Ki Tavo
Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8

Much of Jewish practice is an attempt to help us stay mindful of what Einstein called our “strange situation here on earth.” We get so caught up in our lives, that we often lose awareness of the big picture. We forget how much we rely on the efforts of others from this and past generations. We forget that we are part of a people who tells our history in such a way as to teach us that God has saved our collective life, and will bless our individual lives if we will agree to live by our covenant. But we can’t go tearing on through our days, rushing to errands and obligations, or avoiding them, and hope to maintain a larger awareness. We have to stop everything and concentrate. This is the main purpose of ritual: to draw our attention to how much we have received, and how much we owe.

The portion begins with Moses instructing the people on how to bringing the sacrifice of first fruits properly. There is a text worshippers were required to say that will sound familiar to anyone who attends a Passover seder: “My father was a wandering Aramean…” (Deut 26:5-9)

It identifies the worshiper as the desendant of Jacob, part of the people who were enslaved, and who experienced the astounding redemption and Exodus. and therefore we owe God the best of our produce forever. The act of bringing sacrifices, as well as the specified words to be spoken on the occasion were to keep us aware we owe God for our lives, freedom, and heritage. When we gave the first fruits, we remembered our humble origins and extraordinary experience of redemption, and return to a sense of gratitude and commitment to the covenant. As Rosh HaShanah approaches, we try to practice teshuvah, repentence. The word teshuvah literally means a return; we want a sense of returning to remembering how much we have been blessed with and what we owe.

The larger part of the portion is a long listing of blessings and curses. There are promises of blessings for compliance with the terms of the covenant. These include prestige, fertility, victory, fulfillment, and prosperity. We are told that we will be the head (“rosh“), and not the tail (Deut 28:13), words we wish one another at the Erev Rosh HaShanah meal.

Then there is the spector of curses for defiance of the covenant: “If you do not obey the Lord your God…The Lord will let loose against you calamity, panic, and frustration in all the enterprises you undertake, so that you shall soon be utterly wiped out.” (Deut 28:15-21)

The people are threatened with pestilence, illness, plague, heat, drought, defeat, exile, infestation, hunger, poverty, degradation, desperation, siege, terror, despondency… “Until you are driven mad by what your eyes behold.” (Deut 28:34) “…until every mighty towering wall in which you trust has come down…” (Deut 28:52) and finally, with return to slavery in Egypt.

Moses concludes by lamenting that the people don’t appreciate the full meaning of the miracles they have experienced, but God has saved and protected them miraculously, which binds us to uphold the covenant in return.

Remember this is the same prophet whose one glimpse of God passing by yielded the vision of God’s utter mercy and forgiving nature that adds a gleaming beauty to our High Holy Day prayers: Adonai, Adonai, el rachum v’chanun….“God, God, God of compassion and grace, patient, great in loving kindness and truth, forgiving sin and wrongdoing and transgression, and purifying us….”

As long as a person persists in living in a way contrary to what God demands, life becomes more and more of a curse. But the moment a person decides to turn and follow God’s way, they are welcomed back. Many people feel this is the true story of their lives. Others look around and see a world that doesn’t appear to bear this out. Those who seem guilty often don’t seem to suffer brutal curses, while apparently undeserving people often do. We are not the first generation to notice this: “Rabbi Yannai said, [The reason] why the guilty prosper or the innocent suffer is not within our grasp.” (Pirke Avot 4:15) And it should have no bearing on how we make our choices.
The ancient world was no more obviously fair than the world we live in, nor was human nature different. Still we are taught to listen intently to God and do as commanded. This obviously will not mean that fewer bad things will happen to those who attempt that. But the same objective event that one person has the strength to overcome may destroy another person. The most frightening aspect of the curses in this portion is not so much the terrible things that will happen as the total weakness and panic on the part of the one being punished; they will crumple in a strong breeze.

As the High Holy Days approach, it is more fruitful to search into ourselves than to look for flaws in the whole scheme of reality. What has prevented us from remembering the ‘strange situation’ we’re in? What has kept us from sensing the enormity of the gifts we receive and rely on? What has choked off our natural gratitude for each moment of life? What has dulled our generosity and compassion? What gives us strength?

Moses tells the people, as they stand on the brink of entering the land, as they listen to the promises and threats, that “Today you have become the people of the Lord your God.” (Deut 27:9) Whenever we stand in true awareness of what we owe God and people, and act accordingly, that day is today.

Rabbi Alexis Roberts
2002