User:Elipongo

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Elipongo
Working, Editing, Bicycling

— Wikipedian ♂ —
In my "office" at work.
Name	Elias Friedman (Hebrew: אליהו מתתיהו בן צבי )
Born	(1969-09-05) September 5, 1969 Hebrew: כב אלול תשכ"ט Mount Sinai Hospital, Hartford, Connecticut United States
Current location	Upper West Side, Manhattan New York, United States
Blood type	O+
Sexuality	Heterosexual
Family and friends
Marital status	Single & looking for my bashert.
Education and employment
Occupation	Critical care paramedic
Employer	SeniorCare EMS
Education	A.S. Mechanical Engineering
High school	Ellington High School
College	Manchester Community College
University	University of Connecticut
Hobbies, interests, and beliefs
Religion	Modern Orthodox Judaism
Politics	Libertarian, Republican
Aliases	Elipongo
Interests
Wikipedia Wikignoming Vandal Watch Reviewing pending changes Welcoming committee Emergency Medicine Judaism Bicycling Connecticut New York City
Contact info
Blog	Elipongo's Blog
Email	elipongo@gmail.com
Elipongo subpages
Subpages, Userboxes
Userboxes
This editor is a Veteran Editor IV and is entitled to display this Gold Editor Star. This user helps out newcomers. This user observes Shabbat. It is approximately 11:16 PM where this user lives. Language enThis user is a native speaker of the English language. USThis user uses American English. he-0משתמש זה אינו מבין עברית (או מבין אותה בקשיים ניכרים).‏ Hebr-2 ש‎This user has an intermediate understanding of the Hebrew alphabet. la-1Hic usor simplici latinitate contribuere potest. Wikipedia AAWThis user is a member of the Association of Apathetic Wikipedians. WPC This user will get around to being a member of the Wikipedian Procrastination Club This user is a member of WikiProject Fraternities and Sororities. This user participates in WikiProject Judaism. This user participates in WikiProject Connecticut. This user regularly reads and responds to Requests for feedback. This user was a member of WikiProject Orthodox Judaism. This user is a member of the user warnings wikiproject. This user is proud to be a member of the Harmonious Editing Club. This user participates in WikiProject Wikipedia Awards. This editor is a WikiGnome. This user reserves the right to completely screw up his own edits. This user tries to do the right thing. If they make a mistake, please let them know. Elipongo has been active on Wikipedia for 20 years, 10 months and 10 days. This user scored 7755 on the Wikipediholic test (revision 181768688). DGAFThis user does not give a fuck. This user is a donor to the Wikimedia Foundation. You can be one, too. This user has rollback rights on the English Wikipedia. (verify) AWW DMBJ AWGC AWAI FDSP BATD MTADThis user is a member of the Association of Wikipedians Who Dislike Making Broad Judgments About the Worthiness of a General Category of Article, and Who Are in Favor of the Deletion of Some Particularly Bad Articles, but That Doesn't Mean They Are Deletionists. This user believes free images should be moved to the Commons. This user fights vandalism with Huggle and Twinkle. Sometimes simultaneously... Thank the IPThis user believes that vandal–reverting IP address editors should be rewarded or thanked for their efforts. This user enjoys cleaning up vandalism. User scriptsI'm using these userscripts: Popups, Friendly, Twinkle, WikEd, FURME → In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas. This user knows that replacing one bias with another is not cleanup. Wikipedia is not censored. This user respects copyright and other intellectual property rights. This user finds edit/revert wars disruptive. This user encourages the peaceful correction of vandals. UARThis editor believes that account creation should not be required on Wikipedia. This user welcomes new users with Twinkle! This user thinks that peacocks and weasels should be extinct in Wikipedia. This user thinks that Wikipedia is the best thing since sliced bread. ± strong support/ oppose This user thinks that when people support or oppose a proposal, they should dispense with the notion that by writing Strong Support or Strong Oppose, rather than simply Support or Oppose, their support or opposition counts more. WTF?This user ALWAYS leaves an edit summary. This editor uses AutoWikiBrowser to automate tedious repetitive tasks. <ref>This user would like to see everyone using inline citations. Please... This user doesn't own anything. This user is signed up for the Feedback Request Service. This user participates in WikiProject Freemasonry. This user is a member of WikiProject New York City assessments | recent changes | talk Location This user is a citizen of the United States of America. This user lives in, or hails from, New York City. This user lives in New England. This user lives in the U.S. State of Connecticut. This user grew up in a rural area. Indep homeThis user lives on his own. This user has left the planet Earth 0 times. This user has never left the Northern Hemisphere. 3This user has set foot in 3 continents of the world. 6This user has visited 6 of the 205 countries in the world. This user's time zone is EST. I am... This user is Jewish. This user is of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. This user is Modern Orthodox. This user is male. This user is single. 55YThis Wikipedian was born on 5 September 1969 and is 55 years, 10 months, and 28 days old. This user is a Freemason. This user is a Paramedic. This user is near sighted. This user has astigmatism. XThis user is a member of Generation X. This user is heterosexual. This user is not a biological parent. This user is right-handed. 