Parashat Ki Tavo - Seventh Aliyah

A heart to know after forty years

The last aliyah turns to all Israel and asks them to look back on the road they have traveled. Moses recalls what they saw in Egypt: what God did to Pharaoh, to his servants and to his land, and the great trials, the signs and the wonders done before their eyes. But right after that comes a deeper point: seeing the events by itself does not yet guarantee that a person truly understands their meaning.

Moses says that until this day Israel were not given a heart to know, eyes to see and ears to hear. That is, one can be present at enormous events and still take a long time until their meaning penetrates the mind. Now, at the end of forty years in the wilderness, the people stand at a point where they are able to look at the whole road as one and understand it differently.

Moses also recalls the providence in the wilderness: forty years in which the clothes and the shoes did not wear out, and in which the life of the people did not rest on the ordinary way of existence of bread, wine and strong drink. The purpose was to bring Israel to the knowledge that God is their God.

Afterward Moses recalls the encounter with Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan, who came out to war against Israel and were struck down. Their lands were taken and given as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites and half the tribe of Manasseh. That is, the people no longer only remember an exodus from slavery and a walk through the wilderness, but already see with their own eyes a real beginning of inheritance and settlement.

The aliyah closes with the demand to keep the words of the covenant and to do them. All the memory of Egypt, the wilderness and the victories leads to action: it is not enough to know what happened; the knowledge must be turned into keeping and doing.

Insights from the aliyah

One can see much and still not understand

Israel saw great signs and wonders, and yet Moses stresses that the deep understanding arrives only now. At the level of the idea, a great experience is not necessarily an insight. Sometimes only after years is a person able to truly understand what he went through.

A heart to know is more than information

Knowledge in the Torah is not only the accumulation of facts. It requires heart, sight and hearing. That is, true understanding involves the whole person and not only the intellect.

The forty years in the wilderness receive their meaning in hindsight

During the walk through the wilderness one could see mainly hardship and uncertainty. At the end of the road Moses presents those same years also as a period of protection and providence. It is a reminder that sometimes the meaning of a chapter in life becomes clear only once it is behind us.

Routine sometimes hides the miracle

A garment that did not wear out and a shoe that did not wear down over years are things that can become routine precisely because they go on and on. At the level of the idea, there are blessings that do not look dramatic because they are with us all the time.

The victories are not the end of the road but a preparation for the covenant

The victory over Sihon and Og and the inheritance already given to the tribes are not presented as a reason to be content with success. Right after them comes the demand to keep and to do. Success is no substitute for responsibility.

Memory must lead to action

The aliyah is built almost entirely of historical memory, but the last verse turns the memory into a practical demand. If memory does not change behavior, it remains a story only.

The end of the parasha returns to the covenant

After the first fruits, the blessings, the curses and the rebuke, the parasha ends with an invitation to understand the whole road within a bond of covenant. The question is not only what happened to Israel, but what they do now with all they learned on the way.

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