Ki Tavo 5770

The Set Table – Ki Tavo 5770

Deuteronomy 26:1–29:8
Isaiah 60:1–22
1 Corinthians 15:1–11

What does this week’s parasha tell us about the relationship of the Jewish people’s responsibility to the Torah and their life in the Land of Israel?

Ki Tavo is an important parasha centered on the People of Israel taking on the responsibility of Torah as they come into the Land. Consider this formative passage in which Moses says, “This Day you have become a people to the Lord” (Deuteronomy 27:9). Taking on the Torah forms them into a people.

What is so significant about this passage? The Torah was given at Sinai, and in many places we reflect on both the covenant made with Abraham or the Exodus from Egypt as the formation of the people. Yet something significant takes place here. In Deuteronomy 26:18 the Lord announces that he has distinguished the People of Israel as a treasured people through the commandments he has given.

The expected entrance of this new generation into the Land of Promise somehow allows for this people to be formed in a new way. The people are exhorted to take upon themselves the fullness of the Torah in a public way, and that this would bring upon them future berakha “blessing.” At the same time the passage extensively deals with the consequences of the failure to take upon the Torah and walk accordingly. They would receive the qelalot “curses” and they would be arur “despised.”

Upon entering the land the People of Israel are commanded to gather the people to the valley between Mt. Gerezin and Mt. Eval in Northern Samaria, to the area of the city of Shechem (in modern days known as Nablus). Here the tribes were divided into two: six tribes on the one mountain and six on the other, with the Ark, the Priests and the heads of the Levites down between them in the valley. The people are given 12 categories of sins that they must keep guard against. To each of these the entire people were to respond, “Amen.”

The common denominator that the Sages discern is that these are sins that could be committed in secrecy, and possibly by those in places of authority. These particular sins are rated as dangerous for the individual Jew amidst the corporate reality of the people.

In this section, the tribe of Levi is included as one of the 12 tribes and Joseph as one tribe, with the Levites (and the Priests among them). This is interesting because they surely needed blessings and not curses as the rest of the people.

The 12th category in the list is found in Deuteronomy 27:26: “Accursed is one who will not uphold the words of this Torah to perform them.” This is seen by the Ramban as a forceful acceptance of the validity of the fullness of the Torah. No one is given the ability to abolish a part of the Torah or lessen it’s significance as a whole and in part. The Ramban goes on to warn that people in positions of influence and authority, who themselves are observant, are not relieved from the responsibility to cause others to draw near to Torah. They are accountable for their action or inaction in relation to community observance.

I believe that we can hear a strong resonance with these words in the following words of our Mashiach Yeshua: “Therefore whoever shall relax one of the least of these commandments, and shall teach people so, shall be called the least in the kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:19).

Clearly we as Jews have a responsibility to live in covenantal fidelity to the Torah, but this fidelity includes within it a requirement for us to help other Jews also to live in fidelity to Torah.

To give further emphasis to the need to be faithful, individually and corporately, chapter 28 gives us 14 verses describing the richness of the blessings that the Lord will pour out on our people. This is followed with 53 verses describing particular curses that will come upon us if we do not heed the voice of the Lord, resulting in our dispersion to the four corners of the earth.

Our powerful prophetic reading of consolation from Isaiah 60 assures us that the dispersion will not last and that we will be re-gathered unto our home, the Land of Israel, and there the Lord will be an eternal light for the People of Israel.

Light is a dominant image in this week’s haftara reading (Isaiah 60:1–22). What is the significance of this imagery?

This week’s haftara reading (Isaiah 60:1–22) is the sixth in a cycle of seven readings drawn from Isaiah 40–66 that are read in the weeks between Tisha B’Av and Rosh Hashana. These haftarot emphasize the salvific consolation God worked for Israel following the Babylonian Exile and look forward to the eschatological comfort God is bringing about for Israel and the whole world even now in the person of Yeshua. This week’s haftara reading describes God’s salvation with the imagery of light. Surrounding a central section of the passage (vv. 4–18), which describes the coming ingathering to Zion, are two brief passages suffused with light imagery.

The first passage (vv. 1–3) focuses on God’s redeeming and splenderous Presence which provides light for all of Zion.

Arise, shine, for your light has come; the Presence of the Lord has shone upon you! Behold! Darkness shall cover the earth, and thick clouds the peoples; but upon you the Lord will shine, and his Presence be seen over you. And nations shall walk by your light, kings by your shining radiance. (NJPS)

The second passage (vv. 19–22) expands upon the theme of light in vv. 1–3 and describes the transformative effects of God’s luminous presence on Israel and the world.

