Deuteronomy Cycle Three Ki Tetze 21:10 to 25:19

Ki Tetze


Look at Ki Tetze. Look at the mitzvoth. They include stoning, killing, feeding, helping. There are rebellious children, loved wives, hated wives, widows, rape victims, orphans. Many of the mitzvoth are hard to understand. Many seem honorable. They are not cohesive. They feel scattered. Therefore, are we really to follow them literally? Or do we choose the laws we like and ignore the rest? This is not a new question. In my opinion though Judaism-taken-literally throws us into a mitzvah-tug-of-war and a search for sources and sages that serve only to back-up our subjective cultural opinion. In other words, we end up allowing our images and needs to control the meaning and the method. This (to me) is like seeing only small pieces of ground and trying to define the whole earth by them. To see the ground that is concealed we need to rise in the sky. And since (as Rabbi Nachman says) we need to see the concealment within the concealment, we also need to reach beyond the limits of our comfortable perception.

Therefore , let’s get in our divine rocket ship, take off, and look through the windows of Ki-Tetze.
Here, it might make sense to repeat a comment by Reb Zalman. What’s the one most important thing I should remember about my journey, I asked him once. He said this: Every day, in prayer, ask for your marching orders.

Marching orders. Who receives such orders? Soldiers. How does this week’s parsha begin? When you go out to war with your enemies. You (therefore) is us. We all march forward with light. We are each the soldier. And this is what (Torah says) will happen to us: God will give him (the enemy) in your hand and you will capture his captives. And you will see among the captives a woman pleasing to see and you will desire her and you will take her to you as a wife. And you will bring her into the interior in your house… Then, she will shave her head, do her nails, cry her tears, take off her captive’s clothing. She must be in the interior inside of our house for a full year before you can fully go up with her.

Here’s my interpretation. When among the darkness you see the Shechinah and you want to bring her to you and you are about to merge but not quite, what then? What do you do in that pre-moment realization… victorious… and the Shechinah is so close you can taste her? How do you bring this radiance from pain and darkness into (and into) your soul?

This is an enlightened place. It can be inferred from the writing of Arthur Green that this is the state of being that the Israelites are in during the revelation of Torah on Mt Sinai. The community of Israel (Green says) refers to the Shechinah. Therefore, this parsha seems to mark that moment when the Israelites break out of their husks in victory and are finally capable of seeing, embracing and transforming into beyond-human-Shechinah-beings… therefore suddenly capable of the whole merge with God.

Transformation isn’t easy though, especially when you are a breath away. According to Talmud (Kiddushim 21b-22a), only if the soldier sets his eyes on the Shechinah, he can take her home. There are other restrictions and my belief (though some rabbis might disagree) is the purpose of the mitzvoth in Ki Tetze is to express them. There needs to be restraint (see the first born’s share line 21:15) honor, discernment, sensitivity, gentleness, patience, focus, honesty, the willingness to help, the need for clarity, and self protection (remember Amalek).

And as we all learn continually, in any relationship, male and female, male and male, female and female, these attributes are necessary especially when the sight is so clear and the lover is so close. There she is. There he is. Beautiful in your eyes. How do you bring him in? How do you bring her in? It’s all written about in the birds nest, the rape, the guard rails, the fallen animal. These mitzvoth reflect the way we can finally lead the Shechinah into our home where darkness is squeezed from skin, nail cut from hand, tear shed from tear, hair shaved from head.

So may we see the Shechinah and have the blessing to be so close. May we pray every day for our marching orders. May we understand that any mitzvah that seems to prevent us from approaching or embracing the Shechinah needs to be explored at rocket ship heights. May we have compassion and love for each other during the most intricate heart opening moments. May we slowly, carefully and astounded, approach each other filament by filament, step by step and in those last electric moments may we see the radiant expanse of earth and embrace into (and into) the God in each other.