Parashat Ki Teitzei

With due deference to Cecil B. DeMille and the sanctity of the Ten Commandments, we are reminded this week, in abundance, of the rabbinic tradition that the Torah is comprised of more than just Mount Sinai’s fiery decalogue. This week alone, our reading of Ki Teitzei contains 74 out of the traditional 613 commandments. For mathematicians in our midst, you will note that is 8.3% of all of our laws!

As is often the case with these lengthy, legal parashiot (weekly portions), within this text we find some of the most ennobling and compassionate laws, alongside some of the most difficult and, frankly, offensive legal precepts. Ki Teitzei, boasts a potpourri of legislation and enactments concerning daily living, finances, justice, family responsibility, work, and even, sexuality. Some highlights include the following: 

“If a murderer is killed by hanging, then you must bury him the same day.“
“If you see your brother’s animals go astray and you find them, you must return the animals to your brother.”
“No male garment shall be upon a woman nor any woman’s garment be upon a man.“
“If a mother bird is sitting on her eggs or is with her young ones, you must not take the mother with her young.”
“When you build a new house, you shall make a guardrail for your roof so no one shall fall,” and of course, our tenth-grade Talmud favorite, “stone to death your stubborn and rebellious son.”

Having read through this list, you might be inclined to throw up your hands and lament, “oy, it’s just too much.” But, is it really?

To make matters more complicated, in addition to the grinding daily expectations of being a Jew, this month we pause and think about the upcoming holidays, which represent the gargantuan work of perfecting ourselves as human beings for 5785.

When considering the internal changes that we all need to make during this preparatory month of Elul (the month preceding the High Holy Days), we may similarly feel that the goal of seeking spiritual perfection is just way too great a task! 

Nonetheless, a midrash on teshuvah (repair, repentance, turning, i.e. the work of Elul and the High Holidays) teaches: “Open a door to repentance as tiny as the eye of a needle and Hashem will open your gates wide enough to let carts and even horse-drawn carriages drive through.”

Once we make a little bit of space, even the smallest amount, a window, a door, a gate, all portals open enthusiastically for change. According to the Kol HaNeshama Machzor, “Teshuvah need not be a dramatically large change to be significant. A subtle shift now, or even just a fraction of a degree out of 360, can take one on a vastly different path over the course of life’s trajectory.”

 

Remember, the small changes we make as students or educators, or the seemingly tiniest mitzvot we perform, undoubtedly will open up new possibilities beyond what we ever imagined. 

Shabbat Shalom.