On the Reflective Power of Symbols
What can we do to ensure that our deepest, most enduring relationships remain effective, vibrant, and resonant? How do successful relationships survive the pressure of the tough times, or even just the eroding banality of mundane life? Ki Tavo tells of the establishment of a new covenant between Am Yisrael and HaShem.…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on August 27, 2021
How do we talk about this last year-and-a-half that we have been living through? What is the story that we tell? This week’s parsha opens with the mitzvah of bikkurim, of the bringing of the first fruits to the Temple. This mitzah involves giving those first fruits to the kohen (priest) and saying thanks to God in the form of a declaration.…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on September 19, 2019
The issue of who can be seen as a full member of the community arises at the beginning of this week’s parasha and is revisited at the outset of the next. In the opening of Ki Tavo, we read of two mitzvot that apply when a person harvests the produce of the land: the mitzvah of bikkurim, or first fruits, and the mitzvah of viduy ma’aser, the declaration made when a person distributes what remains of his tithes at the end of three years. …
by Rabbi Haggai Resnikoff
Posted on September 7, 2016
Does every mitzvah contain an implied tefillah for bracha and hatzlacha? Should it be that way? Parashat Ki Tavo with the brachot and the tochecha is a classic place to ask this question because if we take those things seriously, why do we do mitzvot?…
by Rabbi Avi Weiss
Posted on May 25, 2016
Three covenants (brit) are mentioned in the Torah, the covenant of the pieces (Genesis 15), the covenant of Sinai (Exodus 19), and the covenant of our portion, which was made just prior to our entry into Israel (Deuteronomy 29). Truth be told, they each contribute to the making of the nation of Israel.…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on September 2, 2015
In the middle of the extended section on the calamities and curses that will befall the Israelites if they fail to observe the mitzvot, we find a curious set of verses: Because you served not the Lord your God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things; therefore shall you serve your enemies which the Lord shall send against you, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things (Devarim, 28:47-48).…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on September 7, 2012
How do we keep a relationship alive? It starts with not taking the other person for granted, with regularly appreciating what that other person gives to you, what he or she means to you. We must also give expression to them through our words and through our actions, so that these feelings become real for the other person and real for us. …
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on September 16, 2011
Ki Tavo opens with two rituals: the bringing of the first fruit, the bikkurim, where one declares his gratitude for God’s goodness, and the dispensing of the tithes at the end of three years where one states that he has dispensed these tithes according to the law.…
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