Ki Tetse' (Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19) and Haftarah (Isaiah 54:1-10): The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary
24
Ki Tetse' (Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19) and Haftarah (Isaiah 54:1-10): The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary
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Overview
The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary shows teens in their own language how Torah addresses the issues in their world. The conversational tone is inviting and dignified, concise and substantial, direct and informative. Each pamphlet includes a general introduction, two model divrei Torah on the weekly Torah portion, and one model davar Torah on the weekly Haftarah portion. Jewish learning--for young people and adults--will never be the same.
The complete set of weekly portions is available in Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin's book The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary (JPS, 2017).
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780827614598 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | The Jewish Publication Society |
| Publication date: | 12/01/2018 |
| Series: | JPS Study Bible |
| Pages: | 24 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d) |
About the Author
Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin serves as the senior rabbi of Temple Solel in Hollywood, Florida. He is the author of Putting God on the Guest List: How to Reclaim the Spiritual Meaning of Your Child’s Bar or Bat Mitzvah, winner of the Benjamin Franklin Award for the best religion book published in the United States, and The Gods Are Broken: The Hidden Legacy of Abraham (JPS, 2013).
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
The Torah
Ki Tetse': Deuteronomy 21:10–25:19
This Torah portion is jammed with seventy-two mitzvot — more than any other Torah portion. While many of them seem to be random, if you look closely you will notice that there is an interesting pattern. Last week's portion (Shofetim) is mostly about government and affairs of state. Ki Tetse' focuses mostly (but by no means entirely) on family matters — what to do with rebellious teens; parental responsibility; who is in and who is out of the larger Jewish family; even how to treat young birds who are part of a "bird family."
Parashat Ki Tetse' is a treasure trove of laws and teachings — some obscure, some still relevant to how we lead our lives.
Summary
• If a woman is taken captive during a war, she is allowed to spend a month missing her parents. If, after a month, the captor still wants her to stay, then she can become his wife. If the captor no longer wants her, she must be set free and not be sold as a slave. (21:10–14)
• If parents have a "wayward and defiant son," they must bring that troublesome child before the authorities of the town, and he can be stoned to death. In reality, this never happened; thank goodness! (21:18–21)
• If a person sees a friend's (or, even an enemy's) ox or sheep straying, or finds someone's garment, that person must return the lost property to the one who has lost it. (22:1–4)
• When taking young birds or eggs from a nest, you must first send away the mother bird. (22:6–7)
• The Israelites, as well as later generations of Jews, must always remember the massive cruelty of Amalek, who attacked the weakest of the Israelites when they were leaving Egypt. (25:17–19)
The Big Ideas
• Judaism realizes that people sometimes have strong sexual urges, but they are cautioned not to indulge those urges irresponsibly and cruelly. Judaism recognizes that each person has a yetzer ha-ra (evil inclination) and a yetzer ha-tov (good inclination), and that only the mitzvot can keep the yetzer ha-ra in check. While human beings might not be totally godlike (at least, not yet), neither are they allowed to descend to the level of animals.
• Not everything that is written in the Torah really happened. This is true of many of the Torah's stories (for example, Adam and Eve, and most likely some of the stories of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs). But, it is also true that some of the Torah's mitzvot were never carried out. Sometimes, those laws and teachings appear in the Torah simply as warnings and object lessons. Still, in this particular case (the rebellious child) the teaching has some very valuable lessons to teach us about parental responsibility and how young people should behave.
• Moral responsibility extends to other people's property. Here, the Torah is clear: when it comes to what someone has lost, "you must not remain indifferent" (22:3). Perhaps this is the origin of the custom of the "lost and found." But the idea that we are responsible for other people's stuff is a very different attitude than the one that contemporary society offers us. Sure, we care about people, but their possessions? Yes. Since someone's property usually has economic implications for that person, we have to pay attention to what they have as well as who they are.
• Judaism has high respect for life, even and especially, animal life. It isn't just about not being physically cruel to animals. The notion of avoiding tza'ar ba'alei chayyim (unnecessary cruelty to animals) also extends to avoiding psychological cruelty. That is the reason why someone who is taking the eggs or young birds from a nest must first send away the mother bird — so that the mother bird doesn't have to experience the anguish of seeing her children taken away.
• Evil is real, and it must be remembered and resisted. The tribe of Amalek is the symbol of genocidal cruelty against Jews. Haman, who plotted the destruction of the Jews of Shushan in the book of Esther, which Jews read on Purim, was descended from the tribe of Amalek. Why did Amalek act with such horrific cruelty? Because he was "undeterred by the fear of God" (v'lo yareh Elohim). This doesn't mean that the Amalekites were not religious (we don't know what kind of god they worshiped). In the Torah, to "fear God" meant "to be an ethical person." The tribe of Amalek had no ethical grounding; therefore, they had no reason not to commit murder against the Israelites.
