For the week of September 13, 2025 / 20 Elul 5785

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Ki Tavo
Torah: D’varim/Deuteronomy 26:1 – 29:8
Haftarah: Isaiah 60:1-22

Foreigners will rebuild your walls, and their kings will serve you. Though in anger I struck you, in favor I will show you compassion. (Isaiah 60:10)

Frankly, I don’t get it! I don’t understand how it could be that so many people who claim to love and respect the Bible are entirely clueless about God’s relationship to the Jewish people. It’s not that I don’t understand, since I have spent so much time—perhaps too much time—grappling with various expressions of Christian antisemitism. I am aware of a significant portion of the historical background and theological dynamics that influence this misguided thinking. But still, it’s not as if God hasn’t made himself clear on this issue.

I admit that some of the ways the people of Israel are characterized and criticized throughout both the Hebrew Scriptures and New Covenant Writings can lead people to draw some fairly negative conclusions. But that’s only if you ignore the rest. About a month ago, I commented on how these misreadings of such passages trouble me. Still, I know that some of these passages are seriously harsh.

This week’s parsha (weekly Torah portion) is one of the sections of Scripture that lists God’s blessings for obedience and his curses for disobedience. That the leaders and people of Israel were under a cloud of God’s disapproval for much of biblical history is clear. The threat of judgment increased over the years, culminating in exile. The return from Babylon provided little comfort as the prophetic warnings didn’t wane.

Israel’s precarious state under the Sinai Covenant, as given through Moses, continued into the New Covenant Writings. If anything, the coming of the Messiah shone an even more intense light upon Israel’s inability to live up to God’s standards. This doesn’t mean that there weren’t exceptions, of course. From Abraham and Joseph to Moses and Joshua, to Samuel and David, to Elijah and Elisha, to Isaiah and Jeremiah, to Peter and Paul, and all the other named and unnamed holy ones, Israel always had a remnant of faithful, godly men and women (see Romans 11:5). Tragically, however, these didn’t prevent God’s wrath from falling upon the nation more than once.

But is that the entire picture of God’s relationship to Israel? God didn’t seem to think so, as is evident in this week’s accompanying reading from the prophet Isaiah. Despite God’s judgment upon Israel, he will restore them. As we read, “Though in anger I struck you, in favor I will show you compassion” (Isaiah 60:10).

I wonder if people simply have a hard time grasping the reality of the tension that exists between God and his ancient covenant people. It’s a lot easier for people to understand a much more straightforward narrative of disobedience and rejection. Moreover, it appears that some regard Israel’s disobedience as proof of their being impostors, as if God was biding his time until the “authentic” Israel would emerge in the Messiah. That might make an interesting story, but it’s not the biblical one.

I am aware of how specific biblical passages are used to support such a notion, but that overlooks the Bible as a whole. Why can’t people see that God’s promises of restoration only make sense if they are spoken to the very people who are under the threat of judgment? God, through Isaiah, is clear: “Though in anger I struck you, in favor I will show you compassion.” The ones guaranteed favor are the ones he is angry with. The threat of judgment due to disobedience under the Sinai Covenant was always in tension with the unconditional promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. No matter how bad things get for Israel and whatever the resulting consequences, God’s covenant loyalty to Israel as a nation continues. If you don’t get that, you don’t get the God of the Bible.

Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version

For the week of September 6, 2025 / 13 Elul 5785

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Ki Teitzei
Torah: D’varim/Deuteronomy 21:10 – 25:19
Haftarah: Isaiah 54:1-10

When you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, you shall not go into his house to collect his pledge. You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge out to you. (D’varim/Deuteronomy 24:10–11)

We often hear of people making a big deal about the Bible—negatively, that is—over its apparent backwards way of thinking. We click and tap on our devices while looking down on these ancients as misogynistic, slave-owning brutes. A compelling case can be made against such a characterization, especially when examining Scripture within its historical context. And it’s not because biblical characters were morally superior to the average person today. Many were not, though I’d say a good number were. It’s far more due to the uniqueness of God’s directives. The morality and justice of God’s commands were more than just good and right; they were so completely unusual for that day anywhere in the world.

We take much of biblical morality and values for granted. Principles such as the rule of law, the right to a fair trial, just treatment for immigrants, and care for the poor, although not always adhered to, are so deeply ingrained in the contemporary Western world that we assume they’ve always existed, when in fact they haven’t. These ideas were radical in their day and, in many places, still are.

In this week’s parsha (weekly Torah portion), we have an extraordinary example. In biblical times, as is still common in our day, loans often required a guarantee in case the borrower couldn’t repay. This was usually in the form of collateral, something of value the person owned, that may or may not have been kept in the lender’s possession during the loan period. If the loan was not repaid within the allotted time, the item or items would become the lender’s property.

The Torah example before us envisions the lender at the door of the borrower to receive the collateral. The Hebrew word “avot” is most often translated as “pledge” in English, denoting security for a loan. What isn’t clear is whether this situation occurs at the beginning of the loan agreement, when the lender first receives the collateral, or if the collateral had remained with the borrower but, due to defaulting on the loan, the lender is now coming to claim it.

Either way, due to the loan agreement, the lender has a right to the collateral. However, his right of possession doesn’t give him the right to enter the borrower’s dwelling. The legal right of the one doesn’t automatically override the sanctity of the borrower’s personal living space. Even though the borrower is clearly in a weaker position due to the lender’s claim to their property, the lender is still obligated to respect the borrower’s dignity.

What makes this extraordinary for the modern (and ancient) reader is how God’s directions here reflect the value of human dignity without getting all philosophical about it. Throughout Torah—and the rest of Scripture—God instructs people in his ways. He doesn’t lecture on the whys and wherefores to justify his take on life. For the most part, he provides instructions based on how he designed the world to be. He made it; he knows how it works. This issue, as one example, demonstrates how human dignity reflects our commonality and basic equality, based on the fact that we are all made in God’s image (see Bereshit/Genesis 1:26-27). This connection is not explained. It just is. We learn to be godly through the godliness of God’s directives.

And yet, do we respect the dignity of all, regardless of their life situation? Throughout most of history and in most places, class divisions, ethnic superiority, and economic disparity have been used to devalue those we see as “less than.” Some argue that only by eliminating all types of real and perceived inequality from society can we fully realize our inherent worth as human beings. But that’s not God’s way, however. Each person will experience the dignity we naturally possess when we choose to honor it as the God-given gift it truly is.

Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version