Parshat Ki Teitzei: Deuteronomy 21:10 - 25:19

By Talia Davis

The parsha (weekly Torah portion) for this week is Ki Teitzei. Ki Teitzei means "when you go" and they are the first words in the portion. Be sure to check out the video at the end of this article (there is a donkey in a bow tie . . . I'm serious).

This parsha deals with mitzvot and laws. In fact, 74 of the 613 mitzvot (or commandments) in the Torah are in this very parsha. The first instruction is about a beautiful captive. During war, captives are a necessary evil. Any army can tell you that when you fight another for control of land, you find yourself with captives. If an Israelite were to lust after or find a beautiful woman he wanted to marry among the captives, Moses had these instructions. First, the Israelite had to take her home with him and she had to trim her hair and her nails, toss out the clothing that noted her as a captive, and spend thirty days grieving for her mother and father. Once this happened, he could take her as his wife. If, at that time, he longer wanted her, he had to let her go without selling her as a slave or asking for compensation.

Next is an issue that, as framed, is uncommon today but might actually strike a chord with you. Say a man had two wives and one of those wives he loved very much and one he was, shall we say, less fond of, and each wife gave him a son. Now, the "less loved" wife bore him his firstborn son; however, he could not ignore that this child was the firstborn and treat his second son as the first. The man is required to give the true firstborn son his birthright and the correct portion of what he possesses. Since this deals with children of two wives this may seem difficult to comprehend, but just take that second wife away and think about favorite children. Should a man refuse a birthright to his firstborn because he was not the favorite child?

Speaking of children, in Deuteronomy 21:18-21 we come to an interesting and controversial section (one that, for some reason, my father liked to mention to me whenever I was disinclined to obey him). These are the laws around a rebellious child. First, let's talk about what the Torah says, and then we can talk drash (commentary). The Torah says if parents have a defiant son, who was disinclined to listen to his parents and disobeyed them even after being disciplined, then they were to bring him before the elders of the town. Then they would declare, "This, our son, is stubborn and rebellious, he does not listen to our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard." After that, he was to be stoned to death. Whoa, right? Pretty intense.

So then we get into the commentaries. One baraita in the Babylonian Talmud taught that there wasn't a rebellious son and this was only written so we could study it. However, Rabbi Yonatan of the Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin replied that he says a rebellious son and sat on his grave. However, an interesting commentary comes up around the simple words, "a son" in this portion. The Mishnah interprets the words to truly mean a son and not a daughter but also not a fully-grown man. Now, remember, a son who is a minor cannot be held accountable for his actions (pre-bar mitzvah). His parents hold the responsibility and children were not required to fulfill the commandments until they were counted in the community, at bar mitzvah. Well then, who is considered a son and eligible for this punishment? The Mishnah says, "When does he become liable to the penalty of a stubborn and rebellious son? From the time he produces two hairs until he grows a beard right round. (By which they meant the hair of the genitals and not the face, but the sages spoke in polite terms.)" ( Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 68b )

Well, this definition seems a little uncomfortable to me. Therefore, I find it much easier to swallow this definition -- a boy of 12 ½ years until he turns 13. Therefore, you have exactly six months for this boy to act rebellious, be disciplined, be rebellious again, be taken to the elders, and stoned. An unlikely timeline. Not only is that timeline unlikely, once the Talmudic scholars were through with this section, they had made this all but impossible. The son had to drink undiluted Italian wine he stole from his parents. Also steal food from his parents, then take it off their property, then bring it back on, then eat it in secret while being seen by two witnesses who don't know him. Then he has to be caught twice . . . The whole event is unlikely. Rather, this section is often referred to as a reminder to us that children should obey their parents, but at some point they must take responsibility for their own actions and accept the communal discipline.

I would say we should move on to something lighter but the next section of this parsha, Deuteronomy 21:22-23 is about the body of a man who was executed by the community and impaled. It says here that the body was not to remain impaled overnight because that sight is an affront to G-d (and I would say, to anyone who had to walk past it).

