Ki Tavo
Deuteronomy 26:1–29:8
Isaiah 60:1–60:22
The “tent movement” in Israel has called for social justice, lower housing prices and other cost-of-living improvements, trying to combat growing gaps in Israeli society. Encouraged and inspired by the movement (and whether it truly is, only time will tell), I couldn’t help wondering, where is the line between feelings of entitlement and unfair dependency?
I was thinking about it as I read this week’s Torah portion, especially its opening verse. You might recognize it from the Passover seder, shortly after pouring the second cup, when we recall that “my father was a wandering Aramean …” Translations and commentaries vary on the complex “arami oved avi” of Deuteronomy
26:5-9 in an effort to explain who is the father, who is the Aramean and what “oved” (with an alef!) means.
We do know that this was said during the celebration of the first fruit brought to the Temple. Approaching the priest with the produce, one should have repeated our people’s history and recalled our good fortune for the journey we’d made. It’s likely that the compliers of the haggadah also knew this section and how prevalent it was, since each person knew by heart a critical piece of our past through an act of living memory. Perhaps that’s why it was inserted in the most common ritual, one we keep to this very day.
But perhaps there is more to it than mere repetition.
Rav Kook saw this celebration as an integral part of an education system. We’re taught to say yes to work and labor; yes even to richness. The rabbis of old all had jobs, and as Tevye says in “Fiddler on the Roof,” there is no harm in having a little fortune.
Being productive feels good, and rightly so. In contradiction, we say no to being a parasite; no to richness that comes in wrongful ways or is handled against our core values of justice and tzedakah. At the same time, while we help the poor and underprivileged, we don’t prescribe it as a way of life.
“There is a very thin line, distinguishing haughty ownership from the joy and pride of creativity,” emphasizes Rabbi Benjamin Lau. The ox taken to the Temple was decorated with olive tree branches, symbolizing that a healthy society must have both physical elements and spiritual ones. Labor without ruach (spirit) is futile, just as being immersed in the world of spirit, but disconnected from daily life, is meaningless.
We have seen it since early in Genesis. The first two brothers of the Torah symbolize this tension: Cain was all about possessions, and his name is related to the Hebrew “kinyan” (purchase), while Abel’s name in Hebrew, Hevel, means “a puff of air” or “nothingness.”
Cain is the one who brings meaningless seeds as an offering; Abel brings the choicest of his sheep. Ultimately, Abel is dead, and Cain wanders the earth. The message is, neither extreme works. Adam and Eve go on to have a third son, Seth (“foundation”), and from him humanity continues.
Finding the balance is a constant challenge and struggle, not a one-time commandment. Take, for example, the Tel Aviv Harbor. The Port of Jaffa claims to be the oldest in the world. Pharaohs, caesars and kings all realized its importance, and each conquered it in order to gain control over the land. Then it was abandoned. Tel Aviv itself never had the right natural conditions for a modern harbor, but because of the need to be able to import and export during the Arab revolt in 1936, its harbor was born and used for a short while.
After years of neglect, the old Tel Aviv Harbor area has been developed into one of the “in” entertainment areas of Tel Aviv. Restaurants, cafés, ice cream parlors, shops and boutiques now occupy the renovated promenade and old warehouses. It’s another model for an out-of-the-box solution that addresses multifaceted if not conflicting needs and values.
That’s what we’ve done since the days of priests in the Temple, and that’s where the next solution will be, too. Ours is not the path of all-or-nothing anything. And we’re definitely “all” about that.
Michal Kohane is the director of the Israel Center of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation. She has served in leadership roles throughout Northern California and holds advanced degrees in studies of Israel, psychology and education. She can be reached at [email protected].