Parshas Ki Tavo: A Stated Relationship

 Elul… It’s a complicated time of year. Here in the 21^st century, most of us are very busy getting ready or jumping into the start of the school year – whether with our families or as teachers. Cities and communities around the northern hemisphere have a different pace, and in the great duality in which we live, it is not difficult to lose sight of Elul.

 “Ani l’dodi, v dodi li” – I am to my beloved and my beloved is to me. These powerful words of Shlomo Hamelech, one noted anagram of Elul, seem like a sweet, perhaps gentle, reminder of the relationship we are meant to have with Hashem. But, the truth is that the idea of a relationship with Hashem, of being Hashem’s beloved and making certain that Hashem is your beloved, is, dare I say it, challenging. Do God and I even speak the same language? I am needy, and Hashem is…everything! I make requests, and Hashem sends me what is best – even if I can’t understand it. Yet, having a relationship with Hashem is FUNDAMENTAL to being Jewish.

 Interestingly, this idea is reflected in this week’s parsha, Parshas Ki Tavo. The third aliyah of the parsha is just 4 pasukim long:

“(16)This day, the Lord, your God, is commanding you to fulfill these statutes and ordinances, and you will observe and fulfill them with all your heart and with all your soul. (17) You have selected the Lord this day, to be your God, and to walk in His ways, and to observe His statutes, His commandments and His ordinances, and to obey Him. (18) And the Lord has selected you this day to be His treasured people, as He spoke to you, and so that you shall observe all His commandments, (19) and to make you supreme, above all the nations that He made, [so that you will have] praise, a [distinguished] name and glory; and so that you will be a holy people to the Lord, your God, as He spoke.” (Devarim 26:16-19).

 The middle two verses note that “You” have selected Hashem and Hashem has selected “You.” There is a mutual choice, a two-sided desire to look toward the other – put in layman’s terms. That is the essence of a relationship – two sides seeking each other out. In this case, however, that interwoven relationship carries over into pasuk 19, when Hashem elevates the nation so that they can be holy. This shift, this elevation, is necessary in order for them to fulfil their role in the world.

 But let us look more closely at the wording in these verses. In this translation, which is from the Chabad website, verses 17 and 18 use the term “selected,” but the Hebrew is actually far more interesting: Heh’emarta and Heh’emritech. This is not the typical root for the word “Chose” (a synonym of selected), which is bachar. Rather, it is a derivative of the word “Speak” – Amar. It is, according to Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsh, a unique usage of the word in the Hiphil form, and it “can mean nothing else than to cause somebody else to say something.”

 When translated thus, Rav Hirsh understood the pasukim to say: “You have brought it about, you have caused it to be said that He must be your God; and God has caused it to be said that you must be an עם סגולה to Him That is to say Israel’s solemn promise to God and God’s pledged Word to Israel has not remained, so to say, a private matter, it has become internationally known, a fact engraved in the mind of the world. Henceforth one designates God as ‘the God of the Jews’, and Israel as ‘the People of God’” (Translation from Sefaria).

 This section of Ki Tavo was isolated into its own aliyah, perhaps, because within itself there is such an important message. We must, of course, be constantly aware of our individual relationship with Hashem, but we must also be aware that our collective relationship with Hashem – as a united nation since the verses do have a singular grammatic structure – is not just between us and our God. It’s public. It has influence. It is beyond our selves.

 When we celebrate our relationship with Hashem in Elul, we are moving forward toward the ultimate goal of crowning Hashem King on Rosh Hashana. We are coming to the place where we announce, where we loudly proclaim, Hashem is king, and in so doing we cause ourselves to be proclaimed, again, as His people.

 I wish you all a beautiful Shabbas and a meaningful Elul.

Parshas Shoftim: Don’t Jump to Conclusions

 Parshas Shoftim: Don’t Jump to Conclusions

 Dedicated to a refuah shelaima for Yehudis bas Leah, Yona Yaakova bas Mina, Chana Zelda bat Gittel Yita, Mindel Batsheva bat Nechama Zelda, Chaya Sarah bas Esther Leah, Moshe Aaron ben Necha Itta, Binyamin ben Simcha, and Yaakov ben Esther Malka.

 Information – it is the currency of the age of the internet, and it’s something we all need to be incredibly careful with. It would be fair to say that now, more than ever, we can see how easily disinformation spreads into misinformation. For those unclear in the distinction, disinformation is deliberate, while misinformation unintentionally spreads falsehood or distortions. The corruption of information is happening currently on several global levels, but it is also constantly happening within our everyday societies. But it isn’t a new phenomena.

In this week’s parsha, Moshe warns the people against those who go to worship the deities of the people in the land, who would follow false gods or worship celestial bodies. These people, we learn in Devarim 17:5,are to be stoned to death. Stoning is particularly horrible death.

Of the many sins that are out there, serving avodah zara is in a category of its own. It is a betrayal of Hashem and everything the Jewish community is meant to stand for, and it damages the fabric of the community. However, it is also an act that often lacks concrete proof. Yes, the Torah here talks about offering an animal, but in Devarim yud-bet (12) the Torah records that the people may cook meat away from the Mishkan. How do I keep my Sunday barbeque from being mistaken as an offering? – ha ha. While that may be said with a humorous tone, we know from history, and from current times, how easily facts can be twisted and how readily one might come to do so against an “enemy.” Of this, Jewish law is very aware, and so Devarim 17:4 –  “and this is reported to you, and you hear it, and you investigate it thoroughly; and it is found to be true because the evidence agrees, establishing that this abomination has been committed in Israel;”

We don’t just take a report at face value. We don’t take the first word of someone coming and accusing. We hear it; we listen to the details to understand if there is weight to the words. One could, perhaps, add, that the hearing includes weighing the tone in which the accusation is made, understanding the nuances of neighbors. We receive the report and hear it, and we “investigate it thoroughly.”

The Torah is, as we mentioned, talking about avodah zarah, but the fact is that Devarim 17:4 is a pasuk that can stand alone and tells us how to live in this world. When you hear something about a neighbor, when you suspect something about a situation, or when you are told details about …well, in truth, about just about anything… it is your responsibility to investigate it fully. Don’t believe reports of evil, for reports can be distorted – even witnesses can be distorted, as we understand from Moshe’s exhortation here that there must be at least 2 witnesses for guilt to be established. This ensures some level of veracity and objectivity and that the report does not come from some sort of vendetta or ill will.

We have just entered the month of Elul, and there is less than a month until the great day of annual judgement comes. Now we must turn these ideas upon ourselves. As we approach the Yomim Noaraim, we begin to reflect upon our actions in the year that has passed – and often the things we declare and despair of are things we made great in our own mind. Now, at this auspicious time of the year, we report on ourselves to ourselves, and then we must take the opportunity to hear, to really listen, to our tainas (minor grudges) and transgressions. Now, here in the month of Elul, we must examine ourselves thoroughly, for good or for ill.

True cheshbon hanefesh, a self-accounting, requires this level of inquiry. The process of teshuva is not meant to be one of self-flagellation, of punishing oneself and making one feel like a terrible human being. The process of cheshbon hanefesh is meant to make us see the ways in which we need to improve. Teshuva, repentance, is incomplete unless it includes some level of change, even a small one, that will be a barrier to repeating the same aveira. One cannot complete this process if one is busy raking themselves over the coals, so to speak.

May this little Torah give you a zest for the needed work of Elul, and may you remember that just as one witness is not enough, you are not witness enough to condemn yourself. May we all merit to be successful in our teshuva, one step at a time. 

Good Shabbas