18+This user is an adult. saneThis user is relatively sane and will not stab you when you sleep FS&CThis user is a brother in Triangle Fraternity. This user is a bicyclist. This user is car-free.‡ This user does not smoke. This user is drug-free. This user observes Shabbat. This user observes the dietary laws of Kashrut. This user is NOT known for taking themself too seriously. This user has a blood type of O (Rh) Rhesus Positive. This user was born during the Nixon administration. Activities This user overuses userboxes. This user tracks his money on Where's George? This user releases books at Bookcrossing. Beliefs Non nobis solum This user is not afraid of being wrong. This user is skeptical of the Zodiac. This user is a committed advocate of democracy. This user believes it is every citizen's duty to vote. This user does NOT support abortion except when a woman's life is at serious risk. This user is a skeptic. GOPThis user supports the United States Republican Party This user is against the war on drugs. I would say I'm a cynic but I bet you just wouldn't believe me. This user is interested in the belief that death is an acceptable part of life. This user believes that life is good. User:Lawyer2b/CCW This user is a masculist. This user is against DRM. Hanlon's RazorThis user never attributes to malice that which is best explained by stupidity. † This user respects women and rejects any violence against women. This user supports the troops in Iraq. This user supports flat taxes. This user is opposed to communism in both theory and practice. This user is skeptical of anthropogenic global warming. This user supports public transit. This user supports the use of nuclear energy. > This user knows that genetically modified food has saved over a billion lives, and that all agriculture is "genetic modification", what we do today is just faster. This user opposes monarchism. In Memoriam: 9/11 Lest we forget… EuThis user does NOT support euthanasia and is strongly opposed to all forms of eugenics. This user knows that free trade protects more jobs than tariffs do. This user supports jury nullification.‡ This user finds censorship offensive. This user was against the Disengagement Plan in Israel. This user supports President George W. Bush. LEGALThis user supports LEGAL Immigration. This user will never forget. This user supports Sarah Palin and John McCain !! Technology @This user can be reached by email at elipongo@gmail.com. This user maintains a facebook profile as Elias Friedman. + This user posts on X as @elipongo. G talkThis user's Google Talk screenname is elipongo. BThis user keeps a weblog at Blogger as elipongo's blog. This user has a profile on MySpace as elipongo. This user is an editor on Wikivoyage. BASICThis user can program in BASIC. This user uses Google as a primary search engine. This user uses Wikipedia as a primary point of reference. This user uses Gmail as a primary email service. C++This user can program in C++. BASICThis user can program in BASIC. forThis user can program in Fortran. This user can fairly easily contribute using either Firefox or Google Chrome. This user contributes using Microsoft Windows Vista. This user contributes using Notepad. This user contributes using a laptop. This user contributes using a wireless connection. BBThis user contributes using a broadband connection. This user uses Google Maps. This user has a LinkedIn profile as user elipongo. This user likes the Dogpile search engine. This user's Internet service provider is Verizon. intel CoreThis user contributes with a computer based on the Intel Core 2 Duo microprocessor. IPThis user has a dynamic IP address. This user's mobile phone and data-services provider is Verizon. This user writes with the OpenOffice.org suite. This user loves using Google Earth. This user's Casio Waveceptor watch is set to 12:16am. Preferences This user is attracted to red hair. ALLThis user is a fan of all kinds of comedy. This user eats bagels. This user eats chicken. This user prefers rare steak. This user enjoys their egg with the sunny side up. This user loves brownies. This user likes Chocolate Chip Cookies. This user's favorite ice cream flavor is mint chocolate chip. This user drinks chocolate milk. C2H5OH-1This user drinks relatively infrequently. he is probably the better for it. This user enjoys klezmer. This user likes most types of music. This user enjoys reading science fiction. This user enjoys comics. This user prefers warm weather. This user is interested in politics. This user is an omnivore. BM This user is repulsed by most forms of body modification. This user dislikes mosquitos. met?This user prefers metric units, but, having grown up in the United States, cannot relate to them. they he or sheThis user considers the singular they to be substandard English usage. snukThis user says snuck. to¦goThis user chooses to sometimes use split infinitives. byThe passive voice may be used by this user. …in.Ending a sentence with a preposition is something that this user is okay with. man- kindRegarding gender, this user prefers the vernacular, not what is politically correct. to too twoThis user thinks that too many people have no idea how to use words that they should have learned in grade two. whomThis user insists upon using whom wherever it is called for, and fixes the errors of whomever he sees. their there they'reThis user thinks that there are too many people who don’t know that they're worse than their own children at spelling! your you'reThis user thinks that if your grammar is incorrect, then you're in need of help. their, to, your, its, ... This users english is far from being perfect!. its it'sIt's really not that hard to use each word in its proper manner. ANAL 4This user advocates good grammar usage. This user enjoys the big band sound This user enjoys classical music. This user enjoys jazz music. This user enjoys reading Fantasy. This user reads science fiction. This user loves sunny days This user loathes, but is forced to observe, daylight saving time. Interests This user is a history buff. $\int e^{x}dx$ | I | N | T | E | G | R | A | L | S | My antiderivative $0.