PARASHAT KI TEITZEI
Saturday 22nd August 2026 9th Elul 5786
PARASHAT KI TEITZEI
Deuteronomy 21:10 – 25:19; Isaiah 54:1-10; Matthew 24:29-42
The most famous example of this principle is probably Charles Darwin’s observation of a Madagascan orchid with an exceptionally deep nectar tube. Based on that, he predicted the existence of a yet undiscovered moth possessing an equally long tongue (which could get to the nectar while pollinating it). More than forty years later, precisely such a moth was discovered – so perfectly matching the prediction that it was named praedicta, “the predicted one.” Without a doubt, one of the ost unbelievable and observable miracles in the modern world is the return of the Jewish people to their ancestral homeland. Aside from the extraordinary miracle that a nation dispersed all over the world would somehow retain its identity, never in the history of mankind has an exiled and dispersed people returned to its ancestral homeland and re-established it as a nation-state. Incredibly, the Torah predicts exactly that; “Even if your dispersed people are at the ends of the heavens, from there your God will gather you […] your God will bring you to the land that your forefathers possessed, and you shall possess it” (Deuteronomy 30:3-5). In fact, this passage explicitly predicts the entire historical sequence: 1) Blessing and national prosperity 2) Sin and punishment 3) Exile among the nations 4) Jewish spiritual awakening and repentance 5) Ingathering from throughout the world 6) Return to and repossession of the Land of Israel. The Torah makes a similar promise in Deuteronomy 4:27-31. After predicting that the people of Israel will be scattered and left “few in number among the nations,” Moses declares: “When you are in distress and all these things have befallen you, in the latter days, you will return to Hashem your God […] For your God is a merciful God; He will not abandon you, destroy you, or forget the covenant of your forefathers.” Finally, Leviticus 26:44-45 promises that even while the Jewish nation is exiled, God will never reject or destroy the Jewish people completely, because His covenant remains permanently in force. This week’s reading ends with a short retelling of the incident of the Amalek nation attacking the Jewish people shorty after they left Egypt. “Remember what Amalek did to you on the way, when you came forth out of Egypt; how he attacked you on the way and struck at your rear those who were feeble [...]” (Deuteronomy 25:17-18). After the newly minted Jewish nation left Egypt, they camped at a place called Rephidim. As they sought to recover from their narrow escape from the Egyptian army, they were suddenly attacked by the Amalekite nation. Even though the Jewish people had no designs on the Amalekite territory (they were heading to the Land of Israel) and obviously had no interest in beginning a new conflict, the Amalekites launched an unprovoked and vicious surprise attack on them from the rear. Rather than facing the main Israelite army, they cowardly targeted the exhausted, vulnerable stragglers lagging behind at the rear of the camp, demonstrating a lack of regard for God or humanitarian restraint. (Biblical genealogy traces the Amalekites back to Amalek, a grandson of Esau. Rabbinic and theological interpretations sometimes view the conflict through the lens of a deep-seated, generational rivalry between the descendants of Esau and Jacob, and sealing the Amalekites and their descendants, as Israel’s archetypal enemy) All the other nations of the world, after hearing and seeing the incredible miracles that God had done for the Jewish people as they left Egypt (the ten plagues, splitting of the Red Sea, and utter decimation of the Egyptian army) feared the God of the Jewish people and wouldn’t consider fighting them. Upon leaving Egypt the Jewish people were on an unstoppable mission of bringing the world to its final resolution with God’s world vision at our forefront. Our forefather Abraham’s vision of spreading the knowledge of the existence of God and His desire to have a relationship with His children would convey that the entire world is a brotherhood of man. The Jewish people, through their exodus from Egypt came to personify this relationship with God and revealed through their monotheistic belief that all of humanity is descended from a single source and therefore all of humanity is created equal. The Amalekites then came and made an incredible statement. They attacked knowing that they would be annihilated – which was EXACTLY their point. Their startling statement (?) was: This world is not worth living in if it is to be the world of the Jewish people. They preferred to die rather than live in a world where the God of the Jewish people is ascendant. Even though they lost terribly, they succeeded in publicizing the question as to whether or not this world is worth living in if it is a world according to the Jewish vision. Consequently, they remain the prototypical archenemy of the Jewish people, for they created a vision for their ideological descendants (e.g. Iran, et al.) to prefer annihilation rather than live in a world with a Jewish homeland. They thus empowered and paved the way for every single antisemite that would follow them – something that we can never forgive or forget. We are now in the Hebrew month of Elul and preparing ourselves for Rosh Hashanah and our renewed commitment to bettering ourselves in the upcoming year. As the Torah states, in order to return from exile and bring about the end of days, we must experience a spiritual awakening and a return to the Almighty (teshuva – repentance). Only then can we finally begin to fulfill the mission that our ancestors first began when they left Egypt; the unity of God and His children. Should that happen, Jews will gladly take the blame. _________________________________ |
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