Divrei Torah
Kids, Beware!
For many years, parents have relied on experts for advice on how to raise their children. An earlier generation had Dr. Benjamin Spock; a later generation had T. Berry Brazelton and Penelope Leach. But no one ever came up with what we find in this Torah portion.
Consider this teaching: if parents have a "wayward or defiant" son who won't listen to them, they should take the child to the town authorities; the authorities would then stone the child to death in the public square (21:18–21).
Relax, it never happened. The ancient sages said: "There never has been a 'wayward or defiant son,' and there never will be. Why then was the law written? That you may study it and receive reward. The whole purpose of this teaching in the Torah is for people to study it and to learn from it." Obviously, our ancestors were as bothered by this passage as we are. Yet they could not ignore it.
So, what can we learn from it?
First, as bad as it is, Deuteronomy is saying that if your child is rebellious, the community must be involved in his discipline. There has to be some kind of due process. You have to turn the teen over to the authorities. It all has to happen in public; the community is now part of the family, and vice versa.
Second, how old did the teen have to be? The ancient sages said that it pertained to teens from the age of puberty to when the child has stopped growing physically — which can be anywhere between eighteen and twenty-two years old. So, the age of moral responsibility actually starts around what we now know as bar and bat mitzvah age. The text and its commentary is suggesting that you need to start taking responsibility for your actions when you are old enough to understand them.
Third, what was the "crime" that the kid had to have committed? We're not exactly sure what "wayward and defiant" means, but evidently it suggests intentional rebellion that harmed the family. But the Torah goes on to say that the teen is a "glutton and a drunkard." We are talking here about impulse control! Eating too much, and certainly drinking too much, is never good and, as we know, can lead to other self-destructive behaviors.
Notice that the text only speaks about a "son." As Bible scholars Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and Andrea L. Weiss have taught: "This law probably does not apply to daughters, for being a glutton and a drunkard seems to be stereotypically male. If the mother and father cannot control him, it becomes the larger society's responsibility." Certainly we recognize today that young women can also have impulse-control problems and destructive behaviors. But throughout history it has been out-of-control young men who have been the greatest threat to society.
That said, let's remember that a certain type of teen independence and even rebellion has its place. According to a midrash, Judaism was born when Abraham rebelled against his father. The Jewish people was sustained when Pharaoh's daughter rebelled against her father and saved the infant Moses. Spiritual rebellion out of moral concern is one thing. But destructive rebellion for its own sake can wreck families and hurt the community. Though it overstates things, that is the point the Torah is trying to make here.
Lost and Found
This really happened: A woman found a ten-dollar bill on the floor of a crowded store. She brought the bill to the cashier and asked her to announce that someone had lost their money. The cashier could not believe it. "Everyone will come and claim it!" he protested. The woman said: "That might be, but it is still a mitzvah to announce that it has been found." The cashier replied: "Did you say 'mitzvah'? Do you mean that this is a Jewish thing to do? Wow. I'm Jewish and I haven't been in synagogue in years. If that's Judaism, I should check it out again."
Yes. That's Judaism. Returning a lost object to its rightful owner is one of the sweetest, simplest, and most profound mitzvot of the whole set of 613. Yes, the world might say "finders keepers, losers weepers," but that is a childish way of viewing life. It is also not the Jewish way.
Finding and returning lost objects is so important that the ancient sages made it the subject of an entire tractate of the Talmud. In the ancient Temple, there was a Stone of Losses, where people who had lost things and people who had found things would go. There, in the holiest place in the world, the finders would bring what they had found and the losers would find what they had lost.
True, the biblical text seems to focus on lost animals. That was because they were so valuable. (The modern equivalent would be if someone lost his or her car.) But this mitzvah is not only about stuff. It's about anything that gets lost. If someone loses their way in life, you must help them find their way back. If someone loses their health, then you must do what you can to help heal them. This is the essence of the Jewish mitzvah to heal. It is why some Jews become doctors; if health is a lost object, then you have to try to restore it.
Isn't that the natural thing to do? Actually, goodness is not "natural." To paraphrase Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins: The natural human response is to "hide oneself," to pretend that one did not notice the stray animal or lost object, to shirk responsibility and act as if we have no ethical responsibility.
