Torah of Recovery: Ki Tavo 2024/5784

Nehama Leibowitz, Studies in Devarim, p. 260

The Israelite farmer who brings the first-fruits of his soil does not say: My fathers came to the land which the Lord swore to give to them. Rather he proclaims in every generation, as long as his people dwells in the Land, whenever he brings its first-fruits, in thanks to the Almighty: I am come to the Land which the Lord swore to our fathers to give to them (26,3)...Every generation had similarly to regard itself brought to the Land by the Almighty. It had not to take the country for granted, as something bequeathed by its ancestors. Rather had the Israelites in every generation to behave as if they themselves had just be brought to by the power and grace of their Creator....The Jewish people were laid under a special obligation, to remember with gratitude...They were bidden in the last verse to include in the celebrations the stranger who had no country of his own.

Mishnah Sotah 7:2-3

(2) And these are recited only in the sacred tongue, Hebrew: The recitation of the verses that one recounts when bringing the first fruits to the Temple;...the blessings and curses that were spoken on Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal...

(3) How is it derived that the recitation when bringing the first fruits is recited specifically in Hebrew? When the Torah discusses this mitzva it states: “And you shall speak and say before the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 26:5), and below, in the discussion of the blessings and curses, it states: “And the Levites shall speak and say” (Deuteronomy 27:14). Just as there, the Levites speak in the sacred tongue, so too here, the recitation is in the sacred tongue.

The Book of Legends, Sefer Ha-Aggadah, Hayim Nahman Bialik & Yehoshua Hana Ravnitzky, eds, p. 177:74

Originally, all who knew how to recite the prescribed words [in Hebrew] would recite them, while those unable to do so repeated them after the priest. But when people began to refrain from bringing firstfruits in shame [of their ignorance], it was decided that both those who could as well as those who could not recite them [in Hebrew] should repeat the words after the priest.

Rabbinical Assembly, Etz Chayim: Torah and Commentary, p. 1141

This is a rare instance of the Torah prescribing the precise words of a prayer rather than leaving it to the inspiration of the worshiper's own heart. This recitation summarizes the historical basis of Jewish identity and has found a featured place in the Pesah Haggadah. One of the advantages of a set liturgy, in addition to uniting all Jews across barriers of time and space, is that it reminds us of themes we might not think on our own.

Maimonedes, cited in Nehama Leibowitz, Studies in Devarim, pp. 265, 266

The eternal human background to the ruling, so precisely and drily formulated here...full of delicate consideration for the feelings of the stranger, that he penned in response to Obadiah the proselyte. The latter wished to clarify whether it was correct for him to refer in his prayers to 'the God of our fathers' just the same as any other born Jew...'everyone who accepts Judaism till the end of all generations and whoever acknowledges the unity of the Holy One blessed be He, as laid down in the Torah is of the disciples of Abraham our Father, peace be upon him. They all belong to his household...You should therefore say 'Our God and the God of our fathers,' since Abraham is your father.'

Isaiah Berlin, Against the Current, p. 317

All Jews who are at all conscious of their identity as Jews are steeped in history. They have longer memories, they are aware of a longer continuity as a community than any other which has survived.… Whatever other factors may have entered into the unique amalgam which, if not always Jews themselves, at any rate the rest of the world instantly recognizes as the Jewish people, historical consciousness – sense of continuity with the past – is among the most powerful.

Winston Churchill, in Chris Wrigley, Winston Churchill: A Biographical Companion, xxiv.

“The longer you can look back, the further you can see forward.”

Rabbi Shai Held, The Heart of Torah, vol. 2., location 5078

Further, biblical memory deliberately blurs the line between past and present. The ritual conflates the farmer’s ancestors, the contemporary community, and the individual farmer himself. The pilgrim starts out talking about his ancestors (“My father was a fugitive Aramean”) but soon shifts, almost imperceptibly, to the first-person plural (“The Egyptians dealt harshly with us and oppressed us”). This subtly transforms the distant memory of the salvation of the farmer’s forebears into his own generation’s story. No matter how many generations ago the people were redeemed from slavery, they have only just been liberated, and no matter how long they have dwelt in the land, they have only just arrived.

