Ki Teitzei

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A D’var Torah for Parashat Ki Teitzei
By Rabbi Matthew Goldstone

The topics of racism and racial justice have been on many of our minds over the past several months. One particular issue that I have been thinking about is that while many of us might decry racism, we may nevertheless unwittingly be participants in perpetuating policies and practices that reinforce racial inequality. We are not alone in this, nor is it a purely modern phenomenon. Already in the Torah we find judgmental assumptions based upon ancestry rather than individuality.

Our parasha this week delineates several categories of people who are not permitted to enter into the congregation of the Israelites, including the Ammonites and the Moabites. Anyone belonging to these groups is automatically labelled as unacceptable because their ancestors “did not meet you with food and water on your journey after you left Egypt and because they hired Balaam son of Beor, from Pethor Read More >

A D’var Torah for Parashat Ki Tetzei
By Rabbi Bruce Alpert (’11)

As a rabbinical student, I attended a lecture taught by a sofer – a scribe – who demonstrated for us some of the tools he used in creating a Torah scroll. Among them was a sheet of parchment covered with ink blotches. The scribe showed us how, before beginning to work on the scroll, he would inscribe the name Amalek on this sheet and then blot it out. Thus did he honor (if not exactly fulfill) the commandments in this week’s Torah portion to both remember Amalek and erase the memory of him (Deuteronomy 25:17-19).

This exercise strikes me as a clever if incomplete way of dealing with apparently contradictory commandments. There are other places in Deuteronomy where we are asked to reconcile commandments or statements that are at odds with each other. Notably, two weeks ago, in Parashat Re’eh, we read first that “there shall be Read More >

Restoring What Has Been Lost
A D’var Torah for Parashat Ki Teitzei
by Rabbi Rena Kieval (’06)

When life gets busy, with many distractions, I have a tendency to misplace objects: my keys, my cell phone, or a piece of mail with important information. Most of us have had the experience of losing an item whose absence disrupts the tasks of daily life. When that happens, a possession can take on an importance out of proportion to its true value. Even when we lose an object that is not especially essential, something feels awry, out of kilter. Lost objects can have a strange power, an ability to make everything feel disrupted.  Conversely, when a lost object is located or returned, the relief can be huge: order seems to be restored.

The mitzvah of hashavat aveidah, the obligation to return lost objects to their owner, is stressed in the Torah and later rabbinic tradition.  Parashat Ki Teitzei includes this mitzvah among its treasure trove Read More >

by Rabbi Isaac Mann

Parashat Ki Tetze is replete with laws and regulations, some of which are found elsewhere in the Torah and some of which are partially or completely new. It would appear that the section towards the end of the parashah (Deut. 25:13-16) that deals with honest weights and measures is of the former type. The Torah here specifies that one may not have two types of weighing stones in one’s pouch – a large one and a small one (even gedolah u’ketanah) – nor may one have two types of ephahs (an ephah is an ancient Hebrew measure) in one’s home – a large one and a small one (ephah gedolah u’ketanah). These items were used for weighing and measuring merchandise that was bought and sold. But rather one must have only an honest stone (even shelemah va-tzedek) and an honest ephah (ephah shelemah va-tzedek).

As Rashi explains, quoting the Sifre Read More >