Is Modesty Still Relevant in the Twenty-First Century?
Sep 13, 2024 By Emmanuel Bloch | Commentary | Ki Tetzei
Modesty is hardly a popular concept among liberal-minded Jews, nor within the Western world in general. The reasons for this are multiple. Historically, modesty has been disproportionately applied to women, often as a means of controlling female behavior and sexuality. It is often associated with patriarchy, control, and the suppression of individual freedoms. Modesty is frequently perceived to be a negation of individuality, body positivity, and self-expression.
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Do Not Turn Away—Then and Now
Aug 25, 2023 By Eliezer B. Diamond | Commentary | Ki Tetzei
In 1861, as a great conflagration spread across our nation, the Bostonian abolitionist and women’s rights advocate Samuel Joseph May published a slender tract entitled The Fugitive Slave Act and Its Victims, an impassioned polemic against the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. This federal law, born of the Missouri Compromise of the same year, required all federal, state, and local authorities, including those in free states, to return fugitive slaves to their masters, while also criminalizing any attempt to aid and abet a slave seeking to escape bondage. May, a Unitarian pastor, thought it fitting—and rightly so—to grace the tract’s title page with the King James translation of Deuteronomy 23:16–17, which I cite here using the JPS translation: “You shall not turn over to his master a slave who seeks refuge with you from his master. He shall live with you in any place that he may choose among the settlements in your midst, wherever he pleases; you must not ill-treat him.”
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What Does the Torah Really Say about Cross-Dressing?
Sep 9, 2022 By Joy Ladin | Commentary | Ki Tetzei
Every year, Ki Tetzei returns us to the only verse of the Torah that seems to speak about transgender and nonbinary people, particularly about those like me who used to be known as “transsexuals,” people born physically male or female who identify so strongly with the opposite gender that we can only live authentically as that gender: A woman must not put on man’s apparel, nor shall a man wear woman’s clothing; for whoever does these things is abhorrent to your God. (Num. 22:5)
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Before Going Out to Fight, Look Inside
Aug 20, 2021 By Jeffrey Kress | Commentary | Ki Tetzei
We know that every extra word in the Torah invites exploration to arrive at its deeper meaning. The opening words of Parashat Ki Tetzei require such consideration: “When you go out to war against your enemies . . .” Why mention enemies? Who else would one be going to war against? Rabbinic interpretations focus on the use of the plural (enemies) as signifying a distinction between categories of conflict, each requiring different rules of engagement. This helps explain why the rules of war that open the parashah differ from the closing instructions about how to fight Amalek. The Torah is talking about two different categories of conflict.
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Who Are We?
Aug 28, 2020 By Stephanie Ruskay | Commentary | Ki Tetzei
The Jewish master narrative hinges on retelling our own story of being enslaved and freed by God to become a holy people. We tell this story repeatedly, and it is meant to wash over our souls and permeate our brains. Enslavement should feel real, as should the taste of freedom.
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Do Not Turn Away—Then and Now
Sep 9, 2019 By Eliezer B. Diamond | Commentary | Ki Tetzei
In 1861, as a great conflagration spread across our nation, the Bostonian abolitionist and women’s rights advocate Samuel Joseph May published a slender tract entitled The Fugitive Slave Act and Its Victims, an impassioned polemic against the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. This federal law, born of the Missouri Compromise of the same year, required all federal, state and local authorities, including those in free states, to return fugitive slaves to their masters, while also criminalizing any attempt to aid and abet a slave seeking to escape bondage.
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Seventh haftarah of consolation
Sep 7, 2018 By Jan Uhrbach | Commentary | Ki Tetzei
We might expect that for the seventh and final haftarah of comfort, the Sages would have chosen a passage recounting complete redemption. Instead, we are given a vision of the removing of obstacles, and the building of a solid foundation, to permit a path forward. Two such obstacles—“rocks” to be removed—are highlighted.
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Sixth haftarah of consolation
Aug 31, 2018 By Jan Uhrbach | Commentary | Ki Tetzei
In the sixth haftarah of consolation, Isaiah draws heavily on the metaphor of light and darkness, and the repair and redemption is imagined as individuals’ and society’s embodiment of divine light. When God’s presence truly shines upon a person or nation, that person or nation is in turn able to bring light to others. This light—which may be understood as moral guidance and instruction, truth, compassion, justice, unification, love—is the true source of power and honor, the “wealth” of which the prophet speaks.
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