Judaism doesn't believe that we are all born as wonderful, sweet, and ethical beings. Moses Alshekh, a sixteenth-century commentator, writes: "God wished to implant in the Jew a love of his fellow, by means of the mitzvot, and help him overcome his naturally selfish instincts. What person would normally run after his fellow's stray ox and restore it to him? Mitzvot train and discipline the doer. At first, he performs the mitzvah because the Torah told him to do so. As time goes on, he performs the mitzvah willingly and spontaneously."
No one is born a great baseball player or pianist. It takes practice. So does being a mensch — a good, decent human being. Human character is forged in the small deeds — like returning lost objects.
Connections
• What other "crimes" would you add to the list of things that rebellious children do?
• What is your opinion of the fact that here in the Torah girls are omitted from being rebellious children? Are there particular "crimes" that girls are more likely to commit?
• What is wrong with eating too much and drinking too much? The Talmud says that drinking too much leads to bloodshed. Do you agree? What else does it lead to?
• What are some ways that Judaism teaches people to control their impulses?
• Have you ever lost something and had someone return it to you? Have you ever returned something to someone who has lost it? How did it feel to do that?
• What are some ways that Judaism teaches us to be better people?
• What does it mean for us to remember Amalek, the symbol of evil? What can we do to fight against evil in our world?
CHAPTER 2The Haftarah
Ki Tetse': Isaiah 54:1–10
As we have said, it is easy to see how the Jews in Babylon could have plunged into deep despair. But the prophet known as Second Isaiah has moved into total encouragement mode. He says that even if the Jewish people (symbolized by a barren woman) feel that they have no hope, because they are still in Babylonian exile, don't worry! She will be healed from her infertility, and she will have lots of children — so many that her house will have to be expanded! That's how the prophet chooses to tell the people: Relax, you will be coming home to the Land of Israel soon.
Can This Marriage Be Saved?
Sometimes, it is difficult to really get into the language of the prophets, especially when they use ideas that seem so outmoded and foreign to us. And yes, sometimes those ideas are not only outmoded and foreign; they are actually offensive to modern ears.
That, frankly, is what happens in this haftarah. How is the Jewish people described? In exclusively feminine terms. But those terms are troublesome. First, the Jews are like a "barren one" (54:1) — a woman who is not able to have children. (Yes, the barren woman will eventually have children — a whole lot of them — but you can imagine how painful it might be for a childless woman to hear these words in synagogue.) Then, the Jews are compared to a "widow" (54:4). The text speaks of the "disgrace" of being a widow. (Since when is it a disgrace to be a widow?) And then, the passage seems to say that the Jewish people are like a divorced woman, who can be brought back to her husband (54:6–8).
How can we make sense of all this? First, we need to remember that, in ancient times, to be childless was to be considered cursed. And not only in ancient times. If you ask people today who have been trying to have children and have not been successful, you will discover that they, too, feel many things — sad, angry, depressed, and perhaps even cursed. In that sense, the Jewish people, exiled in Babylonia, felt as if they were under a curse, and that they were not being "productive." That's why God promises them that they will have many children, and that those children will be triumphant.
What about the "widow"? Rabbis W. Gunther Plaut and Chaim Stern teach: "Isaiah takes 'widow' in a wider sense, as a woman who has been abandoned and divorced by her husband and has thus been publicly shamed."
The most painful image is divorce. This makes sense when we remember that, often, the relationship between God and Israel is imagined to be like a marriage. (The prophet Hosea loved that image.) But if Israel breaks the marital covenant (which usually means "messing around" with false gods), then it leads to a divorce. The biblical system is unfair and one sided: as the "husband," God has the sole power to initiate the divorce.
Even the whole idea of reconciliation seems a little troubling. While one may hope for that, sometimes in a troubled or broken marriage the relationship is too far gone to repaired. Rabbi Vivian Mayer writes: "For us, the scenario of the rejected woman reconciling with her husband may resonate all too well with the familiar domestic reality of battered wives rejoicing in a reunion with their abusers."
And yet, God still loves the Jewish people — and always will. Commenting on the verse "In slight anger, for a moment, I hid My face from you" (54: 8), the medieval commentator David Kimchi teaches: "Even though the days of exile were long, they will feel like only a brief moment compared to the time of redemption."
Isaiah uses the language of marriage and family that we can relate to. Even though it reflects some of the biases of the time, getting personal gets our attention. One's relationship with one's spouse or partner really matters ... and so does our relationship with God.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary Ki Tetse' (Deuteronomy 21:10–25:19) Haftarah (Isaiah 54:1–10)"
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Copyright © 2018 Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin.
Excerpted by permission of UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA PRESS.
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Table of Contents
General Introduction Ki Tetse': Torah Commentary Ki Tetse' : Haftarah Commentary