Kee Tetze
Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19
Isaiah 54:1-10
Elul is in full swing. Some of us are lucky enough to be hearing the shofar blown each morning, beginning to awaken us to the work that the holiday season demands of us. Others of us are reciting Psalm 27 each day, breathing in the reality that a loving God is waiting close at hand to respond to our prayers for forgiveness and reorientation in our lives.
Some of us are beginning our High Holy Day tshuvah-repentance work in our own words, in our own ways, beginning to scan our memories of the year past, beginning to envision what we would like to make different in the year to come.
Throughout the Jewish world, Parashat Kee Tetze is read as the work of inner preparation for the holiday season begins to unfold. When we open almost anywhere in this wide-ranging survey of biblical law, we’ll find reminders of areas that may need our attention as we approach the holiday season.
Consider the following apparently straightforward piece of commercial law: “You shall not have in your pouch alternate weights, larger and smaller. You shall not have in your house alternate measures, a larger and a smaller. You must have completely honest weights and completely honest measures, if you are to endure long on the soil that the Lord your God is giving you” (Deuteronomy 25:13-5).
The plain meaning of the text is clear. For a merchant who weighs out specified quantities of produce, for example, the Torah insists on a standard system of weights and measures, requiring an honest, consistent and predictable system of measurement. So far, this is about basic ethical practice in the workplace. But listen to the deeper riches that, as usual, the commentators hear beneath the surface of the text.
Rashi, quoting the Midrash, says that the Torah demands that the merchant not have a larger measure when weighing merchandise that he receives and a smaller measure for weighing merchandise that he supplies to a customer.
Building on Rashi’s reading, one commentator, the Or Hame’ir, imagines an act of “commerce” taking place between a person and God. He imagines the person offering lavish words of prayer when in need, pouring out elaborate words of supplication when asking God for mercy. Then he imagines that once these prayers are answered, the person suddenly grows stingy offering meager words of thanks or praise, as if weighing words now with a skimpy measure. According to this reading, the Torah is reminding us to be as generous with our words of thanks and praise as we are when elaborating on our own sorrows and needs.
How about us? Do we weigh our words as generously when we offer messages of thanks, of affirmation and encouragement, as when we speak of our own needs and demands? Do we have different psychic scales, weighing out our words and deeds with a generous hand for some but with stingy, mean-spiritedness to others? Surely, some relationships naturally evoke greater generosity in us, but are we being as generous as Torah would want us to be?
Then there are those who are generous with others but miserly and unforgiving with themselves. Perhaps this, too, departs from the spirit of the law of fairness in measures, a failing in our willingness to remember that we also deserve love and generosity of spirit. Perhaps this year there is work to do in self-forgiveness, in cultivating a greater spirit of compassion toward the self.
This week’s haftarah brings us magnificent images of God’s expansive love. “For a little while I forsook you. But with vast love I will bring you back. In slight anger, for a moment, I hid My face from you. But with kindness everlasting I will take you back in love, said the Lord your Redeemer” (Isaiah 54:7-8).
The contrast with the parashah is exquisite: On God’s measuring stick, anger and abandonment will be measured in small quantities; generosity, love and devotion will flow without end. This is the measure we are to emulate.
May our tshuvah work this season help us to know how.