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.