Weekly Torah Portion: Ki Tavo (Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8)
In this Torah portion, Moses instructs the Israelites regarding the first fruit offering. Moses then lists the blessings the people will enjoy if they keep the commandments, and the punishments they will suffer for disobeying them
Related D’var Torah
“On this sixth of the seven sabbaths of consolation leading up to Rosh Hashanah, we are consoled by real life, by a real person acting in the world.” – Rabbi Lisa Edwards on the famous news story of Antoinette Tuff in 2013. Read the full drash
“It’s merely to say that, as a group, Jews by choice take their Jewish values seriously. Jews by choice are quick-quicker than some born Jews – to take action to help repair the world, or to make their synagogue a better place” – Rabbi Lisa Edwards in 2002. Read the full drash
“Religion and spirituality can exist exclusive of one another. We all know people that are spiritual but profess to not be religious and you can be religious yet not to have much spirituality…” – Gordon Blitz in 2000. Read the full drash
“Rabbi Telushkin remarks on this common tendency to criticize an event on the way home from it. Even as he acknowledges that he’s too often been guilty of such things himself, he considers the harm, the hurt, of, for example, leaving a dinner party with your spouse or friends and critiquing the evening all the way home” – Rabbi Lisa Edwards in 1999. Read the full drash
Torah Verse of the Week*
“Yet until this day, God has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear” (Ki Tavo; Deuteronomy 29:3)
Other Suggested Readings
We, like centuries of Jews before us, find these curses disturbing. Traditionally, they’re chanted quickly and at a whisper when read from the bima. Read from our Telephone torah study archive
Fine-Tune Your Spiritual Hearing’ by Maggid Jhos Singer a witty and irreverent LGBT commentary on Ki Tavo. My Jewish Learning
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*Torah Verse of the Week is chosen by the Torah class during Tuesdays’ studies with Rabbi Lisa Edwards. Check out when our next Torah Study takes place
