Dvar Torah Parsha Ki Tavo 5783

Devarim 26:1 – 29:8

Tokhecha, Does Chastisement Work?

Our Parsha is Ki Tavo, or “When you enter”, a continuation of Moshe’s speech to the people before entering Canaan. He calls on the people to take their first fruits and deliver to the city that will be named where G_d’s name will reside. It’s important to note that in Devarim (Deuteronomy) Hashem does not dwell in any place on earth, but rather G_d’s name does. It goes on to call upon all to carry out the laws and social ordinances with full heart and soul. We are a holy people of G_d.

Upon entering the promised land, they are to make an altar of stones with the words of the teaching (Devarim). The priests then recite curses to offenders committing a variety of sins at which the people said Amen. Then a short portion on the blessings that will come, but then a longer portion on the curses the people will experience, many of which we have indeed endured over the centuries.

Honestly as I poured over these words, I could not help but reflect on my own childhood. I grew up in the late 1940’s and 1950’s, a very different time from today. It was the era of the “critical parent”, not of positive reinforcement but of a serious butt-whipping if you got it wrong. Endless lectures enforced with the business end of a belt if you crossed that line. I carried resentments for years before I could make peace with that childhood and with my parents. Albeit well after my father’s passing in ’67.

The tokhecha (reprimand or rebuke) passages appear twice in the Torah, first in parsha Bechukotai in Vayikra (Leviticus) and here. This sort of language was not uncommon in ancient and medieval times where fate in history was related to the power of gods. In our case, the belief that our disobedience caused our fate. Indeed, over the centuries following our expulsion from Israel, we simply assumed it was our fate following the pogroms, mass killings by Crusaders, for century after century. It’s important to note however that neither did we stop being Jews, living in foreign lands, mostly without the benefit of citizenship, where we would reside until this or that ruler would kick us out. Even after Napoleon, we would still live in many areas with only conditional status. We rather believed only supernatural action would allow us to return to Israel.

Rabbi Yitz Greenberg of Hadar suggests it was after the Shoah that we came to see that Jewish history was no longer under the sign of tokhecha. Rabbi Greenberg offers that in 1945 when Hungarian Jewry reached 10,000 killed every day, where Jewish children were dumped alive directly into the burning pits of Auschwitz, well in no way could that be considered in any form or fashion, a punishment for sin from a loving G_d. He offers that in the years following the destruction of the Temple, according to the Rabbis, renewed the covenant, inviting the people to take more responsibility. He offers that today we are in the third stage of the covenant, in which Hashem is totally hidden but totally present in Jewish and human fate. Oh, we still read the tokhecha passages, quickly and in a low voice.

I would offer this for consideration. In Torah, we read language of slaughtering every man, woman, and child. We read about slavery, and just today, I read in Talmud whether if a master should castrate his slave, were they entitled to freedom by manumission. Well, it depends. If they removed the testicles, no. But if they cut off the penis, well, yes. I know the Rabbis went off on some legal tangents, but really?

My point here is this. Our ancestors lived in very brutal times. Also, we know that passages calling for the destruction of every man, woman, and child did not actually happen, rather were flourishes of rhetoric to drive home certain points. But with each generation we have moved to become a people with laws regarding war crimes, a people where slavery was not needed etc. Even from the generation when I was growing up in a small town in East Texas, the concept of spoil the rod and spare the child has moved to a generation where more parents spend more time, energy towards their children, demonstrating moral behavior by imitation of the parents as opposed to reprimand and punish. I am of the opinion that leading by example is superior to punishment and derision. My parents have both passed away now. But I love them both. They were products of their time and those were the rules of their time. My prayer is this. That we as a people, we as Jews, continue to grow and progress. Baruch Hashem!