Rabbi Mark Borowitz, Finding Recovery and Yourself in Torah, p. 339

We, people in recovery, know that we have to remember what it was like, what happened to change us, and what we have now. I have spoken to many people who have relapsed, and interestingly, the core action is always the same. They forget where they came from, a miserable life of being addicted, and what happened to change them, a life of recovery, community, and principles. Some of them lie to themselves that they can drink like a gentleman or don’t need meetings anymore, and so on. This parashah is teaching us that each time we tithe, each time we reap the harvest of our actions, we have to be grateful and say a prayer remembering where we are and how to share our bounty with the poor, the widow, the stranger, and the orphan. We have to take care of the Levites and the people who serve us spiritually. “Never forget,” a phrase that many people use, is an outgrowth of this chapter. However, we are never to forget where we came from and how God saved us from our addictions, and we must continue to be grateful.

Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Deuteronomy: Renewal of the Sinai Covenant, p. 202-203

There is a rabbinic aphorism that “God creates the remedy before the disease” (Megilla 13b). Prior to the tokhaĥa, Moses outlined the law of bringing first fruits, in celebration, to the Temple. The Torah concludes the passage with the following words: “And you and the Levites and the strangers among you shall rejoice in all the good things the Lord your God has given to you and your household” (Deut. 26:11). Judaism is a religion of rejoicing; of remembering where we came from, and therefore not taking our blessings for granted; of recalling the source of the good, and therefore not forgetting the larger truth that it comes to us from the hand of God; of knowing that what we have, God has placed in our trust, to be used for the good of all, not just ourselves. I know of no more sane, wise way of seeing reality steadily and seeing it whole. The beauty of Judaism is that it did not become traumatised by tragedy. Despite their suffering, Jews did not let themselves become defined by it. They mourned on Tisha B’Av and the other specified fasts but did not allow the rest of their days to be darkened by grief. They set limits to sadness. During the rest of the week they might be toiling, but on Shabbat they ate as if at the royal table. During the rest of the year they might be in exile but on festivals they rejoiced.

The Book of Legends, Sefer Ha-Aggadah, Hayim Nahman Bialik & Yehoshua Hana Ravnitzky, eds, p. 710:230 (this is a paraphrase of Sotah 32b: 9-12)

We have been taught that R. Simeon ben Yohai said: A man should speak of his superiority with a soft voice and of his shortcomings with a loud voice; of his superiority with a soft voice, as may be seen in the confession at tithing, of his shortcomings in a loud voice, as may be seen in the confession at the bringing of firstfruits.

RA & USCJ, Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, p. 1144, 1146

4. Mount Ebal Just north of Shechem, it is the highest mountain in the vicinity...commands a view of most of the Promised Land. Schechem was the site of Abraham's first stop in Canaan and the first place in Canaan where God spoke to him and identified the land as the one He would give to Abraham's descendants...12-13. on Mount Gerizim...on Mount Ebal North and south of Shechem...their pronouncements would be most audible if they stood on the slopes of the mountains...which are 2.2 miles apart).

6. build the altar...of unhewn stones Eloquent, polished prayer is like hewn, polished stone. Here the 'unhewn' (literally, 'whole') stones represent the inarticulate heart - which God prefers (Buber).

Rabbi Shefa Gold, Torah Journeys: The Inner Path to the Promised Land, p. 202

“When we stand as Levites in the valley of enlightenment, it becomes so clear and obvious what it is that blesses our existence, and connects us with our Divine inheritance, and what it is that curses us, thus separating us from our Divine inheritance. Our normal state of consciousness in contrast, feels like stumbling through the fog, our inner landscape shrouded in bewilderment. As the mists of confusion clear, the blessing and the curse of our lives rise up like mountains, and in the valley between we sing, ‘Amen.’”

Richard Eliot Friedman, Commentary on the Torah, Deuteronomy 27:26 (pp. 2834-2835)

The curses seem like a list of sundry examples of the laws that Moses has given until now. Most of the things that are forbidden are uncommon and easy to avoid doing. So the people as a whole will readily say the “Amen” to them. But then the final curse is on anyone who will not support and perform “the words of this Torah”—in other words: the Torah as a whole. The people are led to a point at which they must say “Amen” to the full Torah.