{\bar {9}}$=1 This user knows that 0.9...(repeating) is exactly 1 and can prove it, but wishes that other people could understand it the way he does. This user knows how to travel 1 mile due south, due east, then due north and end up where he started.† $\textstyle {\frac {\partial }{\partial x}}\,\;$ This user only partially understands mathematics. Three, plus a hair This user likes trigonometry. This user is interested in space sciences. Favorites This user's homeworld is mostly harmless. Narnia This user loves The Chronicles of Narnia. This user enjoys the works of Sherlock Holmes. HPThis user is a Harry Potter fan. This user is a hoopy frood who really knows where his towel is. This user enjoys the works of Robert A. Heinlein BB This user is on a mission from God. FCThis user does not talk about Fight Club. This user is a fan of the Austin Powers film series. Yeah, baby, yeah! 007This user likes martinis shaken, not stirred. ND This user voted for Pedro. This user's got a case of the Mondays. This user has a feeling that we're not in Kansas anymore. A person is smart; people are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it! This user thinks 2001: A Space Odyssey is the best science fiction film ever made. STAR WARSThis user is a Star Wars fan. PRODUCERSThis user keeps it gay! This user rejects your reality and substitutes their own! d'oh!This user thinks The Simpsons is simply... excellent. This user enjoys Star Trek. MWC A fat woman came into this user's shoe store today. M*A*S*HThis user understands: "the M stands for mobile". C&HThis user reads Calvin and Hobbes. SThis user fights for truth, justice and the American way! This user is a Monty Python fan. This user is a Marxist of the Groucho variety. This user knows Who's on First. This user likes George Washington. This user likes Alexander Hamilton. This user likes Thomas Paine. This user greatly admires Abraham Lincoln. This user thinks Ronald Reagan was an excellent president. This user knows the Ultimate Answer. This user enjoys music by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. This user enjoys music by Antonio Vivaldi. This user enjoys music by George Frideric Handel. This user enjoys music by Johann Sebastian Bach. This user enjoys music by Ludwig van Beethoven. This user enjoys music by Joseph Haydn. This user enjoys music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This user enjoys music by Antonín Dvořák. This user likes music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. This user visits Astronomy Picture of the Day every day. † This user is an Americophile. This user enjoys the works of David Brin. OSCThis user enjoys the works of Orson Scott Card. This user believes there ain't no such thing as a free lunch. This user's looking at you, kid. This user wants to make you an offer you can't refuse. 🐦 This user is the stuff that dreams are made of. This user believes any answer I give will be wrong and the Senior Drill Instructor will only beat this user harder if I reverse myself. Frankly my dear, this user doesn't give a damn. "Surely this user can't be serious?" Clue This user killed Yvette. This user hated her... so... much... It- It... the f-- It... Flame... Flames. Flames... On the side of my face... Breathing... Breathle-- Heaving breaths... Heaving... This user is a man-eating talking plant. This user will be back. FGThis user thinks Family Guy is freakin' sweet. LTIThis user embiggens Wikipedia with their cromulent editing! CheersSometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name. This user has just crossed into... The Twilight Zone. STAR TREKElipongo is a fan of Star Trek: The Original Series.TOS xkcdStand back! This user is going to try science with xkcd. Education This User attends or attended the University of Connecticut. ASThis user has an Associate of Science degree. Miscellaneus This user remembers using a rotary dial telephone. Ceci n'est pas une boîte utilisateur. This user needs more userboxes. MORE, I tell you, more!!! Muhahaha! This user's dog(s) died. This user's parents are dead. Wheaties, Cheerios, and Rice Chex This user prefers the cereal comma. Iи Sоviэт Яцssiд, Цsэяьож дdd УОЦ!! All your base are belong to this user. Put the number 25 in a calculator. Multiply by 800. Multiply by 266. Subtract 1,992. Then look at the calculator upside-down... This user loves tricks like this. This user would have liked Green Eggs and Ham, but will not eat them due to religious dietary laws. This user passed GO! (…so where is my $200?) This user knows how to Find x. KAZOOThis user plays the Kazoo. This user knows the dire side effects of dihydrogen monoxide. Do you? This user enjoys siesta.

