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Ki Tavo Vol.29 No.50.Qxp Layout 1 9 September 2017 18 Elul 5777 Shabbat ends London 8.17pm Jerusalem 7.29pm Volume 29 No. 50 Ki Tavo Artscroll p.1068 | Hertz p.859 | Soncino p.1117 In memory of Harav Yisrael ben Eliyahu “It will be when you enter the Land that the Lord, your God, gives you as an inheritance, and you possess it, and dwell in it, that you shall take of the first of every fruit of the ground that you bring in form your Land that the Lord, your God, gives you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place 1 that the Lord, your God, will choose, to make His Name rest there” (Devarim 26:1-2). Sidrah Summary: Ki Tavo 1st Aliya (Kohen) – Devarim 26:1-11 in between the mountains to call out the Once the nation has come into the Land of Israel, blessings and the curses, to which the people there is a mitzvah for a produce-grower to take should respond “Amen” (Rashi). the first fruits of the new harvest and place them Question: which tribes stood on Mount Gerizim in a basket, before bringing them to a Kohen in and which tribes on Mount Eival? Answer on the Temple (bikkurim). After the Kohen takes the bottom of page 6. basket, the person who has brought the fruit reads out a text which recalls the initial descent 6th Aliya (Shishi) – 28:6-69 to Egypt, the servitude and the redemption, and This aliyah opens with further blessings if we are concludes with an expression of gratitude to God to follow God's will – our enemies will flee from us for the bounty from the Land. and the other nations will be in awe of us. However, the sidrah continues with the tochacha, 2nd Aliya (Levi) – 26:12-15 the passage of retribution. If we do not listen to At the end of every third and sixth year of the God’s commandments and do not observe the seven year shemitah cycle, one has to make sure mitzvot, the consequences will be grave. Verse that all the tithes from the produce of the Land after verse warn of petrifying suffering, including over the previous years have been given to their illness, plague, blindness, children taken captive, respective recipients. Once that has been being at the mercy of other nations, parents organised, a text known as viduy ma’aserot is eating their own children and the nation said, which declares one’s care for the laws of becoming scattered over the Earth. tithing and a prayer to God to bless the Land. Point to Consider: why does the Torah add this 3rd Aliya (Shlishi) – 26:16-19 passage of tochacha, given that there was Moshe encourages the people to keep the already a lengthy one in parashat Bechukotai mitzvot and to see them every day as fresh and (Bemidbar chapter 26)? new (Rashi). This will elevate the nation to the status of being holy and distinguished. 7th Aliya (Shevi’i) – 29:1-8 Moshe reminds the people of their wondrous 4th Aliya (Revi’i) – 27:1-10 Exodus from Egypt, their miraculous survival in Moshe tells the people that on the day they cross the desert for 40 years and their victories over the the Jordan, they should take stones, coat them mighty kings Sichon and Og. with plaster and inscribe upon them the words of the Torah. They should erect these stones on Haftarah Mount Eival, where they shall also build an altar Taken from the book of Yeshaya, this is the sixth and bring peace-offerings. of the seven ‘haftarot of consolation’ read after Tisha B’Av. The prophet relates a vision of the 5th Aliya (Chamishi) – 27:11-28:5 nations of the world coming to Zion and After the nation enters the Land, they will come recognising God. Violence and pain will become to Mount Gerizim and to Mount Eival (see p.3 memories of the past – “never again shall your article). Six of the tribes are to stand on one sun set, not shall your moon will be withdrawn; mountain, six on the other. The Levi’im will stand for God will be an eternal light”. United Synagogue Daf Hashavua Produced by US Living & Learning together with the Rabbinical Council of the United Synagogue Editor: Rabbi Chaim Gross Editor-in-Chief: Rabbi Baruch Davis Editorial Team: Ilana Epstein, Michael Laitner, Sharon Radley Available also via email US website www.theus.org.uk ©United Synagogue To sponsor Daf Hashavua please contact Loraine Young on 020 8343 5653, or [email protected] If you have any comments or questions regarding Daf Hashavua please email [email protected] 2 The Untenable Eleventh Commandment by Rabbi Dr Martin van den Bergh, Childwall Hebrew Congregation, Liverpool There is a notion that we are craftsman, and sets it up in secret” (Devarim free to do as we wish, as long 27:15). This emphasises