Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8 - Isaiah 60:1-22 - 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

This week's edition of The Set Table contains:

Questions and Commentary on Shabbat Ki Tavo'
Chayyei Yeshua - A Devotional Commentary on the Besora Reading
Looking Ahead

Questions & Commentary on Parashat Ki Tavo'

1. This week's Torah portion begins with instructions to farmers regarding the first fruits offering they are to bring to the central sanctuary after settling in the land of Israel (Deuteronomy 26:1-15). Part of the offering entails making a declaration before God (26:5-10). The declaration begins with the difficult-to-translate statement 'arammi 'oved 'avi. How might one translate this alliterative phrase? What does it mean??

Rabbi Jonathan Kaplan

The alliterative phrase 'arammi 'oved 'avi leaves the reader of Parashat Ki Tavo' with a plethora of questions regarding its meaning (Deuteronomy 26:5). The first word 'arammi means Aramean and refers to the origin of the patriarchs in Aram naharaim and Paddan-Aram (Genesis 24:4, 10; 25:20). The second word 'oved can mean "perishing" or "straying" and is often translated as "wandering" or "fugitive" (as in the New Jewish Publication Society version). The last word 'avi quite simply means "my father."

While the words may seem simple, how to understand them is perplexing. Their meaning hinges upon two questions: First, what is the subject of the verb 'oved: 'arammi or 'avi? Second, is the verb transitive (i.e. does the subject arammi do something to the object 'avi) or is the verb intransitive as Ibn Ezra argued in his commentary on this verse.

The translation of this verb as transitive is old and dates back to at least the second or third century before the Common Era. In a passage that is still a central portion of the Maggid ("recitation") section of the Passover Haggada, the phrase is understood as meaning "An Aramean sought to destroy my father."

Go and learn what Laban the Aramean sought to do to Jacob our father. For whereas Pharaoh only decreed the death of the males (the firstborn), Laban sought to exterminate them all, as it is stated: "An Aramean (Laban) sought to destroy my father." 

This interpretation is also reflected in the Greek and Aramaic translations of this verse. While Ibn Ezra is right in pointing out that the verb 'oved cannot mean "destroy", his critics such as the Maharal of Prague are correct when they contend that the verb can bear the weight of the idea "sought to destroy." In this regard it emphasizes Laban's efforts to destroy Jacob (Genesis 29-31) while acknowledging Laban's ultimate failure in this undertaking. Spiritually, when the person makes this declaration as a part of their offering, they identify with Israel's experience throughout history beginning with the time of Jacob. The offering they bring is not one borne purely out of success, but it is also brought as a result of suffering and struggle.

The other option for translating this verse is "my father was a wandering Aramean". People who prefer this translation understand the verb 'oved as intransitive. While the father here could be Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob or even all three together, those commentators who understand the phrase as "my father was a wandering Aramean" generally identify the father as Jacob. Ovadiah Seforno, the great 16^th century Italian commentator, offers this interpretation

Behold "my father" refers to Jacob. It refers to the time when he was 'arammi 'oved, that he did not have a place of permanent settlement and therefore was not ready to establish a nation worthy to possess a country.

Spiritually, this interpretation affords the one bringing the offering the opportunity to identify with Israel's corporate experience in a different manner. It is not only suffering and redemption that characterize the Jewish experience but also exile and wandering and their stunning reversal through permanent settlement in the land of Israel. While these pairs of themes are related, they are nevertheless distinct and the interpretation offered by Ibn Ezra, Seforno and others highlights the second set of themes. In this regard the offering the person makes is an offering of thanksgiving for moving from a life outside the land of Israel to a life of settlement inside the land of Israel.

2. Israel's failure to serve the Lord with gladness is one of the primary reasons that the Jewish people were exiled from the Land of Israel and had to endure several harsh exiles. Why would a lack of joy in worship and obedience to the commandments lead to cursing and such harsh punishment? Shouldn't it be enough to just serve and obey? Why is such great emphasis placed on performing the commandments with joy and gladness (Psalm 100:2)?

Rabbi Jason Sobel

The most simple and obvious answer to this question is that it is both a biblical commandment and rabbinical requirement to serve God with joy. In fact, in Deuteronomy 26:11, we read, "You shall be glad with all the good things that the LORD, your God, has given you and your family." The psalmist also commands us to "Serve the Lord with joy and gladness" (Psalm 100:2). 

This commandment is further underscored throughout the Jewish tradition. Rebbe Nachman said, "It is a great mitzvah to be constantly joyous/glad."  The Rambam (Maimonides) writes, "Do not be sad or frivolous.  Be continually in a joyful mood with a happy expression on your face" (Hilchot Daios 1:4 & 2:7).

The second reason why we must serve the Lord with joy is because it generates the strength we need to be successful in our service. Sadness and depression on the other hand are debilitating. They can destroy not only our physical and spiritual health but our ability to serve God. Depression saps our desire to pray, study, and help others. It also tends to make us lethargic and withdrawn. Thus our service to God can only reach its full potential if "the joy of the Lord is our strength."   

Third, when we serve God with joy, we fulfill the great mitzva of Kiddush Hashem (Sanctification God's name) by showing the world how pleasant the path of Torah and Messiah are. On the other hand, when we fail to serve him joyfully we desecrate God's name (Chillul Hashem).  The Baal Shem Tov teaches,

The Almighty has sent you into this world for an appointed purpose.  It is His will that you accomplish your task in a state of joy.  Sadness implies an unwillingness on your part to carry out the Almighty's will.

Joshua Tallent

1 Corinthians 15:1-11 - The Imperative of the Resurrection

When Yeshua died, his resurrection became an imperative for his talmidim ("disciples"). As Pinchas Lapide expresses it:

And thus the resurrection of Jesus became for his disciples on that day of ruin a theological imperative which was demanded by their never completely forgotten confidence in God . . . Jesus must rise in order that the God of Israel could continue to live as their heavenly Father in their hearts; in order that their lives would not become God-less and without meaning.

Pinchas Lapide, The Resurrection of Jesus: A Jewish Perspective (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2002), 88-89.

Shaul expressed this imperative just a few verses after our Besora reading when he stated, "If there is no resurrection of the dead, then the Messiah has not been raised; and if the Messiah has not been raised, then what we have proclaimed is in vain." But, how do we know that Yeshua was raised? What proof do we have?

The proof is the testimony of those men and women who were there, who saw with their own eyes, heard with their own ears, and touched with their own hands the risen Messiah. And what proof! Shaul describes here a much larger number of people who saw Yeshua after his resurrection than we are told in any other account. Over 500 people saw Yeshua alive over the course of the 40 days before his ascension, and all of them were willing witnesses to the fact of his resurrection.

To borrow a phrase, these followers of Yeshua staked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honors on what they experienced, even though they had ample opportunity to deny, re-interpret, or otherwise ignore those experiences. That is what makes their testimony of the resurrection essential. Without their eyewitness testimony and their willingness to sacrifice everything they were on the veracity of that testimony, the resurrection would just be a legend.

We desperately need their testimony, but we also need the faith that their testimony encourages. Without our own trust in this amazing event - the renewal of life that foretells our own future renewal - we find that the rest of our religious ideas and theologies are useless. But when we have that trust, we find that the truth of God can be borne abroad to the world. Again, Lapide says, "For inscrutable reasons the resurrection faith of Golgotha was necessary in order to carry the message of Sinai into the world" (92).

NEXT WEEK'S READINGS - PARASHAT NITZAVIM