From Vision to Action
Last week, in Parashat Shoftim, we heard one of the Torah’s most stirring declarations: Tzedek, tzedek tirdof—“Justice, justice shall you pursue.”
It is soaring, memorable and inspiring. But then comes Ki Teitze.
Instead of another grand speech, we encounter an extraordinary collection of laws—74 mitzvot, more than in any other portion of the Torah. They concern warfare, marriage, divorce, labour relations, lost property, loans, weights and measures, care for animals, family responsibility and protection of the vulnerable. After the poetry of “Justice, justice shall you pursue,” the Torah turns to the decidedly unpoetic question: what does pursuing justice actually require?
We have seen this pattern before. At Mount Sinai, the Israelites experience thunder, lightning and revelation. They hear the Ten Commandments and enter into covenant with God. Yet immediately afterwards comes Parashat Mishpatim: laws about injury, property, damages, loans and responsibility. The spiritual heights of Sinai are followed by the difficult details of living together.
There is little point in proclaiming a covenant without providing the means to fulfil it.
Ramban Nachmanidies explains in his introduction to his commentary on Deuteronomy that Moses is speaking to a generation about to enter the Promised Land. He repeats commandments they will soon need and teaches others that had not previously been explained. The people will soon build homes, cultivate fields, conduct business, raise families, exercise political power and wage war. If the covenant is to survive Moses, it cannot remain merely an inspiring idea. It must be translated into daily behaviour.
This is especially apparent in Ki Teitze’s laws of warfare. War represents an extreme exercise of power, when ordinary restraints can easily fall away. Yet the Torah insists that even there, moral obligations remain. The disturbing law of the captive woman, whatever difficulties it presents to a modern reader, limits the soldier’s power. Victory does not grant him permission to treat another person simply as an object or as the spoils of war.
The modern commentator Nehama Leibowitz draws attention to the sequence in the text of the following cases: the captive woman, the unloved wife and the rebellious son. She reads this progression as a warning that actions have consequences. A failure of restraint on the battlefield can enter the home, damage relationships and shape the next generation.
That may be why Moses devotes so much of his final address to commandments. Justice is not achieved by believing in justice. Covenant is not sustained by feeling connected to God. Relationships—between people, communities, and between humanity and God—must be enacted.
“Tzedek, tzedek tirdof” gives us the vision. Ki Teitze gives us the tools. It reminds us that our highest ideals become real only through the choices we make, the limits we accept and the obligations we fulfil. A covenant is not merely something we believe in. It is something we do.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Rafi Kaiserblueth