Ki Tavo- כִּֽי־תָב֣וֹא - Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8 Making Torah Personal ~Mussar

Discussion of selected verses of the parsha through the lens of Mussar practice.

Bullet Points /key phrases:

Moses is at the end of his address to B'nai Yisrael and teaches them laws for when they enter the land and cultivate it: bring the first-ripened fruits (bikkurim) to the Temple in gratitude.

Verses connect with Pesach "wandering Aramean"

Laws of tithes (ma'aser) are explained: what goes to the Levites, to the poor.

Instructions on the proclamation of the blessings and curses to be given on Mount Gerizim and Mount Eival (referenced in Parshat Re'eh).

Moses reminds us that we are God's chosen people, and we choose God.

B'rachot U'Klallot / Blessings and Curses: After a listing of the blessings we will receive, there is Rebuke /Tochechah given if we abandon the commandments (illness, famine, poverty, and ultimately, exile).

Moses tells B'nai Yisrael that only today, forty years after their birth as a people, have they attained “a heart to know, eyes to see and ears to hear.”

In devoting the “first-ripened fruits” of his life to G‑d, a person in effect is saying: “Here lies the focus of my existence. Quantitatively, this may represent but a small part of what I am and have; but the purpose of everything else I do and possess is to enable this percentile of spirit to rise above my matter-clogged life.” ~The Lubavitcher Rebbe

The Sages, formulated the principle that ma’asei avot siman lebanim, “What happened to the fathers was a sign for the children.

Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their wives experienced exile and exodus as if to say to their descendants, this is not unknown territory. God was with us then; He will be with you now. I believe that we can face the future without fear because we have been here before and because we are not alone. ~Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z"l

An Aramean nomad was my father . . . (26:5)

This phrase—Arami oved avi—also translates as “the Aramean [sought to destroy] my father,” and is interpreted as a reference to Laban the Aramean’s attempts to harm Jacob.

But where does Laban come into the phrase, arami oved avi, “A wandering Aramean was my father”? Answer: only Laban and Laban’s father Betuel are called Arami or ha-Arami in the whole Torah. Therefore Arami means “Laban.”

How do we know that he sought to do Jacob harm? Because God appeared to him at night and said “Beware of attempting anything with Jacob, good or bad.” God would not have warned Laban against doing anything to Jacob, had Laban not intended to do so. God does not warn us against doing something we were not about to do anyway. Besides which, the next day, Laban said to Jacob, “I have it in my power to do you harm.” That was a threat. It is clear that had God not warned him, he would indeed have done Jacob harm.

How can we read this into the verse? Because the root a-v-d, which means “lost, wandering,” might also, in the piel or hiphil grammatical tenses, mean, “to destroy.” Of course, Laban did not destroy “my father” or anyone else. But that was because of Divine intervention. Hence the phrase could be taken to mean, “[Laban] the Aramean [tried to] destroy my father.” ~Rabbi Jonathan Sacks z"l

...from the quality of pleasantness, comes pardon and forgiveness, for when a person is gracious and generous with a person who has wronged him, and renounces his claim against him, such a person who does this — his prayer will surely be heard. ~Orchot Tzadikkim, 13:4

...Any translation.. tends to conceal the difficulty in the key verb in both sentences: le-ha’amir. What is strange is that, on the one hand, it is a form of one the most common of all biblical verbs, lomar, “to say”. On the other, the specific form used here – the hiphil, or causative form – is unique. Nowhere else does it appear in this form in the Bible, and its meaning is, as a result, obscure.

The JPS translation reads it as “affirmed”. Aryeh Kaplan, in The Living Torah, reads it as “declared allegiance to”. Robert Alter renders it: “proclaimed”. Other interpretations include “separated to yourself” (Rashi), “chosen” (Septuagint), “recognised” (Saadia Gaon), “raised” (Radak, Sforno), “betrothed” (Malbim), “given fame to” (Ibn Janach), “exchanged everything else for” (Chizkuni), “accepted the uniqueness of” (Rashi to Chagigah 3a), or “caused God to declare” (Judah Halevi, cited by Ibn Ezra. ~Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z"l

The use of language in the Torah is not vague, accidental, approximate, imprecise. In general, in the Mosaic books, style mirrors substance. The way something is said is often connected to what is being said. So it is here. What we have before us is a proposition of far-reaching consequence for the most fundamental question humanity can ask itself: What is the nature of the bond between human beings and God – or between human beings and one another – such that we can endow our lives with the charisma of grace?

The supreme example of an open-ended mutual pledge between human beings and God is a covenant. That is what our two verses state: that God and the people of Israel pledge themselves to one another by making a covenant, a relationship brought into existence by words, and sustained by honouring those words.

This is the single most radical proposition in the Hebrew Bible. ~Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z"l

The Jewish people are unique among the peoples of the world: their nationhood was forged not at the point at which they gained their own land, or developed a common language or culture, but on the day on which they pledged to uphold the Torah . . . ~ Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch

It is clear that, if a person was given the chance to benefit the entire world, even the most self-centered individual would happily seize the opportunity, devoting all of his energy to the task.

Fatigue and weariness are the result of lack of belief in the extent of the good that we perform for the entire universe through our Torah study, mitzvot, Divine service, and refinement of character traits.

.....we need to recognize that the light of each individual soul is bound to the collective soul of all existence. All created things draw the light of their perfection from this collective soul. We have the power to increase the light in our souls through Torah study, mitzvot, prayer, and character refinement. We need to be aware that whenever we enlighten our own souls, we are benefiting not just ourselves, but the entire universe; we are bestowing perfection and life to all things. ~ Rav Kook

By the amazing blessing bestowed on you by God as a result of your keeping the mitzvot, you will draw the eyes of the nations, so that they will recognize your example as worthy of copying you. You will lead them as an example, but you will not feel compelled to imitate them. ~ R. Shimshon Raphael Hirsch

You might have had some unusual sense perceptions, Moshe seems to be telling the people, but recognize now, 40 years later, that you did not, could not, really see then. You did not fully understand the ramifications of your experience, or its complexity or its depth. You did not know the God whose power you observed, and so you could not synthesize the meaning of all that you encountered. Only after years of walking together in the desert can you now begin to see and hear and understand. Only now. ~Rabbi Erin Smokler

“But the Lord has not given you a heart to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, until this day” (Deuteronomy 29:3). Rabba said: Conclude from here that a person does not understand the opinion of his teacher until after forty years, as Moses said this to the Jewish people only after forty years of learning Torah. ~Talmud, Tractate Avodah Zarah, 5b

No amount of pyrotechnics can shock a person into wisdom. It can only be acquired painstakingly, laboriously, and, most importantly, slowly. Hence a student can only begin to understand the fullness of her teacher's mind after decades at her side. Only in the precious mix of deep relationship and deep ideas can eyes actually open. ~Rabbi Erin Smokler

...a comparison is made between a person and a soiled garment. A person may have a garment that is so thoroughly soiled that it cannot be cleaned. On the other hand, a fine garment that has a stain can be cleaned and restored to beauty. This metaphor suggests that no one is so bad (soiled) that they cannot change (be cleaned and restored to beauty). If an errant person is encouraged to see themself as fundamentally good, they will strive to be the good person they have the potential to be. ~Twerski, Wisdom Each Day, p.321