A Taste of Shabbos – Parashat Ki Teitzei

Why so many war protocols in the Torah before a hopefully more peaceful new year? The Zohar teaches that the real battle a living person faces is the war within. Since we contain both a divine soul and an ego driven soul, we have at any given moment a struggle to choose which soul to listen to. The default soul is usually the ego based voice, and so in this month of Elul we have the voice of the shofar to remind us that we have help from above to tune into our heavenly message.

Many of the commandments in this week’s parasha help us address this task. The very first topic in the war context is the attraction of a Jewish soldier to a beautiful woman from the enemy camp. The Ohr Ha’Chaim elaborates, first questioning how that attraction could even be possible, considering the dictum from the end of last week’s parasha about the disqualification of a Jewish soldier who may have feared his own transgressions. If only the righteous went into this kind of battle, how could that attraction have happened? The Ohr Ha’Chaim replies that there could have been some holy spark in that woman that drew her to him. The only way to distinguish between a superficial ego feeling and a more righteous one, was to take her home, have her relinquish anything that made her look beautiful, and decide after a month if she was still a worthy mate. Otherwise, he must let her go!

The mystics take the month detail of the captive woman as a hint to the month of Elul where we are encouraged to do our own personal soul searching and to take the time to discriminate between our ego desires and the longing of our soul for deeper connection with G-d and our life’s purpose.

We find a similar soul searching in other areas in this parasha. One is the law of the rebellious son who might be put to death (though the Talmud says never happened because the conditions were so strict) if around Bar Mitzvah age, he stole money from his parents, then ‘fressed’ on meat and wine, and robbed at the crossroads. He is called a ‘ben sorer u’morah’, a deviant and rebellious son who was judged because of who he could become. As the Talmud puts it, ‘Better he die before he becomes guilty of taking a life.’

But some sages contrast this perspective with the story of Yishmael whom the Talmud says, when he cried out to G-d from his thirst, -even though so many of his descendants would become destructive- he was listened to ‘from the place where he was.’ In other words, he was an innocent child at the time. So why the difference between the two situations? Rabbi Frand provides and interesting distinction. The word ‘moreh’ means not only rebel but also teacher. In other words the boy not only becomes ‘radicalized’ but teaches others, even children, to do so. (To me this echoes the unfortunate indoctrination that the children of terrorists get at such a young age.)  Of course, both the parents and the judges, as said above, need to fine tune a sense of discrimination as to the child’s motives. The fact that this situation never came up points to the critical nature of parental influence. Thus the rabbis say, ‘Drosh v’kabel schar= learn and receive a reward’ not for studying situations that never materialized, but to highlight the overriding significance of how to raise a child. Mistakes may be made, by both children and parents, but Teshuva is usually possible. And isn’t that the message of Elul? Where there’s life there’s hope!

There is another parasha link to a surprising source of longevity- the odd mitvah called ‘Shiluach Ha’Kan,’ sending away a mother bird to take the chicks or eggs. The Torah rewards this mitzvah with the only other specific mitzvah that the Torah promises a long life. It is called a very easy mitzvah compared to the very weighty one of honoring parents, a mitzvah that applies in all of life and beyond. One import of the bird mitzvah is to prevent extinction of a species. A more mystical meaning is that the maternal instinct in the bird is so strong that it will not fly away even when it senses danger. This is not just an ordinary instinct; it stems from the bird’s exalted feeling touching on the immortal realm of motherhood itself, and should not be tampered with or taken advantage of by any human being!

A caveat of this mitzvah is that it has to happen ‘by chance.’ The Torah’s language is, ‘Ki Yikarei’, if one ‘chances’ upon’ a bird’s nest. The discriminating finder’s value system is such that nothing happens by accident, and therefore the chance meeting is really a priceless chance to do a mitzvah. This is illustrated in a famous quote by Winston Churchill: “To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and fitted to their talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour.”

This attitude is the opposite of that of Amalek, whose memory at the end of this parasha, we are commanded to ‘remember to erase.’ This refers to the nation of Amalek, who bred Haman and his anti-Semitic ilk who had no rational reason to attack Israel.  This command is juxtaposed with another ‘remember. “Remember the Shabbos day to make it holy. “ Shabbos is the opposite of Amalek, who we are told, ‘knew his Master, and intended to rebel against him.’ Amalek represents a sense of randomness, a sense of ‘chance happenings’ which is the opposite of ‘chance’ in the bird mitzvah, chance meaning  opportunity. In fact, the same language of ‘he chanced upon you on the way,’ refers to Amalek’s unprovoked attack.

Furthermore, Amalek lacked faith in anything meaningful and sacred, whereas Shabbos is quite the opposite. The very observance of Shabbos is a testimony against Amalek, a testimony that G-d is creating the world anew every moment, with sparks of sanctity emerging from their secret weekday space and coming into full bloom for about 26 hours every week. The Shabbat queen is coming and we should take full advantage of her reminder that there is a higher realm, like where the mother bird lives, which can never disappear from existence. A final Shabbos connection in the parasha:  a mitzvah to pay a day laborer at the end of the day. In fact there is an acrostic whose first letters spell Shabbat, of the words ‘B’Yomo Titein S’charo,’= In that day you should provide his payment.’  The mystics say that whatever G-d commands Israel to do, He does himself in some way. So aren’t we at the six thousandth year of creation, and shouldn’t we get ‘paid’ finally with redemption from the trials and tribulations of our history? One answer relates to the idea of Shabbos being a taste of the world to come. Thus, to the extent we appreciate Shabbos, we are getting paid for our work during this long exile, and the more we can taste this aspect of Shabbos, the faster, like the Law of Attraction, we can manifest that complete day where all the blessings of Shabbos will be manifest in our world.