Dear Rabbi,
This week's reading, Ki Teitzei, contains 74 commandments, more mitzvot than any other Torah portion.This week's parsha is a potential treasure trove to explore. In my mind, some of these mitzvot would make excellent sermons.
First Aliyah: This section begins with a
discussion regarding female captives of war, and lays down the conditions
under which a soldier may marry a captive. (The beautiful captive.) Sex
sells even in the Torah.
Second Aliyah: A Commandment discussed in
this section: Speedy burial of the deceased. My parents meant everything
to me and although they did not have too much money, I never lacked for
anything I really wanted. They always had me and my sister in mind. I hope you
don't experience this any time soon but there will come a time when you will
have to bury your parents. To say that this is one of the lows in your life is
a complete understatement. Just to show you how much they wanted to help me
out, they made their own funeral arrangements. All I had to do was call the
funeral parlor and the rest was already decided. Both my parents were buried in
a traditional manner with shrouds and in a plain pine box, and the decision of
what to do when the time came was not one of my problems. It was one of the
greatest gifts they gave to me.
Third Aliyah: A commandment discussed in
this section: Building a safety fence around a flat roof. Though
shalt not kill; honor thy father and mother; thou shalt not worship any graven
idols; I could go on and on about the big ones and then this one makes it on to
the list of 613. Big or small G-d tries to think of everything.
Fourth Aliyah: A commandment discussed in
this section: maintaining pure and hygienic army encampments. When I
went to Israel with the JJC, one of the true highlights was visiting an
army camp on the border with the West Bank. To see the absolute devotion they
had to the cause was extremely heartwarming. They loved having us for there
many reasons but one of the main reasons was that because we were to eat with
them, they knew they were going to have steak and other meats which apparently
was a meal they hardly saw. They seemed to be fit but the conditions they were
under left something to be desired. They never complained about the conditions.
Fifth Aliyah: This section details the
right of field workers to eat from the produce they are harvesting. Giving
to those that serve others would be radical to some that are in power today.
Making this a mizvot is something Jews should be proud of.
Sixth Aliyah: Another mitzvot: A
newlywed man is exempt from military service for a full year. This could be
taken in more than one way. The accepted one being that if one gets married he
should enjoy this feeling of loving another before possibly going off to war to
die. The second way may be from those men that were already married and were
thinking "if I had to go through this, you should not be spared this
tumult".
Seventh Aliyah: We are
forbidden to withhold or delay a worker's wages. This one is also personal
to me. I have taken great satisfaction during the pandemic in making sure that
my employees were paid and more importantly, were paid on time.
As you know
by now, I usually, take one part from the portion of the week and expand on it.
If forced to chose this week, it probably would have been the one relating to
burying my parents. But, like I said earlier, this week's parsha can lead one
in many directions.
As a post
script, there is one mizvot in the Second Aliyah that could be extremely
provocative if explored, when the following is stated:
"A
man's attire shall not be on a woman, nor may a man wear a woman's garment
because whoever does these [things] is an abomination to the Lord, your G-d.
How does
G-d look at today's manner of dressing. Forgetting about the obvious of putting
on a dress, if a man dresses in a very flamboyant manner is this a breach?
Where does a Scottish kilt stand? Is a woman in a pants suit breaking the rule?
Even the one about putting on a dress, if this is done in jest, is the rule
broken?
Shalom,
Mordecai
________________
As usual, you've read the portion closely and selected a point from each of the aliyot:
- Female captives
- Speedy burial of the deceased
- Building a safety fence around a flat roof
- Maintaining pure and hygienic army encampments
- The right of field workers to eat from the produce they are harvesting
- A newlywed man is exempt from military service for a full year
- We are forbidden to withhold or delay a worker's wages
As I have shared with you on a number of occasions, I find stories about your parents particularly moving, and this one is no different. The honor and reverence that you hold them in never ceases to touch me. Even a verse in the Torah that is only tangentially related to your parents reminds you of them. They are clearly on your mind frequently.
Maintaining pure and hygienic army encampment
How amazing to live in a time when the Torah's teaching about military matters actually has application. The IDF never ceases to inspire awe in me.
The right of field workers to eat from the produce they are harvesting
I often think about how our limited experience with self-government prior to the French Revolution has trained our thinking around political issues today. Can we apply the same standards that were enforced when we governed ourselves - in say Eastern Europe - to the heterogeneous population of America today? No doubt that the liberalism of many Jews in the body politic is grounded in the teachings of the Torah and not just some Marxist repudiation of the capitalist order.
A newlywed man is exempt from military service for a full year
The way I have come to understand passages like this is that while the Torah isn't banishing war, it's clear that war should not ever totally occupy our society. Total war is forbidden, while limited war is permitted. What I mean by limited war is that we allow the wellsprings of society to continue to flourish even in a time of war as opposed to dedicating all our resources toward prosecuting a battle.
We are forbidden to withhold or delay a worker's wages
This again circles back to the right of workers to eat from the produce they are harvesting. Once again, we see that "workers' rights" is not just a Marxist idea. It has its ground in the Torah itself.
Shalom,
Rabbi
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