Parashat Ki Tetzei contains seventy two commandments, (some say 74: either way the largest number in any Torah portion). They deal with such diverse subjects as personal behavior in times of war, defiant children, lost animals, birds’ nests, roof railings, divorce, rights of aliens, loans, vows, and protection of works; parental guilt, charity for the poor, regulations for inheritance and fair weights and measures.
In our triennial, we will read a passage about war and the behavior inside the camp.
~ Why do you think these laws are important?
~ If you take in the idea that the laws are collected here under the rubric of not being indifferent to others, how can you understand these particular laws?
(10) When you go out as a camp against your enemies, be on your guard against anything untoward. (11) If anyone among you has been rendered unclean by a nocturnal emission, he must leave the camp, and he must not reenter the camp. (12) Toward evening he shall bathe in water, and at sundown he may reenter the camp. (13) Further, there shall be an area for you outside the camp, where you may relieve yourself. (14) With your gear you shall have a spike, and when you have squatted you shall dig a hole with it and cover up your excrement. (15) Since the LORD your God moves about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you, let your camp be holy; let Him not see on you anything unseemly and turn away from you.
(1847 - 1905 CE)
Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter (the Sefat Emet) was a Polish rabbi and Chassidic master, third rebbe of the Gerer Chassidim. His father died while he was still a boy and he was raised by his grandfather, the Chiddushei HaRim. He also served as head of the town's beit din. Upon his grandfather's passing in 1866, he refused to fill his position, instead choosing to submit himself to the leadership of R' Chanoch Henoch of Alexander. When the Rebbe of Alexander passed away in 1870, he reluctantly accepted the leadership of the Gerrer chassidim. Under his leadership, Ger became the largest and most influential Chassidic court in Poland. His many works were all posthumously called Sefat Emet, and they include a magisterial collection of chassidic insight and teachings based on the weekly Torah portion, as well as a scholarly commentary on Talmud. These works are widely studied throughout the Jewish world to this day. Unlike many Chassidic masters, he refused to accept money willingly given by his followers, and supported himself from a small store run by his wife. Although he encouraged the building and settling of the Holy Land, he was an opponent of the nascent Zionist movement. He died in 1905 and was succeeded by his eldest son, Avraham Mordechai (Imrei Emet).
(ה) כי תצא מחנה כו' ונשמרת כו' ה"א מתהלך כו' ולא יראה בך ע"ד ושב כו' הול"ל ושמרת. וי"ל כי המלחמה באמת נותנת שמירה לאדם. ובספרי כי תצא לא תצא אלא במחנה. חז"ל דרשו בקרב מחניך הם האיברים של האדם [כן הגיד אא"ז מו"ר ז"ל וכן בילקוט בקרב כל אחד ע"ש] וזה תצא מחנה. שיקבץ אדם באמת כל רצונות שבו וכל נפשו למסור עבור רצון המקום ואם מאסף כל כחותיו בעשיות מצוה וכדומה לסור מרע בהתאספות כל החיות. עי"ז עצמו ונשמרת ששוב אין מקום להיות מתבלבל ע"י דברי שטות מאחר שמרוצה למסור נפשו ואין דבר חביב מנפשו. וכן איתא עצה זו בשם הבעש"ט ז"ל. ה"א מתהלך. מהלך לא כתי'. רק ביד האדם לזכות לזה לעורר חיות הש"י שיש בנשמת האדם ולא יראה בך פי' חז"ל לבו רואה הערוה אסור. והוא דבר גדול לבד שלא לחשוב ח"ו בדבר ערוה רק שלא יוכל הלב לראות ולהסתכל בשום דבר שאינו להשי"ת. כמ"ש קדושים תהיו:
When you go out in a camp etc and be on your guard etc. Hashem moves etc. and let not Him see on you anything unseemly and turn etc... it should have said "you shall guard". And we can understand that through the idea that this war really gives protection to a person. And in the Sifri: when you go out - you mustn't go out unless as a camp. Our sages z"l explained 'in the midst of your camp' as the limbs of a person [this too said my grandfather, my teacher and rabbi z"l; and in the Yalkut also, 'in the midst of every person' see there] and this is "going out in a camp": that a person should truly assemble all the wills inside oneself, and all of one's soul, to surrender to the Will of the Place, and if one gathers all one's strengths towards doing mitzvot, such as turn from evil, in the gathering of all life force. Through this, oneself, and be on your guard: that again, there is no place to be confused due to stupid things after one feels satisfied through surrendering one's soul. And this advice comes in the name of the Baal Shem Tov z"l. And it is only in the hands of human beings the merit of this, of arousing the Life-Force of the Holy One of Blessing, which is present in the soul of the human, "and let Him not see in you" explanation of our sages z"l: one's heart sees the unseemly, and forbids. And this by itself is a grand thing: one should not think - Heaven forfend - about unseemly things, so that the heart will not see and observe things that are not for the sake of the Holy One of Blessing. As it says "you shall be holy."
