Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8
Upon entering the land, Israel is commanded to offer first fruits and publicly affirm the covenant. Blessings for obedience and severe warnings for betrayal are articulated with dramatic intensity. The parashah underscores that living in the land carries profound moral responsibility.
Ki Tavo’s strangest verb—he’emarta—hints at a mutual avowal: Israel “says” God into the world by living the commandments, and God “says” Israel into being as a holy people. This essay moves beyond proofs of “existence” to ask how God becomes audible in history, from Maimonides to a Hasidic teaching about the silent Aleph of “Anochi.”
In Miscellaneous and Parashat Ki Tavo
From the Dean’s Desk Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur are a protest against death in life and a warning of the danger of spiritual numbing. Habitual behavior and lack of responsiveness are the great enemies of life.