Parshat Ki Tavo

Parshat Ki Tavo

Dr. Yocheved Debow

In this week’s Parsha Moshe’s extended Ne’um HaMitzvot, his discourse on Mitzvoth comes to a close. Moshe’s speech introduces a ceremony of the sealing of the covenant at Arvot Moav . Thus Moshe concludes his speech:

This day Hashem your God commands you to fulfill all these laws. Observe and perform them with all of your heart and soul. You have chosen Hashem this day to be your God..and God has chosen you to be His treasured nation to follow His commandments…(26:16-19)

These pesukim are preparation for the sealing of a covenant, reminiscent of another event in which a similar statement is made. At Har Sinai as we first enter into a covenant with HaKadosh Baruch hu we are told:

And now, if you will surely listen to My words and keep My covenant you will be My treasure from among all the nations… a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Shemot 19:5-6).

We may ask, if we have already received and accepted the Torah at Har Sinai, why do we need to have a second covenantal ceremony at this point in our relationship with Hashem? Why isn’t the covenant at Har Sinai enough? The Pesukim seem to state clearly that this covenant is “In addition to the covenant He sealed with them at Chorev” (Devarim 28:69). Perhaps in thinking about where Bnei Yisrael have lived between the covenant at Har Sinai and their current status we can understand better. Bnei Yisrael have lived solely in the desert, a place of no place, a place with no sense of belonging. They had no land and therefore no full sense of nationhood, no ownership of anything. Their sense of responsibily towards the covenant must have been by definition incomplete as they were not yet masters of their own land. On the eve of entry to Eretz Yisrael, their homeland given to them by Hashem they needed to think again about their relationship with Him and the nature of the covenant now that they would become landowners, a nation with a homeland.

While we can identify many similarities between the covenant at Har Sinai and the one at Arvot Moav (both require Olot and Shelamim sacrificed on the Mizbeach, both have a ceremonial writing of the words of the Torah) there is one significant difference I would like to highlight. At Har Sinai HaKadosh Baruch Hu’s voice clearly came down from heaven. If we look at the ceremony described in Sefer Yehoshua (Yehoshua 8:30-35) we see that at Arvot Moav Bnei Yisrael were divided into two groups: Half stood on top of Har Grizim and half stood on top of Har Eival. The Leviim all stood in the valley between these two mountains and read aloud the Brachot and Kelalot. If you can picture the ceremony in your mind, that which represents the voice of Hashem at Har Sinai actually emanates in this ceremony from below the people, from within the valley , seemingly from the earth (the Leviim). This is in contradistinction to the ceremony at Har Sinai in which Hashem’s voice comes down clearly from heaven. This difference symbolizes a significant difference between receiving the covenant in the Midbar and receiving it in Eretz Yisrael. Once we enter Eretz Yisrael our connection to Hakadosh Baruch Hu emanates from the land itself. Eretz Yisrael has an intrinsic power and connection to Hashem. All that we do in Eretz Yisrael is being done on Admat Kodesh, on holy ground. It is this new aspect of our connection to Hashem which is emphasized in this second covenant ceremony.

How fitting that at this time of year we welcome a new group of students to Eretz Yisrael. You too are part of this very covenant described in our Parsha. Appreciate the special connection that you access in the land in which your every action is automatically closer to HaKadosh Baruch Hu and use it well while you are here. And to our dear alumnae with their own new beginnings, remember the unique feeling of closeness to Hashem that you experienced while you were in Eretz Yisrael. Hold it close to your hearts and may you be zocheh to return soon to the place which is home to all of us, a land which “tamid einie Hashem elokhecha bah mereishit hashana v’ad acharit shana – Hashem’s eyes are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year” (Devarim 11:12).