Parashat Ki Tavo

Be God-like: A Word of Torah on Parshat Ki Tavo

This week’s פרשה (parashah – weekly Torah portion) begins with a forward-looking sentence: “When you arrive in the land…” What follows is a series of מצוות (mitzvot – commandments) meant to provide the building blocks of identity, aspirations for a more just society, and injunctions to keep in mind not only your family and yourself, but also the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the stranger in your midst, when celebrating the bountiful harvest at the various holy day festivals. 

The Torah then goes from being very concrete – baskets of first fruit (ביכורים – bikkurim), specific vulnerable groups, prescribed speeches and pronouncements of identity – to a truly abstract concept, voiced in Sefer Dvarim 28:9: 

 

…כִּ֣י תִשְׁמֹ֗ר אֶת־מִצְוֺת֙ ה’ אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ וְהָלַכְתָּ֖ בִּדְרָכָֽיו׃

“…you shall observe God’s commandments and walk in God’s ways.”

On the face of it, we are being commanded here to be “God-like” – to walk in the ways that God goes, to do, as it were, what God does. The ancient rabbis codified in the Talmud pounced on this ideal, and asked the question that the text itself begs to be asked:

What is given here is the ultimate challenge – be Godly in your actions, follow the model given by God in the Torah, and make the world a better place through your actions. 

Here at The Leffell Lower School, we begin every morning with ברכות השחר (Birchot HaShachar – the Morning Blessings). We recite more than a dozen proclamations about God being “blessed” (I explain – “good”) for having done, or doing, myriad good deeds. Every morning, I struggle with these words because I know that if we wait for God to clothe the naked or lift up the downtrodden, we will be waiting a long time. I’ve come to understand these words in the light of the Talmud, which is to say: “Overcome your base instincts, and instead extend your circle of concern to those less fortunate, be aware of your blessings and share them, like God.” The blessings then are a reminder to us, first thing in the morning, to take count of how much power we have, and our mission on this pale blue dot.

Wishing everyone a restful Shabbat, a fruitful and sweet new year, and שירבו זכויותינו כרימון (sheyirbu zichiyoteynu k’rimon) – that we multiply our merits like the seeds of the pomegranate.

Shabbat Shalom.