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UJCL Parashah Commentaries
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KI TAVO 5768 Devarim - Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8 September 20, 2008 – 20 Elul 5768 By Rabbi Joshua Kullock,
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Authenticity and relevance are two very important terms when speaking about the traditions each nation inherits and agrees to embody in its day-to-day practice. Authenticity refers to the socio-economic value of specific texts and traditions, and the possibility of perpetuating them from generation to generation, while relevance implies the level of empathy we may establish in our daily lives with those values and principles sustained by our own traditions over thousands of years. That is, the higher the empathy, the higher the degree of relevance possessed by the cultural legacy; the lower the practical display of traditions, the higher sense of remoteness generated between the people and their ancestral customs.
In this sense, and as was already emphasized by Professor Michael Rosenak, from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, a sort of tension is established between authenticity and relevance, which can even lead to an internal contradiction. This happens because as time goes by, and the nation or community comes into contact with the changes occurring in the world, many times, for a tradition to continue being relevant, it has to gradually “adjust” to its current context, at the expense of its original authenticity. That is why Rosenak affirms that the Tradition of Israel has always developed a process of “partial translations” of the historical values and meanings that incorporate slowly to the new realities. If such stages of translation did not exist, Judaism would have disappeared long ago. If this translation occurred in whole terms, possibly no real link with the origins of our people would still exist.
The reason why I mention all this has its basis and foundation on three of the verses of this week’s Parashah, quoted below:
What attracts attention in this passage, with the typical style of the last book of the Torah, is the triple repetition of the word “today”: the people agree to observe Today; the people declare their faithfulness Today; God declares His faithfulness Today. In this context, and following this uncommon repetition of the word ha yom, “this day”, the Midrash teaches: “What does it mean, ‘In this day, the Lord your God orders you to observe’? Hadn’t the Lord, Blessed be He, already ordered something to the People of Israel? Hadn’t they already gone through forty years [in the wilderness]? […] Then, why does it say ‘this day’? Because it wants to teach us that this was what Moses said to Israel: May the Torah be cherished by you every day, as if in this day you were receiving it at Sinai” (Tanhuma Ki Tavo, 1).
This excellent Midrash just makes us recall one of the fundamental principles of our tradition: we are ourselves responsible for seeing the Torah with renewed eyes, with the same surprise and mystery with which we received it the first time. We ourselves are the ones who must find a balance between authenticity and relevance, so as to lose neither empathy nor contact with the text and everything that emanates from it. We ourselves are the only ones who can adapt the Torah to our reality, while reading at the same time that reality under the key factors offered by the Tradition of Israel, as this is the only way to ensure that the love linking us to the covenant agreed upon at Sinai will not diminish or go out.
Franz Rosenzweig taught us that Revelation is the milestone that marks the relationship established between God and Man, following the divine call and the human response. Abraham Joshua Heschel taught us that said Revelation is always produced in a present continuum, as long as we are able to hear God’s Voice. Therefore, for all these reasons we are the ones who must work in order to continue studying the Torah, embodying at the same time the principles of our tradition, that are Today as authentic and relevant as ever.
Shabbat Shalom Umeborah! Rabbi Joshua Kullock |
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This Parashah commentary was done by the Union of Jewish Congregations of Latin America and the Caribbean, and may be reproduced quoting its source.
Forwarded by Rabbi Gustavo Kraselnik, from Kol Shearith Israel Congregation, Panama. |
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