that transgressions as we are not found out. This committed in private are just as bad as if they is commonly known as “the had been committed in public. Eleventh Commandment”. In other words - we can behave In fact, we can never hide from God or, for that anyway we like in private, as matter, from ourselves. Taking this lesson to heart long as we put on a public can prevent us from transgressing, as can be display of conforming to social norms of learnt from Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi’s statement in behaviour. However, today there is little privacy; Pirkei Avot: “Apply your mind to three things and it is becoming increasingly clear that there is you will not come into the hands of sin. Know nowhere to hide. Therefore, no matter how what there is above you – an eye that sees, an discreet we may try to be, we are likely to be ear that hears, and all your deeds are written in a found out. Especially with the advent of modern book” (Ethics of our Fathers 2:1 – see green technology, social media platforms and CCTV siddur, p. 530). networks, privacy has eroded and it may seem like ‘big brother’ is always watching. The Sages of the Talmud also tell us that we should avoid anything that even appears to be Added to this notion is the Jewish belief that forbidden. This is what is called marit ha’ayin. actually there is always a reckoning for our Again, this does not only apply in public, but actions, as the Book of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) even in the privacy of our own homes: “Rav tells us: “in the end of the matter, everything is Yehudah said in Rav's name: Wherever the heard” (12:13). Therefore, there can be no Sages prohibited something because of marit distinction between private and public behaviour, ha’ayin, it is forbidden even in one's innermost and outward appearances should reflect our chambers” (Talmud Shabbat 64b). private persona. We are urged to be wary of transgressing in secret just as in public. Thus, from our perspective, the ‘eleventh commandment’ is untenable. As the late Rabbi In this week’s sidrah, the Torah highlights this; the Levi Meier (chaplain of the Cedar-Sinai Hospital Israelites were commanded by Moshe to commit in Los Angeles, d. 2008) once said: “we should themselves to the Torah and the covenant of God serve God with all our hearts and with all our once they had crossed the Jordan River into the minds, whether in private or in public”. Promised Land. The Levites were to bless the people and utter curses: “you shall put the blessing upon Mount Gerizim, and the curse upon Mount Eval” (Devarim 11.29). The Rashbam (Rabbi Shmuel ben Meir d. 1158, a grandson of Rashi) points out that these curses also refer to transgressions which are committed in private, as inferred by the mention of the word “secret” in the curses. For example, the first curse states: “Cursed be the man who makes any engraved or molten image, an abomination to the Lord, the work of the hands of the In memory of Harav Yitzchak Yoel ben Shlomo Halevi 3 Bein Adam Lechaveiro Part 13: Bikur Cholim – The Practical Side by Rabbi Daniel Fine, Community Rabbi, Stanmore & Canons Park United Synagogue In our last two articles, Perhaps the Shulchan Aruch’s ruling could be we discussed the origin of adhered to by asking the doctors or relatives the mitzvah of visiting before entering the ward. the sick (bikur cholim) and we noted the three When praying for the patient's recovery, if this components of the mitzvah: is done in their presence, then any language showing the patient that you may be used. In contrast, when praying for care about them, praying somewhere else, Hebrew (and their Hebrew for their wellbeing and ensuring that they have name and their mother's Hebrew name) is their practical needs met. preferable, if possible. We ended last week with two questions. The national sensitivity we have to this mitzvah is Firstly, why is there no blessing recited very inspiring. Some years ago, soon after my before the mitzvah of bikur cholim? The Rashba family moved into a Jerusalem apartment, we (Rabbi Shlomo ibn Aderet d. 1310) answers this noticed after Shabbat at around midnight, that question. He writes that any mitzvah which our neighbours had all gathered in the shul requires another person's participation or (which was also the building's bomb shelter). agreement for its performance has no blessing We were told that someone in the building had before it; for one cannot be sure that the mitzvah been admitted to hospital and they were all will be completed.
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