Reflections from Rabbi Ellis

This week we are in the seventh Parsha in the final book of the Torah, Devarim. Devarim is Moshe’s final address to the Children of Israel before they enter the land of Israel and Moshe dies. Seven represents divine unity in our tradition, seven days of creation, seven years of the Shmita cycle. This week’s Parsha brings completion and closure to the second part of Devarim, in which Moshe describes what life will look like for us when we finally settle in our land.

Kit Tavo is quite probably the worst Parsha of the Torah. The sixth Aliyah is a list of ninety-eight different curses that will befall us, in our land, when we stop listening to the voice of G!d and fail to follow his path of righteousness. It’s such a horrible reading that there is a tradition to read it as fast and quietly as possible and it is often a struggle to find someone willing to say the blessing on this section.

The curses from our Parsha are inherently connected with the nation of Israel's settling in the land of Israel. These curses only occur to us when we are in our home and exercising control over it. The Torah says little about what life will be like for us outside the land of Israel. Why does Moshe place so much emphasis on what will happen to us in Israel and almost none to our future in the diaspora, after all, for most of our history we have been a nation in diaspora?

Moshe is describing to us our national future and in the diaspora, we are unable to act as a nation. In the diaspora every Jew can control their own future and Jewish communities have the ability to organize and mediate the forces that swirl around us, but we have no control over the fate of our nation. We couldn’t stop the Spanish expulsion in 1492 regardless of the fact that Don Isaac Abarbenel was the advisor of the queen. In the Diaspora, no matter how powerful or wealthy we become, our fate lies in the hands of others.

When we are in the land of Israel it is different. When we live in our land and rule over it we take charge of our fate. For better or worse when Jews rule over Israel and sit in Jerusalem our future is in our hands. Regardless of whatever excuses we might choose, Israel is our home and our state, and its challenges and successes belong to us as well.

The blessing and curse from this week’s Parsha are that of living in our own home and being responsible for what happens there. Moshe makes clear that our success there is directly tied to our ability to produce the society that G!d demands of us. For the last three week’s Moshe has spelled out G!d’s demand that we cultivate a society that is sensitive to the needs of its weakest and most disenfranchised members, this week he explains to us that this is the only way we can receive the blessings that G!d holds for us. The greatest blessing and curse from this week’s Parsha are responsibility. When we take responsibility for ourselves and our brothers, we fill the world with the peace and the knowledge of G!d, if we refuse it, we are doomed to fail.

Shabbat Shalom!

Rabbi Yehoshua Ellis