Are we part of the solution or part of the problem?
One of the many beautiful things I’ve noticed when reading the Torah is that God creates templates for how He works with His creation. For example, He repeats throughout the Torah and again in this parashah Ki Tetze: “Always remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt…you must keep my commandments”. The story of Egypt depicts Israel under the foreign god, Pharaoh; the people cried out to God when the oppression was too great so He sent a Redeemer, Moses, and the war between the gods of Egypt and the God of Israel began. Israel turned to their God but their immersion into the foreign gods was so strong that it took many miracles and testing to change their paradigms. This is how God has worked with His people throughout our long history, warning us not to repeat the mistakes of our ancestors. Yet, here we are again, in the 21st century, doing just that.
Parashat Ki Tetze continues last week’s theme, “Tzedek, tzedek tirdof – Justice, you must pursue justice”. Any society, nation, government, community, or family that does not live by a code of justice and ethics to govern its people is doomed to failure. Here, Moses establishes a formula with many examples of how to go out of our way to help our fellow man and how to show compassion to those weaker than us.
Darwin’s ideology of the survival of the fittest can only work in a world where God does not exist. This is in direct opposition to the Torah which teaches us that we need to care for the weakest among us, especially for those who cannot defend themselves. It repeats over and over that we must care for the widow, the orphan and the stranger. Many of these regulations were to annul the cruel rituals of the pagan religions of the day which involved the killing of the innocent, the eating of parts of a live animal and which had a total lack of compassion for anything considered weaker than the fittest. Hitler lived by that motto.
Many of the regulations in the Torah are clothed in the garments of the day, but their principles remain intact no matter how the times have changed. For example, Deut. 22:5 states: “A woman must not put on man’s clothes, nor shall a man wear woman’s clothing; for whoever does these things is abhorrent to your Godיהוה.” He’s not talking about dressing for play-acting. Hebrew is a language that draws pictures to express a message in the context of the situation. To me, Moses is telling us that God designed the family unit within which men have their roles of husband and father and women of wives and mothers. If we do not accept these God-given roles, the family unit falls apart along with the community. And who suffers…the children and ultimately all of society. Many of the regulations in the Torah have to do with guarding the family unit, how to keep it healthy and how to avoid raising rebellious and damaged children. Today the family is no longer honored, parents no longer have authority over their children, they are no longer allowed to discipline their children by spanking them and teachers no longer have the right to punish students in schools for misbehaving. Is there any wonder that there is so much crime?
Moses tells us that “Parents shall not be put to death for children, nor children be put to death for parents: they shall each be put to death only for their own crime.” The Torah is clear about having a death penalty within a just system. I immediately thought of the parents of the 14-year-old boy who went on a shooting spree at a high school in Georgia. Five months earlier, the parents of another youth were arrested in Michigan for another school shooting. In both cases, the parents were arrested and charged. Our children are hurting and our fallen society is to blame. That is why God begs us to obey His Commandments. He is trying to protect us from ourselves.
When people refuse to abide by rules that bring order out of chaos, the Torah is clear about the consequences. For e.g., in this parashah, we read that a kidnapper must be put to death. The pain caused to the families of all those kidnapped, murdered and raped victims of October 7th is unthinkable and many more are still being held captive in horrendous conditions. Those kidnappers deserve death. People may think that the imposition of the death penalty is cruel, but strict punishment for the guilty will save thousands of lives.
God wants us to show compassion to the smallest creatures so that things may go well with us and we can have a long life. Moses tells us in Deut. 22:6-7, if we find a bird’s nest in the tree or on the ground with the mother and her eggs still in it: “…do not take the mother together with her young. Let the mother go, and take only the young, in order that you may fare well and have a long life.” When I was young and we went to the country for the summer, there was a frog pond in our village. I loved spending time sitting and watching the frogs, especially the bullfrogs with their large bellies and deep-throated calls to their fellow frogs. I was so upset and heartbroken when my cousins brought their BB guns to the pond and shot all the frogs. I know that later in life, they had lives that did not fare well for them. Could these young boys in Georgia and Michigan have started by killing little animals?
Another pattern related to the family is the sanctity of marriage. Ki Tetze tells us…if a husband was upset with his wife and wanted to divorce her, and he accused her of not being a virgin, the parents would bring the bloodstained cloth from her wedding night proving her virginity, but if she was found not to be a virgin and did have sex while under her father’s authority, she could be stoned to death because she did a shameful thing in Israel. God said, “Thus you will sweep away evil from your midst.”