Here we go, something a bit nicer. Deuteronomy 22:1-4 is about lost and found. If you happened upon anything lost (animal or clothing or implement), you could not ignore it. The finder had to take it back to the owner. What if the owner didn't live nearby or the finder did not know to whom it belonged? Well then the finder was to hold onto it until the owner could claim it. The last part here mentions an animal that has fallen. In this case, too, a person could not ignore it; rather they were required to help the owner lift it up.

Deuteronomy 22:5 is often quoted because it tells us that a women is not allowed to wear men's clothing and a man is not allowed to wear women's apparel. Well, that has become increasingly hard to define. Many Orthodox groups interpret that to mean the women wear dresses and skirts while the men wear pants. However, what about slacks made for women or a kilt, a skirt made for men. The debate rages on.

The next part is an interesting allegory that could rarely find literal execution. If you are hiking in the woods and you are hungry and you come across a bird's nest, what are you allowed to do? You may eat the eggs of the nest or the little baby bird but first you must shoo away the mother. Interesting, why must you shoo away the mother? Well for one, if you are about to eat her young she may attack you to protect them but also, a mother should not see her young killed. Not only that but you should not eat the mother and leave the young as they will surely not survive. The mother could mate again and have more babies but the babies and eggs left unattended would have no chance. And eating them both would wipe out that entire family. This section points out that even in the times we must do things that may not be fun for us, we must do them with compassion and thought. No endeavor should be undertaken without thought for everyone involved.

The next few are little bites of details. If you build a house, it had to have a parapet, railing, or balcony so people can't fall off of it. If you plant a vineyard, only one seed was to be used; it is not multi-purpose land. You can't plow with a large ox and small donkey together (the poor donkey would suffer). You can't wear clothing that combines wool and linen. And you were to put tzitzit on the four corners of your clothing.

After that rapid fire of mitzvot (commandments, remember?), we come to some marriage and sexual laws. The first of these is in the case that a man married a woman but then decided he didn't like her, so her accuses her of not being a virgin when they were married. Deuteronomy 22:13-19 tells us that her parents were to (somehow) produce the cloth with the evidence that she was a virgin before the wedding night and show it to the town's elders; then the husband was to be flogged and fined 100 shekels (a monetary unit also used in modern-day Israel) to be paid to his wife's father. She would remain his wife but he lost the right to divorce her.

Now if she were found to not have been a virgin, she would be brought to her parent's home and stoned to death. It seems rather disturbing, but at that time, that was a contractual breech. The next is a law about adultery. If a man slept with another man's wife, both were to be put to death. Then if a man slept with a virgin who was not married but rather was engaged, then they both were put to death. Why? Because the girl did not cry for help and the man took another man's wife. But if he slept with her by force, i.e., rape, in a place where people could not hear her, only he was to die. If a man slept with a virgin who was not betrothed then he was to pay the girl's father 50 shekels, they were to be married, and he had no rights to divorce her. Lastly, a man could not marry his father's former wife.

Clearly, these rules may have made sense in a society 3000 years ago with a tribe of people who were trying to build themselves up; however, 2000 years ago it was already outdated and we had laws in place for the protection of women. Rarely in Judaism can you only look at one verse in the Torah to learn all the intricacies of the law. Nowhere in the world could you find a community 3000 years ago where women were regarded as more than mere chattel. However, Judaism was one of the first groups to have protective laws and rights for women. The Talmud codified, softened, and made more humane these laws that were the table of contents and basic scout guide for developing a society.

