WRJ Voices: Ki Tavo

This week’s parashat, Ki Tavo (Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8), lays out Moses’s final instructions to the people as they are about to enter the Promised Land, after forty years of wandering in the desert. Though many of these rules have already been delivered, this is his last opportunity to emphasize the importance of establishing a just, long-lasting society once they are settled, as well as ensuring their covenantal relationship with God.

• Bring the first fruits of the soil to the altar and express your gratitude to God for your bountiful harvest and freedom from slavery, saving ten percent for the Levite, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow.
• Form new plaster-covered stones with these teachings for all to see – and renew your covenant with God.
• At Mount Gerazim you will hear every blessing imaginable that will be bestowed upon you for obeying God’s mitzvot  - and -
• At Mount Ebal you will hear an even longer terrifyingly detailed list of the curses that will befall you for not obeying God’s mitzvot.
• Remember the miracles you witnessed in the wilderness and go forth into the new world to succeed in all you undertake.

As a child, I went to religious school three times a week from kindergarten through seventh grade, plus junior congregation on Shabbat mornings. We identified as Conservative at that time, my grandparents Orthodox, and I celebrated my Bat Torah, as a Friday night Bat Mitzvah with oneg (the boys had Saturday morning services and fancy evening galas) in the Boston suburbs. I learned how to read Hebrew, and I chanted my Haftorah blessings and portion proficiently. I memorized most of the service prayers and songs and still have them in my head to this day.

With all this time spent at temple, I had what was probably the typical experience for many of us baby boomer second-generation American Jewish kids. The quality of my formal education was pretty low in many ways. Most of the students were bored and uninterested in being there, and it was hard for the most inexperienced teachers to delve into the material in any meaningful way. Though I was a strong student and absorbed what there was in class, I “finished” my Jewish education reading Hebrew, but not understanding most of the vocabulary or being able to speak, and knowing the Torah stories and our history on an elementary level but without really understanding their value and relevance to my modern life.

As an adult and parent, I have worked, like many of us, to help make sure that our children get more out of their formal religious educations than many of us had. At some point, I certainly realized that my own education wasn’t necessarily over (!), so I learned more as my children learned, I helped lead a Jewish literacy study group at our temple, and, eventually, as I got more involved in the professional and volunteer Reform world, I’ve had plenty of opportunity to grow my knowledge, understanding, and appreciation.

Though I knew that through the millennia rabbis and others have studied and argued every nuance of Torah and Jewish life, and we’re supposed to regard the Torah as our tree of life, frankly, until fairly recently, I had never really found Torah study that compelling.

Then I joined the WRJ Board! Over the past eight years, I’ve been called upon to write and deliver numerous d’varim. Often, upon first reading of the text, things seem pretty dry, but then with research and study of other interpretations – and time to just let it all marinate for a while, it feels awesome to come up with something that resonates for me, and, I hope, for others as well.

With Ki Tavo, it’s easy to focus in on the well-known lines about the first fruits and taking care of the strangers, orphans, and widowed (the proverbial low-hanging fruit and relevant in today’s world?), but there’s so much more power in looking deeper.

We have so many resources available today at our fingertips. In the WRJ-produced Torah: A Women’s Commentary and on the URJ ReformJudaism.org website, I found a wide variety of perspectives and ideas I wouldn’t have necessarily thought of myself:

• Choices with every moment: good and evil; optimism and pessimism; blessings and curses
• Dealing with our fears
• Hope and preparing for the future
• Renewing our vows to new beginnings, while acknowledging endings
• The changing nature of relationships
• Taking responsibility for others, especially those who are needier
• Our influence on others and our responsibility to influence
• Goals of spiritual practice
• The meaning of success

(Rabbis Melanie Aron, Carolyn Bricklin, Andrew Busch, Steven Engel. Karen Perolman, Rachel Sabath Beit-Halachmi, Marc Saperstein, Yael Splansky, Lauren Werber, Nancy Wiener; Elliot Kukler, and others)

Here’s a lesson from Rabbi Audrey Korotkin that I find especially eloquent:

“Torah teaches us that every day—every event, every encounter—holds the capacity to be a moment of v'hayah, of joy and newness and amazement and inspiration, if we open ourselves to it. Every day can be hayom hazeh. It may be as momentous as that first step off the plane in Israel; or it may be as commonplace as that first step out the front door in the morning. What shall come to pass is what we make of it today, spinning potential into reality.”

I wish you a sweet and peaceful Shabbat and, soon to follow, a bright, shiny New Year filled with the promise of new beginnings and the openness to continue learning and exploring what’s possible.

Rozan Anderson is a member of the WRJ Board and the VP of Marketing and Communications for the WRJ Midwest District. She is also immediate past president and former executive director of her congregation, Temple Beth El in Madison, WI, and a past president of Temple Beth El Sisterhood.