(ג) במדרש שמצינו קלה שבקלות חמורה שבחמורות מתן שכרה שוה. וקשה למה באמת כן. וי"ל פשוט כי מה שהמצוה גדולה נותנת כח וחשק לאדם לקיימה כמ"ש במד' שאם הי' נגלה שכרן היו רצין לחמורות בלבד. ולכך הקלה קשה יותר לקיימה ומה"ט מתן שכרן שוה כנ"ל:
In the midrash we find: the easiest of easy mitzvot, and the most difficult of difficult mitzvot, their reward is the same. And this is difficult: why is this so, truly? And we can understand that through the idea that a grand mitzvah gives strength and desire for a person to fulfill it, as the midrash says: if the rewards were revealed, all would run to perform only the difficult ones. And so, the easy ones are the hardest to fulfill, and this is the reason that "the rewards are the same" as we explained.
The Sfat Emet is not saying that one should stop thinking and asking and questioning. That is not the surrender he is speaking about. He is speaking about our energies. We all know that energy is finite. Where are you putting your energy? That is what the Sefat Emet is asking. You have to be on your guard because this is a world of distractions, over and over again. Of dispersing our energies. There is a very interesting midrash that tries to explain what is the yetzer hara, the impulse to do evil.
... אָמַר רַבִּי אַבָּא הַיֵּצֶר הַזֶּה דּוֹמֶה לְלִסְטִים שָׁפוּף שֶׁהָיָה יוֹשֵׁב בְּפָרָשַׁת דְּרָכִים, כָּל מַאן דְעָבַר הֲוָה אָמַר הַב מַה דְּעַלָּךְ, עָבַר פִּקֵּחַ אֶחָד וְרָאָה שֶׁאֵין בּוֹ תּוֹחֶלֶת לִגְזֹל לוֹ כְּלוּם, הִתְחִיל מְכַתְּתוֹ. כָּךְ כַּמָּה דּוֹרוֹת אִבֵּד יֵצֶר הָרָע, דּוֹר אֱנוֹשׁ, וְדוֹר הַפְלָגָה, וְדוֹר הַמַּבּוּל, כֵּיוָן שֶׁעָמַד אַבְרָהָם אָבִינוּ וְרָאָה שֶׁאֵין בּוֹ תּוֹחֶלֶת, הִתְחִיל מְכַתְּתוֹ, הֲדָא הוּא דִּכְתִיב (תהלים פט, כד): וְכַתּוֹתִי מִפָּנָיו צָרָיו וּמְשַׂנְאָיו אֶגּוֹף. ...
Said Rabbi Aba: this impulse is similar to robbers, [such as] a person bent over, who was sitting at crossroads who would say to to everyone who passed 'give me what you have!' A smart one passed and saw that there was nothing he could do to rob him, and began to hit him. So too, the impulse for evil [yetzer hara] destroyed a few generations, the generation of Enosh, and the generation of the tower [dor haplagah] and the generation of the flood, when Avraham Avinu stood up and saw that [the yetzer hara] had nothing, began hitting him, since it is written 'And I will beat to pieces his adversaries before him, and smite them that hate him.' (Ps. 89:24).
In Rabbi Aba's vision, the yetzer hara tricks us because it uses an illusion. It pretends it is something it is not. It gives you the idea that it has power over you, and then robs you. And this Shabbat, I want us to think: what is the yetzer hara robbing you of? What are the illusions it sets up over you, to keep you angry, fearful, distracted?
In his book American Gods, Neil Gaiman brings up an interesting revisiting of the polytheistic world. One of his ideas is that the gods of the past recreate, or re-envision themselves in the present, and some, the most powerful, end up in our appliances, particularly the TV. The energy we give to them is in form of our time. And I want us to take this idea more seriously. To what interests are you really dedicating your time and energy? Where are the battles you are waging, and what camp are you bringing to those battles? Can you see what you are fighting clearly? Can you find what are the things you ought to be doing?
These are the questions of Ki Tetse, this year, as RH pokes around the corner, in about two weeks. Shabbat Shalom.
Harry Blacker, cartoonist and illustrator: born London 1 May 1910; married 1934 Maidie Bloom (died 1976; one son, one daughter); died London 27 June 1999.