Parashat Ki Tavo - Fifth Aliyah
Read the biblical text and try to understand it on your own, before reading the commentary.
The two mountains, the twelve curses, and a blessing that enters daily life
The aliyah opens with the arrangement for the ceremony of blessing and curse after the crossing of the Jordan. Six tribes stand on Mount Gerizim for the blessing and six tribes on Mount Eival for the curse. The Levites turn to all Israel in a loud voice, and the whole people takes part in the ceremony by answering amen.
After that comes a series of curses over various acts: making a carved image and a molten image in secret, treating father and mother lightly, moving a neighbor’s boundary, misleading a blind person on the road, twisting the judgment of a stranger, an orphan and a widow, forbidden relations, striking one’s fellow in secret, taking a bribe in order to harm innocent blood, and finally a general curse over one who does not uphold the words of the Torah to do them. After each one of the curses the people answer amen, and in doing so they are not only hearing the words but taking upon themselves the responsibility for keeping them.
From here the aliyah moves to the blessings. If Israel listen to the voice of God and keep to do His commandments, the blessings come and overtake them. The blessing covers all the areas of life: in the city and in the field, in the fruit of the womb, in the fruit of the ground and in the cattle, in the basket and in the kneading trough, in coming in and in going out. That is, the blessing is not limited to a holy place or to a special moment, but spreads into everyday life itself.
Insights from the aliyah
The covenant becomes a public responsibility
The whole people answer amen. There is no situation here in which a few leaders accept the words in everyone’s name. Each person enters the covenant personally, yet as part of a whole community.
Many of the curses deal with what is done without an audience
An image in secret, striking one’s fellow in secret, a bribe and the moving of a boundary can all be done far from the eyes of the public. At the level of the idea, the Torah stresses that true morality is tested especially in the place where a person thinks that no one is watching.
The weak are the test of justice
The blind person, the stranger, the orphan, the widow and innocent blood appear inside the list. A society is not tested only by its relation to the strong and to those who can defend themselves, but by the way it protects those who are easier to harm.
Amen is participation and not only listening
The people do not remain passive. Each amen connects the person to the meaning of the words. At the level of the idea, there is a great difference between knowing what is right and saying with one’s mouth that I take responsibility for it.
The last curse joins all the details into one picture
It is not enough to refrain from one particular transgression. The close moves to a comprehensive commitment to uphold the words of the Torah and to do them. The details matter, but they are part of a whole way of life.
The blessing reaches every space of life
The city and the field, the family, the harvest, the animals, the food, the coming in and the going out; all of it enters the space of blessing. The message is that there is no sharp division between a spiritual life and a practical life. The Torah aims to affect both together.
The blessing overtakes the person
The wording in the aliyah creates a picture in which the blessing is not only something a person chases after. When the way of life is aligned with the covenant, the abundance itself comes to him and accompanies him inside the routine of living.
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