Bio

My name is Elias Friedman (Hebrew: אליהו מתתיהו בן צבי). I'm a critical care paramedic living in the Upper West Side section of Manhattan in New York City. I moved here at the end of December 2008 from Connecticut.

I'm a 55 year old, single, Modern Orthodox Jewish male. I grew up in Ellington, Connecticut where I was the president of Congregation Knesseth Israel.

I got into EMS in 1997 when I started volunteering in Coventry. I got a job at a commercial ambulance service in 1999 when I was laid-off from my previous job as a Pellet mill operator in a feed mill. I got my Associate's degree from Manchester Community College in Mechanical Engineering in 2000 which was also the year I became an EMT-Intermediate. I was working on completing my B.S. in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Connecticut when September 11th made me re-think my priorities. I entered Hartford Hospital's Paramedic program and graduated in April 2004. My precepting was delayed to September due to my father's death that July, and I've had med-control since December 2004. In the first week of September 2008 I was laid off from my job at the Ambulance service of Manchester, but since I was already in the process of getting reciprocity of my paramedic license for New York, it didn't let it upset me too much. In December of 2008 I started to work for SeniorCare EMS which has bases in both the Bronx and in Brooklyn, I quite enjoy working there! In the Summer of 2012 I became a volunteer paramedic member of West Side Hatzolah so I can better help my local community as well.

Ready for a bicycle ride!

The second half of my username is derived from my Dalmatian, Pongo, who died in March 2006, just a week shy of his sixteenth birthday.

I really enjoy my working in EMS, my friends have remarked (positively!) that I love to talk about my work. Getting up out of bed to go to work isn't an effort of willpower like it had often been at my previous jobs. My health and stress level are better than they have ever been, of course that's partly attributable to my taking up year-round bicycle commuting the eleven miles to work. I really think that I've found my niche.

I am a member of the Connecticut Chapter of Triangle Fraternity, the Republican Jewish Coalition, the Republican National Committee, and the NAEMT. I am a master Freemason. I am a former member of the ASME

Wikipedia ads	file info – show another – #158

float

Wiki stats

N.B. These edit counts tend to move down over time as pages (and my edits) get deleted.

• My first (registered) edit diff. Awww, they're all so cute when they're young!
• My 500^th edit diff. Just wikignoming around.
• My 1,000^th edit diff. Wouldn't you just figure it would have to do with vandalism...
• My 5,000^th edit diff. Yeah, a pretty dumb one...
• My 10,000^th edit diff. Cleaning up incoming links to disambiguation pages.

Things I'm working on

Feel free to help out on any of these items!

Existing pages

float

• Bulkeley Bridge
• Captain John Bissell Memorial Bridge
• Congregation Knesseth Israel— I can't do too much more here because I have a conflict of interest, but I hope that others will help out.
• Connecticut
• Dexter Coffin Bridge
• Ellington Airport (Connecticut)
• Ellington, Connecticut
• Ellington High School
• Etiquette in Latin America, orphaned references etc from unfixed deletions of citations.
• Hartford, Connecticut
• History of Connecticut industry
• Icebiking
• List of beaches in New England
• List of Lieutenant Governors of Connecticut
• List of U.S. state songs
• Manchester, Connecticut
• Manchester Road Race
• Motorola#Trivia
• Neighborhoods of Hartford, Connecticut
• Nullification— Dab page that needs cleanup per MoS:DAB and has a whole article on its talk page that should go somewhere, if it hasn't already.
• Park River (Connecticut)
• Papoose
• Sean Sullivan
• The Shoppes at Buckland Hills
• Thomas Joseph Meskill
• WikiProject Connecticut— lots of work to do here!

