Ki Tavo
Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8
Précis: The parasha continues, from the reading last week, numerous concerns regarding the formation of a civil and moral community (including tithes of first fruits and tithes to support the Levites). The People are promised that if they follow God’s instructions, they will be transformed into a “holy people.” They are further instructed that they have a choice in their own destiny: there are blessings and curses (the “Admonition”), and they must to choose between the two - and take the consequences. The parasha ends with Moses reminding the People about all that God had done for them in bringing them from Egypt, providing sustenance, defeating their foes, and giving them the Land.
Deuteronomy 29:1-5 “Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: You have seen all that Adonai did before your very eyes in the land of Egypt…the wondrous feats that you saw with your own eyes, those prodigious signs and marvels. Yet until this day Adonai has not given you a mind to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear. I led you through the wilderness forty years; the clothes on your back did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet….”
The verse tells us about a generation which has had personal knowledge and experience of God’s daily blessings and miracles. However, they had also failed to grasp either the bounty which had been provided to them or the source of that bounty. They appear like ungrateful children, feeling entitled to the largess of their parents.
The text suggests that the reason for their lack of appreciation was that “until this day” God had not provided them with a means of understanding His miracles - that God had not endowed them with the kind of self-awareness needed to appreciate His gifts or to learn from the past. The text goes on, however, to let us know that we now have the kind of awareness necessary to appreciate all that is good in the universe – and of its Source.
Our inability to draw lessons from the past, particularly to appreciate the support, encouragement, and gifts given us by others, is a weakness most human beings share. We are too often quick to claim credit for our achievements without acknowledging that any success we have attained rests on others’ shoulders.
We all (and this may be doubly true for Jewish communal professionals) are fairly quick to note when others fail to mention our contributions to their good outcomes. We need to make sure that we acknowledge and appreciate the contributions which others have made on our behalf. Expressing those thanks in the days leading to Rosh Hashana is particularly appropriate.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Thursday, August 19, 2010
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.
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.
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