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August 23, 2002/Elul 15 5762, Vol. 54, No. 49
Jews must identify with their forebears
Torah study
RABBI SHLOMO RISKIN
Ki Tavo/Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8
Our Torah reading opens with two commandments - the bringing of the first fruits and the purging of the tithes - and two speeches, each commandment accompanied by a specific liturgical recitation. It is the second commandment, the purging of the tithes, whose declaration contains a rather curious phrase: "When you have set aside in full the tenth part of your yield - in the third year, the year of the tithe... You shall declare before the Lord your God: 'I have cleared out the consecrated portion from the house; and I have given it to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow ... I have neither transgressed nor neglected any of your commandments.' " (Deuteronomy 26:12-13)
The purging of the tithes is the only instance of a Jewish ritual in which the performer declares that he "has not forgotten." It seems quite apparent that he has not forgotten since he is doing the commandment. What can possibly be behind this seemingly superfluous phrase which is biblically mandated?
Perhaps the answer lies in analyzing the first command ordained by our Torah portion, the "first fruits." The Bible describes the individual going up to Jerusalem with his first fruits in a basket, the priest placing the basket before the altar of the Holy Temple and then the donor giving a concentrated history of Israel. The declaration begins with the words: "My father was a fugitive Aramean. He went down to Egypt with meager numbers and sojourned there. ... The Egyptians dealt harshly with us and oppressed us; they imposed heavy labor upon us." The recitation concludes with the joy of redemption: "The Lord freed us from Egypt by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm. ... He brought us to this place and gave us this land. ... Wherefore I now bring the first fruits of the soil which You, O Lord, have given me." (Deuteronomy 26: 5-10)
Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of this declaration is that it is in the "first-person" form: "The Egyptians dealt harshly with us. ... The Lord freed us from Egypt." Judaism is a history-centered culture, with the Bible organized in chronological, historical form, moving from beginning to end in a divinely-directed march to redemption.
Judaism mandates that, as participants in this optimistic chain of historic being, each of us benefits from the trials and merits of our forebears and carries the responsibility to give over the Torah to the following generation. Seminal historical events reveal God's plan and teach God's lesson. Every Jew must identify with Jewish history, must see himself as if he came out of Egypt and stood at Sinai.
There are two main reasons for this mandate. If I can manage to personally and existentially feel the servitude of past exiles, I will identify with the disenfranchised oppressed, endeavoring to help. And I will be filled with gratitude to the God who redeemed me from exile; I will believe in God's ability and will to free me from subsequent enslavements.
Hence, the first two commands - as well as their accompanying declarations - are tied together. The Jew gives his first fruits to the Temple in tribute to the God of history who redeemed "him" from Egypt and brought "him" home. And the same Jew gives tithes to the unfortunates - the indigent, the stranger, the widow and the orphan - because he has learned from his past to identify with the unfortunates. "I have given to the stranger, the orphan and the widow ... because I have not forgotten" that I am a child of Jewish history.
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is the spiritual leader of Efrat, Israel.
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