Bava Metzia 107a, 15

The Gemara returns to Rabbi Yoḥanan’s exposition of the verses...“Blessed shall you be when you enter and blessed shall you be when you exit” means that your exit from the world should be like your entry into the world: Just as your entry into the world was without sin, so too your exit from the world should be without sin.

The Book of Legends, Sefer Ha-Aggadah, Hayim Nahman Bialik & Yehoshua Hana Ravnitzky, eds, p. 452:470, citing Deuteronomy Rabbah 7:4 (not available in translation)

"To observe to do all His commandments" (Deut 28:1). R. Simeon ben Halafta said: When a man learns the precepts of Torah but does not fulfill them, his punishment is more severe than that of him who has not studied at all. To what may his situation be compared? To one where a king had an orchard into which he brought two tenants, one of whom planted trees and cut them down, while the other neither planted any nor cut down any. With whom is the king likely to be angry? Surely with the one who planted trees and cut them down. So, too, when a man learns precepts of Torah but does not fulfill them, his punishment is more severe than that of him who has not studied at all.

Richard Elliott Friedman, Commentary on the Torah Deuteronomy 28:2 (pp. 2836-2837).

The curses are four times the length of the blessings. Like the blessings and curses list in Leviticus 26 (where the curses are three times longer than the blessings), this list may convey that threats of punishment were thought to be more effective than promises of reward. Or it may convey the opposite: that threats are less effective, and therefore more are required. The remarkable thing is that, following all these blessings and curses, Moses speaks beautifully for two chapters about why the people should keep the covenant for itself. The blessings and curses are there out of a realistic recognition of human psychology: rewards and punishments are effective tools of instruction from childhood and up. But the aim is higher: that humans should come to see that what is being put in their hands is “life” and “good” and “love” (Deut 30:15–16).

The Book of Legends, Sefer Ha-Aggadah, Hayim Nahman Bialik & Yehoshua Hana Ravnitzky, eds, p. 403:10

R. Hananiah, deputy high priest, said: He who takes words of Torah to heart will be relieved of anxieties about war, anxieties about famine, anxieties about foolish preoccupations, anxieties about unchastity, anxieties about the impulse to evil, anxieties about craving another man's wife, anxieties about trifles, and anxieties about the yoke of flesh and blood...for it is written in Deuteronomy by our teacher Moses, "They shall serve as signs and proofs against you and your offspring for all time..." (Deut 28:46-48)

Richard Elliott Friedman, Commentary on the Torah, p. 2846

The horror of the curses is multiplied by the fact that this and other curses are among the ten plagues that were imposed on Egypt. The thought that God would impose on Israel the very plagues that were used on Egypt to make YHWH known and set Israel free is terrifying. The reminder of Egypt will culminate in the last curse (v. 68 below).

The Book of Legends, Sefer Ha-Aggadah, Hayim Nahman Bialik & Yehoshua Hana Ravnitzky, eds, p. 377:1

Heavy is the burden of exile: it outweighs all other divine afflictions.

Rabbinical Assembly, Etz Chayim: Torah and Commentary, p. 1157

Bad as the reality will be, you will fear that the future will be worse. Fear of misfortune is often worse than the actual misfortune, as our imaginations conjure up all sorts of dreadful experiences we may feel we deserve.

Don Isaac Abravanel, cited in Nehama Leibowitz, Studies in Devarim, p. 296

"This alludes to what the prophet Ezekiel elaborated on more explicitly when he stated (20, 32), 'And what which cometh into they mind shall not be at all, in that ye say, we will be as the nations, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone. As I live, saith the Lord God, surely with a mighty and and with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out, will I be King over you.'" We are thus left no alternative but to accept the yoke of Heaven and be the servants of God.

Bereshit Rabba 33, 8, cited in Nehama Leibowitz, Studies in Devarim, p. 297

"But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark." (Genesis 8,9). R. Judah ben R. Nahman in the name of R. Shimon stated: If it had found a resting place it would not have returned. Parallel to this we find (Lamentations), "She dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest" - if she wouild have found rest she would not have returned. Parallel to this we find: "And among these nations shalt thou have no repose and there shall be no rest for the sole of thy foot" - thus if they would have found rest they would not have returned.

