Ki Teitzei 5773

A Complicated Inheritance

This week’s Torah portion, Ki Teitzei, contains dozens of mitzvot – but the second law in our parshah presents a difficult problem:

If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have borne him children, and if the firstborn son belongs to the unloved, then on the day when he assigns his possessions as an inheritance to his sons, he may not treat the son of the loved as the firstborn in preference to the son of the unloved, who is the firstborn, but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the firstfruits of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his (Deut. 21:15-17).

On its own, this seems like a rather unexceptional mitzvah, a push for fairness in families in order to promote harmony and peace in the home.  But a sensitive reader of Torah will notice that these verses, while dealing in abstract categories, are a near-perfect description of our patriarch Jacob and his family: If a man has two wives, the one loved – Rachel – and the other unloved – Leah – and the firstborn son belongs to the unloved – Reuben – he may not treat the son of the loved as the firstborn in preference to the son of the unloved – just as Jacob did by favoring Joseph, Rachel’s son, over his brothers!

How should we understand the tension between Jacob’s story and the law as presented in parashat Ki Teitzei? It is possible to read the rules of inheritance, as presented here, as a direct response to Jacob’s conduct so many generations earlier. Yes, it is true, our ancestor did this; but we recognize the unfairness of his behavior and the consequences it brought on his family, and as we prepare to end our journeys in the wilderness and set up a society in the Promised Land, we want to ensure fairness for all. Even as we look to Jacob as an ancestor and role model, the Torah is still willing to think critically about his behavior and, when necessary, make changes.

As we approach the season of repentance, we would all do well to follow in the path laid out by the Torah in its laws of inheritance: to take stock of our past actions, assess them critically, and make changes as necessary.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Abe Friedman

Mishpatim 5773

Justice and Tzedakah

From time to time, I like to take a step back from the weekly Torah portion and think about the broader sequence of events – how does the sequence of parshiyyot lead us to a deeper understanding of the values of Torah? 

The placement of this week’s Torah portion, in particular, is hard to understand.  Overall, the sequence of the Book of Exodus goes like this: slavery and liberation from Egypt, the covenant at Sinai, and the construction of a Holy Space, the Mishkan.  That much makes logical sense: God frees us from bondage, we join God in covenant, and we construct a Mishkan, a holy dwelling for God.  The puzzle is that, right in between the covenant and the Mishkan, we have parashat Mishpatim: fifty-three commandments about mundane, every-day matters like theft, rental property, personal injury, and the needs of the poor, widows, orphans, and strangers.  Why are these mitzvot inserted here, apparently interrupting between the covenant and the construction of the Mishkan, rather than appearing later in the Torah after God’s sanctuary is in place?

Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik (Belarus, 1820-1892), great-grandfather of the famous American Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, points us in the direction of an answer.  He writes that parashat Mishpatim, with its laws of social justice, comes before the building of the Mishkan in order to teach us that before we give tzedakah, we must first make sure that our money is not tainted by ill-gotten gains.  

Put differently, the means do not justify the ends.  Even as the Torah presents the Mishkan as God’s dwelling place on earth, the Divine Palace, the placement of this week’s Torah portion between the covenant and the Mishkan reminds us that justice must always come first; a physical structure for the community – be it a Mishkan, a Temple, or a synagogue – might help remind us of God’s Glory, but the mitzvot in this weeks’ parshah, the mitzvot of social justice, are the prerequisite for any honor we might offer to God.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Abe Friedman