KI TEITZEI, DEVRAIM 21:10–25:19
74 of the Torah’s 613 commandments are in the Parshah of Ki Teitzei.
There are 27 positive and 47 negative commandments in the Parashah.
In Ki Teitzei we learn among other things:
The Law of the Beautiful Captive.
The prohibition against charging interest on a loan.
Ki Teitzei concludes with the obligation to remember “what Amalek did to you on the road, on your way out of Egypt.”
I hope that the few which are mentioned below will whet your Neshama's appetite.
We are now in the month of Elul, the New Year and Day of Atonement rapidly approaching. We are obligated to review what we did or did not do during this past year. We have to recognize and regret past mistakes, and then commit to improve, to do better, not an easy task.
We begin reading Psalm 27 twice a day until Hoshanah Rabbah for 51 days...Why? Is there a connection to the up and coming Holy Days?
"The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?
Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice.
Do not hide Your face from me…
Hope in the Lord, be strong and let your heart take courage,
Hope in the Lord".
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The 1st Aliyah of Parshat Ki Teitzei, beginning at 21:10, is very difficult, but gives us plenty to talk about. It discusses the incident of raping a non-Jewish woman who is captured in battle.
The commentators seem to agree that a one-time-only assault is permissible. They disagree as to the timing: whether it is permissible directly after the heat of battle or only after a 30 day cool down period.
Even a Kohen is given a pass despite the fact that Kohen will not be permitted to marry the captive even if he likes her and even if she undergoes conversion. And for what it is worth, the captive does not have much of a say in what goes on.
Hashem knows what He is doing. But what is going on here?
As to the Sages, they say no good will come from it: In the case of David when he went into battle he desired Ma'aca the daughter of Talmi, king of Geshur. Their union produced Abshalom, who rose up to kill him. Abshalom slept with David’s wives in the presence of all Israel and in broad daylight. And do not overlook the fact that Abshalom was responsible for the killing of some tens of thousands Israelites.
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It happened this way: It was not unusual for Chabad to have cash flow problems: a bill was due this week, but money to pay the bill was not available until the following week. One day while in his office, the Rabbi said to me: “Mick, Chabad has a bill that is due today, but I will not have enough money to pay the bill until next week. Is it possible for you to advance me some money to pay the bill, and in return I’ll give you a post-dated check”?
It wasn’t a large sum; I had enough shekels in my account to cover the amount. So I agreed; gave him what he asked for, and the Rabbi gave me a check in return.
He said to me in a serious tone: “Mick, I’m not going to say thank you”.
I looked at him quizzically; what was going on?
Then Rabbi Butman said: “A Jew is not permitted to charge another Jew interest on a loan. Moreover, a Jew who has borrowed money from another Jew is not permitted to pay interest on the borrowed money. If I was to say Thank you, it would be as if I extended a benefit to you, and that benefit would be regarded as if I was paying you interest…something not permitted.
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The 3rd and 4th Aliyahs of Parshat Ki Teitzei speak to gratitude:
In the 3rd and 4th Aliyahs of Parshat Ki Teitzei, beginning at 23:4 we are commanded not to detest the nations of Edom and Egypt because:
Edom is descended from Esau, so they are our brothers. Family is important.
As to Egypt, despite being enslaved by them for 100’s of years, evidently we owe a debt of gratitude to Egypt because we lived in their land. Perhaps the score was evened out somewhat with the slaying of their first born and the gifts that our Egyptian neighbors bestowed upon us
Edom and Egypt are not permanently banned from freely marrying with us. Any restriction against them is lifted in the third generation, provided that the Edomite or Egyptian converts to Judaism.
This is not so for Moabite or Ammonite men who are permanently banned from marriage and conversion. That’s what happens when someone is mean to us.
Questions:
How do you square that Ruth the Moabite is King David's ancestor?
Did Boaz marry of non-Jew?
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The 7th Aliyah of Parshat Ki Teitzei speaks to remembering Amalek -
25:17-19. “You shall remember what Amalek did to you on the way, when you went out of Egypt. how he happened upon you on the way and cut off all the stragglers at your rear, when you were faint and weary, and he did not fear God… you shall obliterate the remembrance of Amalek from beneath the heavens. You shall not forget”.
Amalek is characterized as irrational and totally unresponsive to reason. I do not think this is true.
Amalek was a mugger, thug. Amalek saw an easy target, tired and weak unprotected stragglers. Moshe was low on the learning curve; he lacked experience and wisdom when it came to matters military. But he learned, and when we moved our encampment from Har Sinai, it was the tribe of Dan, the lion cub, who formed the rear guard and the incident was not repeated
However, Hashem tells us not to forget, and whether it falls to the us as individuals or the Jewish Defense League or the IDF we always must be prepared to protect ourselves.
After eating a meal when we say the Birkat Hamazon, some of say:
הרחמן הוא יברך את חיילי צבא ההגנה לישראל העומדים על משמר ארצנו
“May the Merciful bless the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces who stand guard over our Land”.
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My friend Elliot Katz passed away some time ago.. Elliot had a specific passage in the Torah that he would obsess about. Inasmuch that we will be reading that passage this Shabbat I thought it would be of interest to you.
At Deuteronomy 23:14 -
וְיָתֵ֛ד תִּֽהְיֶ֥ה לְךָ֖ עַל־אֲזֵנֶ֑ךָ וְהָיָה֙ בְּשִׁבְתְּךָ֣ ח֔וּץ וְחָֽפַרְתָּ֣ה בָ֔הּ וְשַׁבְתָּ֖ וְכִסִּ֥יתָ אֶת־צֵֽאָתֶֽךָ:
“And you shall keep a spike in addition to your weapons; and it shall be, when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it, and you shall return and cover your excrement”.
All of this activity takes place outside of the camp, the reason being that God is in the camp. The camp is holy, and nothing unseemly is to be within the confines of it.
Among other things we would argue about what a ְיָתֵ֛ד was. He said it was a spike; I said it was a shovel. It did not really matter; we were learning Torah.
The Haftarah portion is from Isaiah, 54:1-10
His message rings true for us today:2. Widen the place of your tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of your habitations, do not spare; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes.
3. For right and left shall you prevail, and your seed shall inherit nations and repeople desolate cities
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Rav Kook's Yahrtzeit is celebrated this week on the 3rd of Elul.
Rabbi Pinchas Landes has posted about Rav Kook on FB and is quoted below:
3 Elul - R’ Avraham Yitzchok HaKohen Kook - 1935
On this day in 1935, Rabbi Avraham Yitzchok HaKohen Kook passed away. R’ Kook is considered until this day the intellectual forefather of the Religious Zionist movement.
A student of the great Volozhin Yeshiva in Lithuania, R’ Kook married the daughter of one of his teachers from the Yeshiva R’ Eliyahu Dovid Rabinowitz-Teomim better known as the Aderes. One year later, his wife died. He took her first cousin as his second wife.
In 1904, R’ Kook moved to Israel, then part of the Ottoman Empire. His first position in the country was in the city of Jaffa. During this time, he wrote many of the writings that would later be published posthumously. He would find himself stranded in Switzerland and London during WWI. He would even take a position in 1916 in London.
After the war, in 1919 he was able to return to Israel. He was appointed Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, and shortly after in 1921 the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Palestine, making him the first Chief Rabbi of the land in 1,850 years.
In 1924, he opened his Yeshiva called Mercaz Ha Rav. R’ Kook was not only a great thinker, halakhist, and writer, but he worked tirelessly to bridge the gaps of different types of Jews; right, left, and center in Israel. He saw the rebuilding of Israel as the beginning of the Messianic redemption, and every Jew played a role in that.
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