This week's Torah portion, Ekev, contains some gorgeous and fabulous passages. Here we find the exhortation to offer blessing after we have eaten and been satisfied; we find a reminder of what God really wants from us; we find the lines we recognize from the second paragraph of the Shema. But rereading the parsha this week, I was struck by a verse reminding the Israelites not to melt down foreign idols, keep their precious metals, and thereby become ensnared in coveting.

That's what I chose to focus on in this week's d'var for Radical Torah:

It's almost a Buddhist teaching. When coveting enmeshes us, we can so easily become caught. And in a strange way, it feels good. It's a familiar groove to slip into, wanting what the dominant culture values. And wanting feeds more wanting, and before we know it our cravings have overgrown the longing for connection with God. One's heart can only long for so much at any given time, and when the heart is busy longing for what sparkles it is not longing for righteousness and for God.

Read the whole thing here: What we crave.

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