No longer shall you need the sun for light by day, nor the shining of the moon for radiance [by night]; for the Lord shall be you light everlasting, you God shall be your glory. Your sun shall set no more, and your moon no more withdraw; For the Lord shall be a light to you forever, and your days of mourning shall be endend. And your people, all of them righteous, shall possess the land for all time; They are the shoot that I planted, my handiwork in which I glory. The smallest shall become a clan; the least, a might nation. I the Lord will speed it in due time. (NJPS)

These excerpts draw upon the contrasting imagery of light and darkness from Genesis 1 to highlight the personal and permanent redemption God has worked for Israel. Israel will never again succumb to darkness because of the abiding Presence of God. The very presence of God’s luminous Presence over Jerusalem will transform all of creation as the nations of the world and their rulers come to “walk by [God’s] light” (Isaiah 60:3). John of Patmos, the writer of the book of Revelation, describes the Jerusalem of the coming age in terms evocative of Isaiah 60: “And city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it” (Revelation 21:23–24; NRSV). The vision of Revelation serves, along with Isaiah 60, to encourage all the faithful in Israel and among the nations in the ultimate triumph of the God of Israel. May we walk in the light of the lamp who is Yeshua, gaze upon the splendor of God, and be encouraged to be faithful until the culmination of God’s redemption of Israel and the whole world.

Chayyei Yeshua

1 Corinthians 15:1–11 – A Most Welcome Reminder

Messianic Judaism is not the easiest path to take if you’re serious about it. There are constant pressures to throw in the towel, and unfortunately, many of those pressures aren’t even coming from our opponents on the outside. Endless backbiting, backstabbing, militant allegiances to acronyms, and hypersensitivity to doctrinal feuds all pervade our little world. Nevertheless, we’re still being drawn in. All it takes is a little Hebrew skill, a Jewish parent, some level of commitment, and a birth year somewhere in the late seventies-early eighties and you’re well on your way to getting sucked into the whole thing (I speak now to all of us writers in this publication, you all know what I’m talking about). Yet we keep going. Why? Because there is love here, there is truth here. We know that behind all the petty childish treatment of one another over important matters, there is a love binding us together if we remember. Rav Shaul reminds us of what is most important:

Brothers and Sisters, I remind you of the good news which I have preached to you, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to it, unless your belief was flawed with frivolity. To you I handed on, of first importance and supreme range, the news that I received: The Mashiah died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and he was buried and rose on the third day according to the Scriptures, and he was seen by Kefa, and then by the twelve. Later he was seen by more than five hundred brothers at once, of whom most of them are still alive, but some have gone to sleep. And then he was seen by Yaakov and all the messengers . . . and whether it was I or other ones we preached our message and you believed.   (1 Corinthians 15:1–7, 15, Restored New Testament and ESV)

The most important thing, bar none, is that Messiah died for our sins and left that grave empty after three days. This reality was witnessed by his disciples, and by all of the apostles. This message is “of first importance” (according to most translations) and “of supreme range” (according to Willis Barnstone’s translation). This message is what keeps us standing and is saving us every day. There is no other reason for us to be who we are. I am personally ashamed to realize how little I regularly stand in this reality and allow it to save me each and every day.

How about our community? Do we stand in Yeshua’s triumph over darkness, chaos, and sin? When was the last time we called our minds and hearts to the core of the Besora? How often do we remember that without this there would be no: MJTI, MJRC, MJAA, Tikkun, Fire Ministries, UMJC, etc? I am afraid to say that the answer is probably: not enough.

Brothers and Sisters, we need this reminder. Our community is facing the reality that it might not exist beyond thirty years if we don’t step up (all us late 20’s and 30’s folk). Let us remind one another, and seek to be reminded daily through our Torah, Avodah, and Gemilut Chasidim. We cannot lose sight of the one who is saving us. We need to cultivate lives where we recognize resurrection as our beginning, our end, and everything in between. We are the community of the resurrection. May we press in for this each and every day from now until the day we meet him, and he smiles and says, “Oh Yeah, I know them . . .”

Next week: Nitzavim-Vayyelekh

Deuteronomy 29:9–31:30
Isaiah 61:10–63:9
Matthew 18:16–20