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    Children & servants – Re’eh

    Crown jewels of EnglandThere is a remarkable sentence in the weekly portion that reads, Banim attem laShem Elokechem (Deut.14:1) – “You are children to the Lord your God”.

    That’s why we often call him our Father – and even those who have problems with the alleged sexism of the Torah use the term Parent.

    In the Rosh HaShanah service, however, we say we are both children and servants; God is both Father and King.

    If He were only a Father we might exploit His parental love and say, “We can do whatever we like; He will forgive us!”

    If he were only a King we would say, “We’re too unimportant for Him to care about us!”

    So we need both ideas as correctives to each other.

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