Parashat Ki Tavo

            Shabbat Shalom! In this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Ki Tavo, Moses is wrapping up his Deuteronomy-long final address to the people. From here on out, it’s a lot about blessings and curses, about choosing to do the mitzvot or choosing to turn away from them. Here is where the Israelites start to be really pushed to understand all that they agreed to back at Sinai, and what their responsibilities will be upon entering the Promised Land, how to uphold their end of the covenant to the One who led them safely out of slavery through the wilderness and right into the land flowing with milk and honey.

There’s a part in the parasha where Moses instructs them to find two specific mountains upon entering the Holy Land, and he splits the tribes up, telling some tribes to climb one mountain and the others to climb the opposite mountain. One mountain gets to shout all the blessings, “If you heed the word of the Lord you will be blessed in the city and the country … in your comings and your goings… etc.” And all the people will respond, “Amen”. The other mountain gets to shout all the curses, “If you don’t heed the word of the Lord you shall be cursed in the country and in the city … in your comings and your goings … etc.” And all the people will respond “Amen.” I once taught this scene to second graders by splitting the class in half and giving each student in the blessing half to share something good, “Bless ice cream!” The other half had a chance to share something negative, “Curse homework!” and then after each child shared their blessing or their curse, the rest of the class had to respond, “Amen”. We talked about gratitude and responsibility and why some rules are important to keep us safe and to teach us how to be good people. It was a lot of fun, and I think most of the kids got the message, though for sure some just enjoyed shouting what they liked or didn’t like.

A little earlier in the parasha, we find the words I just read: “The LORD your God commands you this day to observe these laws and rules; observe them faithfully with all your heart and soul. You have affirmed this day that 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 Him. And the LORD has affirmed this day that you are, as He promised you, His treasured people who shall observe all His commandments, and that He will set you, in fame and renown and glory, high above all the nations that He has made; and that you shall be, as He promised, a holy people to the LORD your God.” On these passages, Rashi says, “When it says ‘this day’. God means that each day the mitzvot should be to you as something new, as though you had received the commands that very day for the first time.” Sforno adds that in this way, the mitzvot will guide us to “try and emulate God’s characteristics to the extent that God has seen fit to reveal them to each of us; to the best of our abilities we are to understand the meaning of life through the lens of Torah and to teach it.”

On Wednesday, I took a Talmud class with the radically traditional yeshiva Svara. The instructor explained that the name of the program, Svara, comes from one of the principles by which Jewish law is derived in the Talmud, and it translates roughly as moral intuition. She reminded us that it is our duty as Jews, as studiers of Jewish law each in our own right, to follow our own moral intuition. Using the Torah, tradition, and our ancestors as our guide, we must make the mitzvot new and relevant for ourselves each day, and rely on our own svara to enable us to emulate the Divine and to teach others to do the same. I believe that each person in this room has the ability to do this. I have had the opportunity to see it up close with some of you, in conversations about Judaism and God, in all manner of classes and holiday celebrations. It renews my own love for Judaism and my ability to experience these daily prayers and rituals as new when I see others doing the same. In this way, we are able to lift each other up, and carry on the Jewish people.

May each of you discover your own love of Torah, filled with complexity and God-wrestling, that each day may feel new and Divine. Amen and Shabbat Shalom.