Summary of parashat Ekev
Moses continues his final speech to the Children of Israel, promising them that if they fulfill the precepts of the Torah, they will prosper in the land they are about to conquer and settle in, thus fulfilling God's promise to his patriarchs.
Moses also rebukes them for the failings of their first generation as a people, recalling the idolatry of the Golden Calf, the rebellion of Korah, the sin of the spies, their provocation of God at Taveeira, Massah and Kivrot Hataavah; "You have been rebellious against God," he tells them, "from the day I met you.".
However, it also speaks of Divine forgiveness and the Second Tablets of the law that God wrote and gave them after they had repented.
The 40 years in the desert, Moshe tells them, during which God fed them with the daily Manna from heaven, were to teach them that "man does not live by bread alone, but by the word of God man lives.".
Moses describes the land they are about to enter as a land "flowing with milk and honey," a land blessed with the seven species (wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olive oil, and dates), as the place that is the focus of Divine Providence in the universe. He commands them to destroy the idols of the land's previous inhabitants and to be careful not to become arrogant and think, "My power and the strength of my hand gave me this wealth.".
A key passage in this section is the second chapter of the Shema, which repeats the fundamental precepts listed in the first chapter of the Shema and describes the reward for observing God's commandments and the adverse consequences (famine and exile) for not observing them. It is also the source of the commandment to pray and includes a reference to the resurrection of the dead in the Messianic Age."
