A Time to Choose

Ki Tavo

Deut. 26:1-29:8

Précis: The parasha contains numerous religious mandates 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.

Deut. 26:16-18  “The Lord your God commands you this day to observe these laws and rules; observe them faithfully and with all your heart and soul. You have affirmed on this day the Lord is your God, that you will walk in His ways, that you will observe His laws and commandments and rules, and that you will obey them. And the Lord has affirmed this day that you are, as He promised you, His treasured people who shall observe all of His commandments, and that He will set you, in fame and renown and glory, high above all the nations that He made; and that you shall be, as He promised, a holy people to the Lord your God.”

     We have in these verses a proof-text for the special relationship between God and the Jewish People, based on an exchange of mutual vows (the Covenant), the result of which is that the Jews are to be a “treasured people…set…in fame and renown and glory high above all the nations.” In short, we are God’s "Chosen People."

     In these days of multi-culturalism on the one hand and radical religious extremism on the other, what can we glean from these verses and the concepts which they present to us?

     Read literally, we are taught that Jews are to be place high above other nations if we observe the commandments which our ancestors have sworn to do. In so doing, we become “holy” as well as “treasured.” Reality tells us that, to the contrary, we have been nearly universally despised and treated with ill will ranging from contempt to outright mass murder.

     History teaches us that The Jewish People have rarely obeyed the commandments, yet we have held fast to the idea that “if only” we actually followed the commandments, we would be the beneficiaries of God’s blessings. Despite the repeated violations recorded by our prophets and our texts, God never drops his side of the contract. 

     My evidence is that we, the Jewish People, are indeed unique in surviving as a people for millennia without a land, riven by religious differences, strained by baseless hatred of our fellow Jews, ignoring the commandments and laws our ancestors pledged (but failed) to obey, and being the objects of scorn by other peoples. Something is at play which transcends our mere survival. I think it is the continuing striving and wrestling within ourselves to observe what these verses declare, knowing that it is within our power to become a true nation of priests, a holy people. This is indeed something to be thinking about as we come towards the Yamim Noraim.

Such an insignificant mitzvah

Ki Tetze

Deut. 21:10 - 25:19

Précis:  The parasha might be subtitled “entering society” because it describes the creation of a just and moral social network. It begins with the phrase “when you go forth” (ki tetze) to battle. This parasha, according to Maimonides, contains 72 mitzvot (commandments). Although they seem unrelated, they all deal with the morals and values that God wanted to be deeply implanted in the Israelites' society. They cover a wide variety of topics, from family life, human kindness, respect for property and animals, the safety of others, sexual relationships, escaped slaves, financial loans and charging interest, keeping promises, and remembering to blot out the name of one of Israel's greatest enemies. This assortment of commands included 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.

Deut. 22:6 "If [walking] along the road, you chance upon a bird's nest . . . and the mother is sitting over the fledglings or on the eggs, do not take the mother together with her young. Let the mother go and take only the young, in order that you may fare well and have a long life").

            Rabbi Irving Greenberg has written (MyJewishLearning.com 8/28/12) “the reward of long life for the seemingly simple commandment of shooing away a mother bird before taking her young teaches us that no act is trivial.”

This week’s reading, containing as it does more commandments than any other parasha, provides an opportunity of weighing the importance of each mitzvah on some kind of “mitzvah scale.” We know that saving a life (b’kuach nefesh) trumps other mitzvot (even allowing one to desecrate the Shabbat). According to the Sages, this particular mitzvah is called the “lightest” or most insubstantial of all of the mitzvot. Merely approaching a mother bird on her nest will usually result in the bird flitting away. Why should such an easy to accomplish mitzvah offer a specific reward of “long life?” In fact, this reward is identical to what is promised for fulfilling the commandment to honor one’s parents!

The Sages respond: every action has importance and is significant. This is a lesson which certainly applies to Jewish communal professionals, to parents, spouses, and to children as well. Sometimes, it’s the “small” things we do (a warm greeting on Shabbat, a comfortably handled response to special needs for seats on the holidays, attending a shivah minyan, helping an elderly neighbor bring grocery bags in) which may have great value.

This verse reminds us of another important aspect of Jewish history and tradition. According to Talmud, Rabbi Elisha ben Abuyah was a rabbi of significant authority in midrashic times. The story is related that he observed a young boy climbing a tree, and dutifully fulfilling the mitzvah of this verse before collecting the eggs in the nest. He watched the boy then fall to his death. This created a crisis of belief, since the promise of the Torah had obviously not been fulfilled. Because of his shaken faith, he was named “Acher” (“the other”) in Talmudic literature. But despite his heretical status, his opinions were not stricken from Rabbinic writings. From this we learn that our tradition honors wisdom from all sources.

As to the verse itself, Maimonides has written in his laws of repentance that we should consider the world to be perfectly balanced between good and evil, between life and death; our next act, even if minor or trivial, can tilt  the entire world towards one side or the other. We need to act mindfully and chose life.