There is an especially enlightning Targum this week which is worth focusing on. The Torah calls the idol worship and gold & silver of the (imoral) nations of the land “to’eva” – which literally means abomination. The Targum translates [/explains] this word with the word ‘merachaka’ – meaning that which creates a distance. The idea is that those sins described as to’eva simply those which create greatest distance between us and HaShem – a bad thing. The reason for this is that if one looks through the sins described as to’eva, one can see that they involve taking a power/strength which ordinarily is to be used for high spiritual output, and instead using it for bad. Our example in our sedra involves taking the spiritual power of Eretz Yisrael and using it for negative – as places of avodah zarah, etc. This term to’eva is also used (gemarra shabbes 10a) to describe someone who uses tefillah to escape from their obligation of learning torah – again an example of using an immense spiritual power (tefillah) for bad. pG we should use mitzvos as mitzvos and opportunities to get closer to HaShem. Amen!