Prepare (spiritually and logistically) for the High Holidays

Ki Tetze
Deuteronomy 21:10 - 25:19

Précis: The parasha describes the creation of a just and moral society once the People enter the Land. This parasha, according to Maimonides, contains more commandments than any other - over 70 of the 613 contained in the Torah. Laws concerning battle, treatment of prisoners, the rights of first-born and dealing with disobedient children follow. The next section concerns care for corpses, restoration of lost property, and kindness to animals. A mixed assortment of commands, the source of many rabbinic rulings, include requirements that there be sex-distinct clothing; that mother birds not be separated from their eggs; that roof-tops have parapets; that seeds not be mixed in a field, and that “tzitzit” (fringes) be worn on garments. Laws related to marriage, adultery, maintaining the ritual purity of the camp, charging interest, vows, divorce, and justice to the widow, orphan, and stranger are listed. The parasha concludes with commands for the kind treatment of animals and Levirate marriage.



Deuteronomy 21:10 “When you take the field against your enemies, and the Eternal your God delivers them into your power and you take some of them captive . . .”

An interesting grammatical question is raised by the opening words of the parasha (Ki tetze lamilchamah - "When you [an Israelite warrior] go out to war"). The verb is in the singular form. We can assume that the wars envisioned in the parasha were not being fought by a single individual, but by an Israelite army. Why, then, is the commandment in the singular?

The Baal Shem Tov suggests that the Torah’s choice of the singular voice should be understood not to define the physical battlefield, but rather the inner struggle that every individual faces. We should read the parasha as referring to the ongoing personal war between our “evil inclination” (yetzer hara) and our “good inclination” (yetzer hatov).

This understanding of the text is appropriate during the month of Elul, as we prepare for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Now is the time when we begin to take the measure of our lives, and to determine how often we have sought the “better angels” of our lives, and how frequently we have yielded ourselves to the temptations of the yetzer hara.

The parasha reminds us that this is a battle – and not merely a metaphoric one. It is a battle between good and evil, between morality and immorality, between care for others and self-absorption. It is a battle in which we need to be open to God’s promise of deliverance.

A Scroll is more than a Scroll

Shoftim

Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9

Précis: The parasha Shoftim (literally, “judges”) is devoted primarily to various themes of justice, and includes warnings against false testimony, idol worship, and the dangers of mortal kings. The parasha includes regulations for rulers, and also warns the people against false prophets, magicians, soothsayers and witches. It establishes requirements for cities of refuge in the Promised Land. In short, the parasha is devoted to ways to create a just society in the Land of Israel.

Deuteronomy 17:18 “When he (the king) is seated on his royal thrown, he shall have a copy of this Teaching written on a scroll by the Levitical priests. Let it remain with him and let him read it all his life…”

In the midst of a discussion of rules regarding the king (in addition to being native-born, the king may not keep too many horses or too many wives, nor should he amass silver and gold “to excess”), we see that the king is also to be guided by Torah.

The need for repetition which the entire Book is about (Deuteronomy comes from the Greek meaning “second telling”) is underscored in this particular verse, where the king is to have a physical scroll of Torah by his side. Midrash suggests that it was his responsibility to copy the scroll himself, but that if he lacked the skill, this could be delegated to the Priests as suggested in the cited verse. The Midrash underscores the importance not only of the Law itself, but of the physical scroll we commonly refer to as "Torah."

In the Washington DC area, we have recently experienced something akin to a scandal about Torah scrolls. A local rabbi and scribe has been leading an effort to “rescue” previously "lost" Holocaust scrolls from Europe, to restore them to “kosher” status, and to make them important symbols in congregations (in both the United States and in Europe). Some have accused the rabbi of being overly elaborate (if not disingenuous) about the provenance of some of these scrolls, and the organization which supports him in this rescue effort has recently signed an agreement with civil authorities not to make claims about scroll provenance without documentary evidence.

This episode reminds us of how precious the Torah scroll is to us, not only for its contents, but also because of its symbolic importance. In some congregations, Torah processions take on a semi-talismanic aspect, bordering almost on a form of idolatry (which is the opposite of the prohibitions of this parasha).

On the other hand, this verse reminds us of the importance of the actual, written scroll itself. The society envisioned by Torah can be sustained only when leaders and the community follow its precepts, and both need the comfort and guidance of a physical scroll as a symbol of that goal.