50. Capitalism and Fear

Parshah Nitzavim - Vayeilech

*Important attribution note: All quotes listed in this article are credited to the Artscroll Stone Edition Chumash. Here is an Extremely Clear Citation so I don’t get in trouble: Nosson Scherman, Hersh Goldwurm, Avie Gold, & Meir Zlotowitz. (2015). The Chumash: the Torah, Haftaros and Five Megillos. Mesorah Publications, Ltd.

Deuteronomy 29:17-20*

“Perhaps there is among you a man or woman, or a family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from being with Hashem, our God, to go and serve the gods of those nations; perhaps there is among you a root flourishing with gall and wormwood. And it will be that when he hears the words of this imprecation, he will bless himself in his heart, saying, ‘Peace will be with me, though I walk as my heart sees fit’ - thereby adding the watered upon the thirsty. 

Hashem will not be willing to forgive him, for then Hashem’s anger and jealousy will smoke against that man, and the entire imprecation written in this Book will come down upon him, and Hashem will erase his name from under the heavens. Hashem will set him aside for evil from among all the tribes of Israel, like all the imprecations of the covenant that is written in this Book of the Torah.” 

As I’ve mentioned before, I started this site as an observant Jew. Even though I harbored anti-establishment views, for a long time I still used this process to find excuses for God’s behavior. 

The only way I’ve been able to unlock my full, human morality was when I stopped believing in the all-powerful God as depicted in the Torah. If I hadn’t given that up, I never would’ve been able to embrace my intrinsic human morality because, at that time, I still believed Moses’ threats were actually coming from God. 

If you aren’t religious, please do me a favor: reread the passage I quoted above, but imagine reading it as someone who believes an all-powerful God is the one making these threats. The abject terror the passage inspires - not just within one’s own psychology but also between neighbors, is the cruelest thing that has ever happened to humanity. 

Hopefully, it helps you understand why religion is so very sticky and why its tentacles can be so hard to dislodge even in the most free-thinking of people. The fear is all-encompassing. 

These charismatic men who created these religions? They weren’t doing it out of love for God or their people. They did it for what are ultimately capitalist reasons: control, resource extraction, and cheap labor.

Parshah Vayeilech

TL;DR of the Text

Moses goes to his deathbed, where he curses Israel yet again. 

Major Themes: 

• The moral poverty of Israelite leaders toward their own people

Deuteronomy 31:2*

“[Moses] said to them, ‘I am a hundred and twenty years old today; I can no longer go out and come in, for Hashem has said to me, ‘You shall not cross this Jordan.’” 

I was right! Moses manufactured the story about God refusing to let him see the Land because he was already dying. Obviously, he couldn’t admit he was dying a natural death: it would compromise his “holy man” image. 

Deuteronomy 31:16-19*

“Hashem said to Moses, ‘Behold, you will lie with your forefathers, but this people will rise up and stray after the gods of the foreigners of the Land, in whose midst it is coming, and it will forsake Me and annul My covenant that I have sealed with it…

I will have surely concealed My face on that day because of all the evil that it did, for it had turned to gods of others. So now, write this song for yourselves, and teach it to the Children of Israel, place it in their mouth, so that this song shall be for Me a witness against the Children of Israel.’” 

What is it with Israelite leaders bestowing deathbed curses upon their people? What is this abuse?

*Again with the Extremely Clear Citation so I don’t get in trouble: Nosson Scherman, Hersh Goldwurm, Avie Gold, & Meir Zlotowitz. (2015). The Chumash : the Torah, Haftaros and Five Megillos. Mesorah Publications, Ltd.