This diary is an attempt to crank up the weekly D'var Torah series in time for the upcoming Jewish Holidays (all holidays and Jewish days start and end at nightfall):
Rosh Hashanah/Jewish New Year: Sunday evening Sept. 13 to Tuesday Sept. 15.
Yom Kippur/Day of Atonement: Tuesday evening Sept. 22 to Wednesday Sept. 23.
Sukkot: Sunday evening Sept 27 to Tuesday Sep. 29.
Shemini Atzeret/Simhat Torah Sunday evening October 4 to Tuesday October 6.
We'd love to get volunteers to write diaries for the holidays, but -
On with the D'var Torah for this week's Torah reading - Ki Tavo:
Torah reading: Deuteronomy Chapters 26:1 to 29:8
Haftrah reading: Isaiah chapter 60 (sixth of seven Haftarahs of consolation.
Chapter 26 of Deuteronomy opens with a command for all Israelite farmers to "take some of the first fruits of the soil which you harvest," go "to the place God will choose to establish His Name," and say to the head priest:
I acknowledge this day before the Lord your God that I have entered the land that the Lord swore to our ancestors to assign to us.
The priest is then instructed to take the basket from the farmer and set it down, while the farmer continues to recite:
My father was a fugitive Aramean. He went down to Egypt with meager numbers, but there he became a very great and populous nation. The Egyptians dealt harshly with us and oppressed us; they imposed heavy labor upon us. We cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors, and the Lord heard our plea and saw our plight, our misery, and our oppression. The Lord freed us from Egypt by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm and awesome power, and by signs and portents. He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Therefore I now bring the first fruits of the soil which You, O Lord, have given me.
What did this ceremony mean? According to the great 12th century Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, better known as
Maimonides or the Rambam, in his
Guide for the Perplexed, at
Part III, Chapter 39: as explained by Rabbi Harvey J. Fields,
A Torah Commentary for our Times (1993):
Offering the first fruits of the harvest [Maimonides] says is a way people "accustom themselves to being generous" and a means of "limiting the human appetite for more consumption, not only of food, but of property." Maimonides views the ritual drama as an antidote to materialism and overindulgence. "People who amass fortunes and live in comfort," he [Maimonides] observes, "often fall victim to self-centered excesses and arrogance. They tend to abandon ethical considerations because of increasingly selfish concerns." Bringing a harvest basket of first fruits and reciting the prayer "promotes humility."
Now, how do we teach the Koch brothers, Sheldon Adelson, Donald Trump and Jeb! and the others some Maimonides?
Shabbat shalom and Happy New Year!