treaty that followed the format of the Hittite (1400-1200 BC) or Assyrian (850-650 BC) treatises. This is partly due to the fact that this book has many parallels to its Ancient Near Eastern treaty traditions, but this book is far more t...