Pages yet to be created

• History of racism in Connecticut
• List of U.S. state heroines— I think that only CT & MA have one.

To do

• Write up report on Lord & Taylor vandal for WP:LTA
• Create navigation template for Investment banks

Community

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• WikiProject Kabbalah is re-activating as there are a lot of maintenance templates on these articles and new references and inline citations are needed. See Kabbalah Books Online. New participants welcome!! Nnev66 (talk) 23:07, 26 May 2025 (UTC)
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• WP Unreferenced articles is trying to clear the decades-long backlog of unreferenced articles. The backlog recently reached under 67,000 -- down from 90,000 half a year ago. Come contribute! Mrfoogles (talk) 21:44, 12 March 2025 (UTC)

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Parsha

Weekly Torah Portion

Va'etchanan (ואתחנן)

Deuteronomy 3:23–7:11

The Weekly Torah portion in synagogues on Shabbat, Saturday, 8 Av, 5785—August 2, 2025

“And now, O Israel, give heed to the laws and rules that I am instructing you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you.” (Deuteronomy 4:1.)

view of the Dead Sea from Mount Nebo

Moses pleaded with God to let him cross over and see the land on the other side of the Jordan River. But God was wrathful with Moses on account of the Israelites and would not listen, telling Moses never to speak of the matter again. God directed Moses to climb the summit of Pisgah and gaze about to look at the land. And God told Moses to give Joshua his instructions and imbue him with strength and courage, for Joshua was to lead the people and allot to them the land.

Moses exhorted the Israelites to heed God's laws, not to add anything to them, and not to take anything away from them, so that they might live to enter and occupy the land that God was giving them. Moses noted that in the sin of Baal-peor, God wiped out every person who followed Baal-peor, while preserving alive those who held fast to God. Moses argued that observing the laws faithfully would prove to other peoples the Israelites’ wisdom and discernment, for no other great nation had a god so close at hand as God, and no other great nation had laws and rules as perfect as God’s.

“The mountain was ablaze with flames” (Deut. 4:11.)

Moses urged the Israelites to take utmost care not to forget the things that they saw, and to make them known to their children and children's children: How they stood before God at Horeb, the mountain was ablaze with flames, God spoke to them out of the fire, and God declared to them the Ten Commandments. At the same time, God commanded Moses to impart to the Israelites laws for them to observe in the land that they were about to occupy.

The Moon

Because the Israelites saw no shape when God spoke to them out of the fire at Horeb, Moses warned them not to make for themselves a sculptured image in any likeness whatever — the form of a man, woman, beast, bird, creeping thing, or fish. And when they looked up and saw the Sun, Moon, stars, and heaven, they were not to be lured into bowing down to them or serving them, for God allotted those things to other peoples, but God took the Israelites and brought them out of Egypt to be God’s very own people.

Moses said that God was angry with him on account of the Israelites, and God swore that Moses would not enter the land but would die in the land east of the Jordan. Moses cautioned the Israelites not to forget the covenant that God concluded with them, and not to make a sculptured image, for God is a consuming fire, an impassioned God.

Moses called heaven and earth to witness against the Israelites that should they make for themselves a sculptured image when they were in the land, then God would scatter them among the peoples, leaving only a scant few alive. There in exile they would serve man-made gods of wood and stone, that would not be able to see, hear, eat, or smell. But when they were in distress and they searched for God with all their heart and soul, returned to God, and obeyed God, then they would find God, even there. For God is a compassionate God, Who would not fail them, let them perish, or forget the covenant that God made with their fathers.

Moses invited the Israelites to consider whether in any time or space any people had ever heard the voice of a god speaking out of a fire and survived, or any god had taken one nation from the midst of another by prodigious acts and awesome power as their God had done for them in Egypt before their very eyes. Moses said that it had been clearly demonstrated to them that the Lord alone is God and there is none beside God. Moses thus admonished them to observe God’s laws and commandments, which Moses enjoined upon them that day, that it might go well with them and their children, and that they might long remain in the land that God was assigning to them for all time.

Then Moses set aside three cities of refuge on the east side of the Jordan to which a manslayer who unwittingly slew a person without having been hostile to him in the past could escape and live: Bezer among the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead among the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan among the Manassites.

