Rabbi’s Message for Sept. 9, 2025

Shalom,

The order of things matters.  We may not always notice, yet things happen in a certain order to help us make sense, to learn, and to understand.  We celebrate the transition to a New Year, Rosh Hashanah, and then dive into the work of the Yamim Noraim - Days of Awe.  After ten days, we arrive at Yom Kippur, the day that helps us hold on to and reflect on the past year, while uttering words that urge us to look ahead - we stand between the past and the future, it is in a particular order.  

This week, as we enter the final two weeks of the year, and the Hebrew month of Elul, we find in parashat Ki Tavo an important instruction manual, and order of things to do upon crossing into the land.  In Deuteronomy 26:1, we read:  When you enter into the land that Adonai, your God, is giving you as a heritage, and you possess it and settle in it, you shall take some of every first fruit of the soil which you harvest from the land that Adonai your God is giving you, put it in a basket and go to the place where Adonai your God will choose to establish God’s name.  And a chapter later in the same portion, 27:2, we read:  As soon as you have crossed the Jordan into the land that Adonai your God is giving you, you shall set up large stones.  Coat them with plaster and inscribe upon them all the words of this Teaching.

We express gratitude, and we ensure we are holding onto the ‘Teaching’, the Torah.  We have to first cross into the land, then we take time to express gratitude for all we receive.  Yet, which comes first?  While the order of the verses is to express gratitude first, the language of the second passage seems to indicate otherwise.  In a fabulous volume, It Takes Two to Torah, Rabbi Dov Linzer and journalist Abigail Pogrebin discuss this very curiosity.  One conclusion Pogrebin presents is the following:

AP:  If we bring it back to the “first fruits” of tihs parsha, here’s how I’d connect them:  Moses is telling his people, “These are your instructions when you get there.  Yes, you must give a piece of your harvest to God; but the stones you’re supposed to do right away.  You’re going to inscribe these stones before you bring in the first fruits.”  Again, the Torah comes first, but emboldening this population to do it themselves is a way to have them be Godlike and inscribe the law with their own hands.

DL:  I really like that.  God comes first when you enter the Land.  The Torah is saying, “Take responsibility.  Show gratitude.”  But showing gratitude doesn’t mean submission or dependence.  It’s really, "Own the responsibility - follow the law - but also make it yours.” (Page 288)     

Mrs. Pogrebin and Rabbi Linzer discuss the balance between recognizing God and all the gifts we receive with our gratitude and knowing that Torah is something we continue to author, together with the divine spark within each of us.  In this season of Elul, the twilight of the year, we are searching our past year for how we can grow, for that we are grateful as we cross, not the Jordan, but into a new year.  And, we are re-committing ourselves to our role as authors of our Jewish story.  May we discover again our commitment to both as we prepare to cross into this New Year. 

Shavua Tov & Shanah Tovah,

Rabbi Evon