Shabbat Shalom and welcome to Judeo Talk. The Torah portion for this week is Parsha Eikev, Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25.

Many figures of speech and famous phrases have a biblical origin. Phrases like "An eye for an eye" come directly out of the Torah and have come to have meaning in just about every language spoken by people who follow Abrahamic faiths. But not all poetic turns of phrase from the Torah made it into the modern age. Eikev is interesting in that contains two lines that are meant to be powerful figures of speech but only one of them has survived into modern parlance. It's not difficult to see why considering the context of one of them.

The more famous of the two figurative phrases in this parsha is "Man cannot live on bread alone..." This is not the entire line, but it's the part that is in continued use. The rest of the phrase is, "...but by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord does man live." In so many words, the modern usage of this saying conveys the same basic idea: There must be a reasonable expectation of satisfaction and dignity in a just world.

In this Torah portion, this phrase is meant as a reminder that one should not settle for being at the bottom of any society or for having less than the full measure of life. The Israelites need more than a little ambition at this point in their journey. After 40 years in the wilderness, the hard part is just beginning.

The other major poetic phrase in Eikev has all but disappeared since its first use in the Torah. After reminding them of their own struggle with righteousness and all of the mistakes they've made since leaving Egypt, Moses implores the Israelites to, "Circumcise thy heart" and accept the laws of God. This is a remarkably strange image and it requires a tremendous amount of cultural context to make any sense. After all of the giggles in the room have gone quiet, one might venture to explain that this is a figurative call to be both holy and open-minded. A more modern, though not entirely accurate, phrase would be, "open your heart". That only covers half of the meaning of the saying, though. Certainly it's asking the Israelites to be mentally and emotionally receptive, but it's also asking them to make a lifelong commitment to holiness. Even more than that, it's asking them to be different.

The exact setting for this parsha is prior to the invasion of Jordan to fight against the Anakim. These people have been described up until this point as being unbeatable. The prelude to the battle is framed against many of the other conflicts, both internal and external, the Israelites have faced in the wilderness. Moreover, this speech refers several times to the sin of worshiping other gods. In this time and place, circumcision was unique to the Hebrew people as a culture-wide practice. It was something that made them stand apart from their neighbors. When Moses asks the Israelites to "circumcise" their hearts, he's asking them to make their thoughts and feelings stand apart just as much as their bodies.

Certainly Jews have made it a point to be different than the cultures that surround them throughout history. At our best, we've attempted to stand for righteousness and law when those things were unpopular and in jeopardy. But as Moses also reminds us in Eikev, we're not holy crusaders who have done no wrong. We, too, are guilty of every crime and iniquity of the stranger. Like circumcision, the decision to do the right thing is not automatic, it comes with loss and pain, and it is often the responsibility of the community to make sure it happens.