Deuteronomy 23:2-9 deals with "G-d's congregation" and who can become a member, essentially a convert. It says that a man who was unable to conceive (it says whose testes were crushed or penis cut off), any illegitimate child, anyone within ten generations of an illegitimate child, any Ammonite or Moabite, or any descendant of an Ammonite or Moabite within ten generations were forbidden from becoming Israelites. Not only that, but we were not to concern ourselves with the Ammonites' or Moabites' welfare. Why? Because they did not assist the Israelites after they fled Egypt and they hired Balaam to curse them. Interestingly, there were no such prohibitions on the Edomites or Egyptians as the Edomites were considered family and we were strangers in the land of Egypt.

As with any large group of people, hygiene is an issue. Here the Torah deals with hygiene in their camps. If a man had a "nocturnal emission" he had to leave camp and bathe. Also, the camp had to dig latrines outside of the camp area and cover the results. While many people of ages past did not understand the need for hygiene, the Israelites clearly did.

Remember when I said (way back at the beginning) that this portion contains 74 of the 613 mitzvot? Well, the end of this parsha becomes a list of mitzvahs. Ready?

If a slave ran away and found refuge with the Israelites, they were not allowed to turn him over to his master. (The Confederates might not have appreciated that one.) Israelites are forbidden from being whores, sodomites, or prostitutes and any money earned as such could not be used to fulfill any mitzvah or sacrifice. Israelites are forbidden from charging interest on loans to countrymen but could charge interest to others. Interesting tip (pun intended) -- there are still Jewish groups that offer interest free loans to Jews in the U.S. Any vow made to G-d was to be promptly fulfilled but there was no punishment for not making a vow. A visiting Israelite could enter an Israelite's vineyard and eat until full but could not take any with him. Also, he could eat any standing grain in a field plucked by hand but could not cut it with a sickle. A divorced woman could not remarry her first husband if she had married again in between. A man who was newlywed was exempt from military duty for a year to give happiness to his wife. (And it is still true in Israel today.) Israelites are forbidden from taking a work implement for pawn that would be equivalent to taking their livelihood. If one kidnapped a fellow Israelite, they were to die. If an Israelite had a skin issue, they were to follow the priests' instructions, remembering that G-d afflicted and healed Miriam's skin. If an Israelite lent to another, he was forbidden to enter the borrower's house to claim his property. He had to wait outside. If the borrower was disadvantaged, the lender had to return the collateral every night and retrieve it every morning. Israelites are forbidden to abuse a needy or poor laborer (no matter if they are an Israelite or stranger), and they had to pay the wages on the same day as the work as the laborer depended on that wage. A parent was not to be put to death for their children, nor a child for his parents. A person could only be put to death for a crime they committed. The Israelites had to protect the rights of the stranger, orphan, and widow. They could not take a widow's garment as pawn and are to remember that we were all strangers in the land of Egypt. If a sheaf of grain was accidentally left in the field, they were to leave it for the stranger, orphan, and widow. The same goes for vineyards, olive trees, and other orchards. If you had to be flogged, the magistrate would have you lay down and whipped in his presence but not for more than 40 lashes as that would be embarrassing and degrading. You could not muzzle your ox while you beat or threshed your grain as it would tease the ox with the food. If brothers lived together and one died without a son, the other brother was to marry the widow and have children. The first son was to "count" to the other brother and his name would live on. If the brother didn't want to do this duty the woman would stand at the gate, announce that he would not perform the levir's duty. Then, if he could not be convinced otherwise, she would pull off his sandal, spit in his face, and say, "Thus shall be done to the man who will not build up his brother's house." If two men fought and a woman came between them to save her husband and grabbed his genitals, her hand was to be cut off. All Israelites must be completely honest with their weights and measures and may not have a second set to confuse. Israelites had to remember what the Amalekites did to them after they left Egypt. They surprised them and killed the people at the rear. They must never forget this act. Wow! What a portion! A lot longer than usual. A good handful of what we read this week feels really outdated but one must remember, no single line in Torah can be taken without the commentary or further clarifications by centuries of rabbis and scholars.

But we have a good start here.

Parshat Ki Teitzei from G-dcast.com More Torah cartoons at www.g-dcast.com