What principles are we teaching our young sons and daughters today? The idea of the purity of the marriage bed has been lost and the sexual act is considered equal to the act of eating. Who are the losers here? We all are…on so many levels. One of the consequences of this is that many young girls are getting pregnant and having abortions, but the one who suffers the most is the weakest among us, the one who cannot speak out to defend itself – the aborted baby whose blood is crying out from the ground.
“If a man is found lying with another man’s wife, both of them—the man and the woman with whom he lay—shall die. Thus you will sweep away evil from Israel.” Today this is promoted by Hollywood. The sanctity of marriage has been lost but the ones who suffer the most are again the children as a consequence of the many broken vows and broken marriages.
“No Israelite woman shall be a prostitute קְדֵשָׁ֖ה (kadesha), nor shall any Israelite man be a prostitute קָדֵ֖שׁ (kadesh)”. Again we are to preserve the sanctity of the special spiritual union that God created between male and female as they become one.
Another theme speaks about the land being defiled just as the marriage bed was defiled. An impaled body had to be taken down on the same day, so as not to defile the land. How can we defile the land? What does that mean? Well, as I see it, humanity was formed from the dust of the earth by the Creator, therefore the earth is a living entity. He chose a piece of that earth called the land of Israel. This piece of earth in the Middle East has as its capital Jerusalem, which is called the navel of the earth in Ezek. 5:5 and 38:12. God apportioned the land and gave it as an inheritance to the people who were chosen to take care of it.
Look at the picture, the template and the parallels…God formed the first man, Adam from the dust of the earth, placed him in the Garden of Eden and appointed him to take care of all his creation. Israel was formed from one man, Abraham, to care for all the earth – by being ohr l’goyim, light to the nations. Adam was given the garden and one rule to live by. The Israelites were given the land and ten rules to live by. God said, “You must not bring sin upon the land that your God יהוה is giving you as a heritage.” When Adam sinned, he was expelled from the garden; when the Israelites sinned, they were expelled from the land. The land belongs to God and anyone who defiles it by going against the rules He gave us, will suffer the consequences.
The portion ends with “Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt— how, undeterred by fear of God, he surprised you on the way, when you were famished and weary, and cut down the weakest in your rear. Therefore, when your God יהוה grants you safety from all your enemies around you, in the land that your God יהוה is giving you as a heritage, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!”
Amalek represents the evil and the darkness that is invading not only God’s land but on a larger scale, God’s earth. Our God repeats “…thus you will sweep out evil from your midst– so that all Israel would hear and learn to fear their God.”
The GOD of our fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, is pure light and His very Presence burns away darkness and evil. He gave Israel the Promised Land and wants it to be kept clean and pure from the darkness caused by bad behavior. The Torah spells out what bad behavior is. We all have the inclination to do bad, it’s called the yetzer ha rah and to do good, the yetzer ha tov. We struggle with our nature every day. No one is perfect so let’s not think that we are holier than thou and God does not ask us to be perfect; He asks us to be obedient. When He says, “Always remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore do I command you to observe this commandment,” He is reminding us that He sets us free, shows us a new path, tells us to examine ourselves daily and choose to change directions if we are on the wrong path. The Torah is filled with examples of how to do that. It is not a religion, it is a way of life.
The land of Israel represents the physical world and the people of Israel were formed to be the spiritual connection between the Creator and mankind. The reason we are so hated by the nations is because they prefer their gods made in their image to the One and only Creator who made us in His. Being chosen for this role is a huge responsibility, and many prefer to run away from it but God does not expect us to carry this burden alone. He is always with us. He never leaves us; we leave Him first.
Today our world is drowning in darkness. We can feel it and sometimes we too may feel as if we are drowning. So what can we do? Let’s begin by understanding that the battle we wage is a spiritual one – light vs dark, good vs evil. As the Spirit of God walks among us what does He see… light or darkness? When we live by the rules of the Torah, we bring light offsetting the darkness around us. We may think that what we do, right or wrong, doesn’t matter as long as no one sees it, but God does. Our behaviour can tip the balance between the two states of being – good and evil, light and darkness. Let’s be part of the solution by being obedient not part of the problem by being rebellious.
Shabbat Shalom
Peggy Pardo