Richard Elliott Friedman, Commentary on the Torah, p. 2863

For the last curse of this list of horrors, what would be the worst threat specifically for the people of Israel: back to Egypt! This nightmare comes true seven hundred years later, after the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem, described at the end of the book of Kings: “All the people, from the smallest to the biggest … got up and came to Egypt” (2 Kings 25:26; Jer 43:5–7). The last curse is that they will go back to Egypt, and the last page of the book of Kings reports that the entire people go back to Egypt. Yet, incredibly, this fact is almost never mentioned in commentaries on Deuteronomy or Kings or in biblical scholarship in general. The focus has been on the small portion of the nation who go into exile in Babylon, not on the mass of the people, who go as refugees to Egypt. It is time that we recognized, first, the full horror of the final curse of the covenant. Second, we must be sensitive to what it means to Moses to pronounce this curse: the heartbreak of what it would mean for his people to be back in Egypt, even worse off than before, the failure, the humiliation.

George Robinson, Essential Torah, p. 528

By utilizing tragedy and suffering as a catalyst for active moral renewal, the Judaic tradition prevents political powerlessness from creating feelings of personal impotence. If events in the larger world are unpredictable, if the nation is subject to the violence and whims of foreign rulers, the rabbinic mind does not fall victim to despair, disillusionment, and escapism, but rather focuses on the personal and the communal as the framework to contain its activist dignity. The call to repentance—“If a man sees that painful sufferings visit him, let him examine his conduct”—should not, therefore, be seen as a metaphysical justification of evil. Rather, it is advice that encourages the Jew to sustain and give meaning to the covenantal relationship despite the mystery of suffering. The covenantal spirit of Sinai is crushed when a person feels paralyzed to act. It is broadened and deepened, however, when it is discovered that suffering can energize us to strive actively for moral renewal. The shift of focus from the might of the Roman legions to the moral quality of the community’s behavior as the cause of exile does not reflect a naïve, self-centered moralism that explains everything in terms of one’s own feelings, thoughts, and actions. Rather, it gives expression to a covenantal activism that strives to salvage some degree of human dignity and responsibility in an unpredictable, chaotic world.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, cited in Etz Chayim: Torah and Commentary, p. 1158

The ability to understand, to see or hear the divine significance of events, may be granted or withheld from man. One may see great wonders but remain entirely insensitive.

Melekhet Mahshevet, (Moshe Hefez, 16th c. Italian Jewish) cited in Nehama Leibowitz, Studies in Devarim, p. 292

The verse implies that the one who is vouchsafed a miracle is the last to appreciate the fact. We do not appreciate them until they are far away from us, since familiarity breeds contempt and they are regarded as natural and not supernatural phenomena. This is what Moses meant. You witnessed all these great wonders but onnly appreciztzed their full significance just now, at this time, after they had receded from view, as if you had heretofore, lacked sight and hearing.

Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Deuteronomy: Renewal of the Sinai Covenant, p. 190

What Moses is doing in Deuteronomy is something very subtle. He is speaking at different levels to people at different stages in their moral and spiritual development. At the most basic level he is speaking to a nation still in its childhood. The people he is addressing are the children of those he led out of Egypt. They are more used to freedom than their parents, who were slaves. But they have not yet entered the land, or created a society, or been forced to work for a living. For forty years they have had their needs supplied by God. So he speaks to them in very simple terms. Follow God and be blessed, or follow your own inclinations and be cursed. This is the way one might speak to a child. As he himself says in this parasha: “To this day the Lord has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear” (Deut. 29:3). But interwoven in his speeches is an appeal to a much deeper level of understanding. So, for example, in this parasha he says, “The Lord will establish you as His holy people, as He swore to you, if you obey the Lord’s commands and walk in His ways” (Deut. 28:9). “Walk in His ways” means, says Maimonides, not just obeying God, but rather, imitating God, internalising the values and virtues by which God relates to humanity. The pinnacle of the moral life, to which we should all aspire, is precisely to do what is right because it is right, because that is what it is to walk in God’s ways. That is why the key word of Deuteronomy is shema, the word that is untranslatable precisely because it covers this multiplicity of senses from simple obedience to deep internalisation. As we grow and mature, we move from thinking of commands as hypothetical imperatives to thinking of them as categorical, and we move from heteronomy to autonomy, because we have made God’s will our will.