Moses summoned the Israelites and called on them to hear the laws and rules that he proclaimed that day, to study them and observe them faithfully. At Horeb, God made a covenant with them — not with their fathers, but with them, the living, every one of them. God spoke to them face to face out of the fire on the mountain. Moses stood between God and them to convey God’s words to them, for they were afraid of the fire and did not go up the mountain. God said the Ten Commandments:

1768 Decalogue parchment by Jekuthiel Sofer

• “I the Lord am your God.”
• “You shall have no other gods beside Me. You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters below the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them.”
• “You shall not swear falsely by the name of the Lord your God.”
• “Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy.”
• “Honor your father and your mother.”
• “You shall not murder.”
• “You shall not commit adultery.”
• “You shall not steal.”
• “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”
• “You shall not covet your neighbor's |wife. You shall not crave your neighbor's house, or his field, or his male or female slave, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor's.”

God spoke these words to the whole congregation at the mountain, with a mighty voice out of the fire and the dense clouds, and God inscribed them on two tablets of stone, which God gave to Moses. When the Israelites heard the voice out of the darkness and saw the mountain ablaze with fire, the tribal heads and elders asked Moses to hear all that God had to say and then tell the people, and they would willingly obey.

tefillin for the arm

a mezuzah

And Moses imparted God’s instruction, the Shema and V'ahavta, saying: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words, which I command you this day, shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when thou rise up. And you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes. And you shall write them upon the doorposts of your house, and upon your gates.”

Moses exhorted the Israelites, when God brought them into the land and they ate their fill, not to forget the God who freed them from bondage in Egypt, to revere and worship only God, and to swear only by God’s name. Moses warned the Israelites not to follow other gods, any gods of the people about them, lest the anger of God blaze forth against them and wipe them off the face of the earth. Moses warned the Israelites not to try God, as they did at Massah, but to keep God’s commandments and do what is right in God’s sight, that it might go well with them, that they might be able to possess the land, and that all their enemies might be driven out before you them. And when their children would ask the meaning of the commandments, they were to answer that they were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and God wrought before them marvelous and destructive signs and portents, freed them with a mighty hand to give them the land, and then commanded them to observe all these laws for their lasting good and survival.

Moses told the Israelites that when God brought them to the land and dislodged seven nations before them — the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites — the Israelites were to doom them to destruction, grant them no terms, and give them no quarter. The Israelites were not to intermarry with them, for they would turn the Israelites' children away from God to worship other gods, and God’s anger would blaze forth against the Israelites and wipe them out. The Israelites were to tear down their altars, smash their pillars, cut down their sacred posts, and consign their images to the fire.

The Israelites were a people consecrated to God, and God chose them from all the peoples on earth to be God’s treasured people. God chose them not because they were the most numerous of peoples, but because God favored them and kept the oath God made with their fathers. Moses told them to note that only God is God, the steadfast God who keeps God's covenant faithfully to the thousandth generation of those who love God and keep God’s commandments, but who instantly requites with destruction those who reject God.

Hebrew and English text
Hear the parshah chanted
Commentary from the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the American Jewish University (Conservative)
Commentary from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (Conservative)
Commentary by the Union for Reform Judaism (Reform)
Commentaries from Project Genesis (Orthodox)
Commentaries from Chabad.org (Orthodox)
Commentaries from Aish HaTorah (Orthodox)
Commentaries from the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation (Reconstructionist)
Commentaries from My Jewish Learning (trans-denominational)

Commentaries from Aleph Beta Academy

Thanks!

Awards & barnstars

For your contributions to Wikipedia and humanity in general, you are hereby granted the coveted Random Smiley Award
originated by Pedia-I
(Explanation and Disclaimer)

♠TomasBat (@)(Contribs)(Sign!) 21:54, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

		The Original Barnstar
		For your willingness to help a new user in a difficult and time-consuming situation, with little potential for any appreciation at all, I am delighted to award you this barnstar. Thank you for trying to keep a new editor contributing! Accounting4Taste:talk 16:20, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

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On 4 January, 2008, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Republic of Lakotah, which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

--Royalbroil 16:43, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

		The Real-Life Barnstar
		Given to me and other attendees of the March 2008 New York City meetup by Mindspillage (talk · contribs)

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For protecting my user page and user talk page. Razorflame 03:55, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

This is for being a damn good vandal fighter and for beating me to reverting vandalism on many occasions. Keep up the great work! --Kukini ^{háblame aquí} 16:20, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

Your thoroughness requires a cookie. Any other reward would be insufficient. Rob Banzai (talk) 22:38, 16 May 2008 (UTC)