Ki Teitsei

Luca Calderon-Havas – Year 7

In parashat Ki Teitsei, Moshe continues his speech from the previous parshiyot. Moshe explains and emphasises new rules to the Israelites. This shows, back when this was said, how much power men had over women. Even in recent times and in many countries men have more power than women.

Moshe states rules for honesty and returning lost objects. Moshe also says to keep away from everything evil and have a close guard. I disagree, for example, with regard to fears. If you keep away and don’t go near your fear you will never overcome it.

Another big rule is to “keep your promises”. This is very important as people won’t trust you if you don’t. An excellent example of this is the book ‘Horton Hatches the Egg’ by Doctor Seuss. I am sure many of you have heard the saying: “I meant what I said and I said what I meant; an elephant is faithful one hundred percent”. The elephant promises to sit on the egg until the bird comes back, but the bird doesn’t come back. Horton sits on the egg for a long time as he doesn’t want to break his promise. In the end, the egg hatches without the bird there and it comes out half elephant and half bird. The moral of that story is “It’s important to keep your promises. Faithfulness has its own rewards”.

This parashah focuses on rules some of which we might disagree about and many of which lead us to be respectful, honest and well-behaved.

Gabriel Sebban – Year 11

Ki Teitzei is a parashah of rules and regulations. It is actually the most ‘mitzvah-heavy’ Torah portion, with 74 commandments discussed. Though you may think at first: “Rules, no thanks”, many of the mitzvot described throughout the parashah convey challenging ideas, still relevant today. Why else do you think we keep on rereading it, every year?

The commandments of Ki Teitzei, all 74 of them are:

• If you fall in love with a prisoner of war, you must shave her head, trim her nails and marry her, but if a relationship does not work, you must set her free and not treat her brutally
• If you have a rebellious child that refuses to listen to their parents, they must be taken to the gates of the city and stoned to death
• You must return things that are lost to their rightful owners
• If you find a bird’s nest and want to collect the eggs that are in it, you must first shoo away the mother before collecting the eggs.

Okay, I’m not actually going to recite the next 70 mitzvot of Ki Teitzei, but I want to stop at that last commandment. The Torah says that: “If [walking] along the road, you chance upon a bird’s nest . . . and the mother is sitting over the fledglings or on the eggs, do not take the mother together with her young. Let the mother go and take only the young, in order that you may fare well and have a long life”.

Some refer to this mitzvah as the ‘weakest’ and most ‘insubstantial’ commandment in the Torah. It’s simply about stealing a mother bird’s eggs without her knowledge, right? Well, I think some context is now needed, because if you continue reading the parashah, several mitzvot are listed after this seemingly useless one, each subsequent mitzvah slightly increasing in difficulty each time. Rashi, as you may remember, commentated on Jewish texts. He tells us that these commandments are listed one after another because one good deed leads to another and another. By completing this easy mitzvah, and because good deeds have a ripple-like effect, fulfilling other mitzvot, and just helping others in general becomes easier.

Unfortunately, the Torah portion also discusses some rather unsatisfying, misogynistic topics as well. In one example of blatant unfairness, let us say that a man accuses his wife of dishonesty, but is proven to have lied, he is fined 100 shekels, and his wife is forced to stay with him. If, however, let us say the same situation has occurred, but the man’s suspicions are confirmed, then his wife is to be stoned to death.

You might say that the Torah’s morals and ethics are flawed. On one side, we have the notion of Tikkun Olam, repairing the world and helping others. There is a love of humanity and all things morally just. Then we read the next few lines of the portion, where this unfair relationship between men and women is described, not to mention the way in which we are told to stone our children if they are rebellious, or to stone our daughters if they get married but are then deemed ‘impure’.

So you’d think that these hiccups within the Torah, the laws and mitzvot that no longer relate to our fast-moving society, should be disregarded, yes? Well, in actual fact, these are the very reasons why we must apply our own logic and understanding to such an ancient text containing many invaluable writings of moral and ethical worth, looking past the surface to discover the treasure beneath.

Many Rabbis over the centuries have attempted to discover the Torah’s true meaning, with each taking the morals and ethics discussed throughout, and applying it to their societal context. We must do the same. Perhaps the Torah is attempting to say that all people are flawed. We make so many contradicting actions all the time. People download thousands of dollars-worth of pirated software and media over the Internet, but they would never steal from Westfield. Most people say they appreciate the importance of a balanced life, but dedicate 75% of their life to work and an additional 10% to Netflix.

Yes, the Torah is contradictory. Yes, we ourselves are contradictory, but we must look past it to the true beauty beneath. The Torah has been evolving ever since it was written, with Rabbis discussing every word of the Torah, either supporting or rendering them no longer operational or applicable to society. We must do the same with both the Torah and ourselves, correcting our misconceptions and supporting each other, bringing forward the Torah’s central value of Tikkun Olam, making the world a better place.