KI TEITZEI “When you go out”
10 September 2011
Deut. 21:10-25:19
Isaiah 54:1-10
1 Cor. 5:1-5
We
continue to look towards the High Holy Days, and remember we are in the
midst of the month of ELUL, when we are to look deeply into our soul and
ask ourselves where we are in our walk with HaShem.
There are
many difficult topics here in this Parasha, including seventy-two
commandments, both positive and negative, as counted by Maimonides.
In this
portion we learn about commandments, precepts, statutes and judgments.
Some of these are laws about capturing foreign women, the rights of the
first-born, wayward and rebellious sons, caring for the dead, returning
lost objects, the care for birds and their young, protecting people from
injury by placing a fence around the roof. We are not to mix wool and
linen. An ox and an ass (donkey) are not to be yoked together just as we
are not to be unequally yoked. There are laws that relate to penalties
for adultery, rape and marriage to a Moabite or Ammonite.
We are to
keep the camp pure, pay workers on time and not turn in an escaped
slave. Proper treatment of a debtor and not charging interest on loans
are discussed. Finally, the portion ends with the commandment to not
forget who Amalek was and what he did to the Israelites when they came
out of Egypt.
Many of
these regulations have to do with how we are to treat others. The
watchword of our faith, the Shema, is from Deuteronomy 6:4-8. It begins,
“Hear O Israel, the Lord is our GOD, the Lord is one.” Hertz states that
these words enshrine Judaism’s greatest contribution to the religious
thought of mankind. They constitute the primal confession of faith in
the religion of the Synagogue, declaring that the Holy GOD worshipped
and proclaimed by Israel is One; and that He alone is GOD. Who was, is,
and ever will be. That opening sentence of the Shema rightly occupies
the central place in Jewish religious thought, for every other Jewish
belief turns upon it; all goes back to it; all flows from it.
The Shema
declares war against all of polytheism and paganism, the worship of many
deities. It excludes pantheism, the belief that all or many can be
divine, as being legitimate. The affirmation from the Shema rests in the
concept of the brotherhood of man and the unity of GOD. The conception
of Monotheism opened our eyes to the unity of the universe under one
GOD. Our one GOD is righteous and omnipotent, the Ruler of the universe.
Our sages
saw the ultimate war in this portion of Scripture, the battle that rages
within us. As 1Corinthians 5:7 tells us, we must get rid of the old
yeast (old nature) and put on the new nature.
As we look
to a new year (Rosh Hashanah) and as the trumpet will sound, let us
awake from our slumber (Ephesians 5:14) and put on our new self.
Shavua Tov
Rabbi Z.
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