In Ki Tavo Moses reaches the end of the detailed provisions of the covenant, with commands about bringing first fruits to the central Sanctuary, as well as allocating the various tithes. He closes this section with a reminder of what the covenant is: a mutual pledge between the people and God. The people are to give God their total loyalty….
…‘Shehecheyanu’ blessing. Its translation is: Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has given us life, sustained us, and brought us to this time. Torah Trivia Question: Which is the only Hebrew letter missing from the section in Ki Tavo which deals with the bikkurim (the first-fruit offerings)? Can you think of an explanation for this?…
…he uses almost forty times in the space of the book, and variously translated as “meaningless,” “pointless,” “futile,” “empty,” or as the King James Bible famously rendered it, “vanity.” In fact, though, Kohelet uses the word simcha seventeen times, that is, more than the whole of the Mosaic books together. After every one of his meditations on the pointlessness of…
…and resonant. In an age in which computer and smartphone memories have grown so fast, from kilobytes to megabytes to gigabytes, while human memories have become so foreshortened, there is an important Jewish message to humanity as a whole. You can’t delegate memory to machines. You have to renew it regularly and teach it to the next generation. Winston Churchill…
…He has also written many books on leadership and creativity, including one in particular, Leading Minds, that is important in understanding this week’s parsha of Ki Tavo.[1] Gardner’s argument is that what makes a leader is the ability to tell a particular kind of story – one that explains ourselves to ourselves and gives power and resonance to a collective vision. So Churchill…
The Parsha in a Nutshell In Ki Tavo Moshe reaches the end of his speech explaining all the details of the covenant. The last set of commands he discusses involve bringing first-fruits to the central Sanctuary, as well as the various agricultural tithes (like taxes), giving 10 per cent of all produce to the poor, the Levites, or bringing the…
…God their full loyalty. God, in turn, will have a special relationship with the people. The text turns to the next feature of ancient covenants: the blessings and curses that will be the result of faithfulness on the one hand, disloyalty on the other. The parsha of Ki Tavo ends with Moshe summoning the people, at the end of their…
…answer, please head to the Education Companion section (directly below, in grey). Educational Companion Torah Trivia: this week’s answer Whether you answered yes or no, you are correct! The passuk in Devarim 8:4 states that “The clothes upon you did not wear out, nor did your feet swell these forty years.” And there is another passuk in Ki Tavo, where…
The sedra of Ki Tavo contains one of the most terrifying passages in the Hebrew Bible, rivalled only by the parallel text in Vayikra/Leviticus 26. Both are known to tradition as tochachah, “reprimand” or “rebuke.” Essentially they are warnings of the terrible fate that will overtake Jews if they neglect or abandon their covenant with God. Reading them in the…