Set in Stone: Parashat Ki Tavo

hebrew letters on stone

Torah Sparks
Parashat Ki Tavo

Deuteronomy 26:1 – 29:8

Our Torah portion takes its name from its very first words, “ki tavo – when you shall enter,” referring to the Israelites’ entry into the Promised Land. The portion sets forth a number of rituals that depend on being in the land. Those rituals, such as the bringing of First Fruits, were to become a permanent part of Jewish living in the Holy Land.

Our Torah portion also calls for a ritual that was to be performed only once, at the time of entry into the land. The people were commanded to set up great stones and to write the words of the Torah upon them. Then the text says that the stones should be set up on Mount Ebal. A sacrificial ceremony is to follow upon an altar that is to be built of “whole stones” on that mountain. (Deut. 27:6) And then the Torah seems to repeat that the words of the Torah should be written, adding that they be written in a manner “well-explained.”(v. 8)

We notice that stones – recognized as symbols of permanence and steadfast memory – play a central role in this extensive ceremony or series of ceremonies that was established as a special way of marking the entry of the people of Israel into their land. The stones serve as the foundation for two types of sancta. They serve as the surface upon which the Torah is written and they serve as the platform upon which sacrifices are offered. Each association takes us back to earlier scenes in the Torah. Sacrifices are mentioned since the beginning of the Biblical saga. And writing the Torah on stones recalls the writing of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai.

Each of these associations is then embellished in some significant way. The stones of the altar are now required to be pristinely natural, without any metal used to hew them. Metal was too much associated with war, and service to God should not be tainted with symbols of conflict. In that sense this altar is meant to be a most primal object, restoring us to a state of natural innocence. (We might recall that it was at the scene of an altar that Cain murdered his brother, Abel.)

But the writing on the stones is different. We seem to be commanded twice to write the words of the Torah on stones. But the second, apparent repetition of this command is slightly different. The difference is the addition of the phrase, “well-explained.” This small addition casts the entire ceremony in a different light. The stones are not just the surface for enacting these unique rituals, rituals that were never to be repeated. Rather, the entire ceremony can be seen as a synopsis of the historical progress of the Jewish people to our days. After looking backward in time and toward lost innocence, the ceremony moves us forward, into the future, into a future, not of innocence, but of responsibility.

The first two elements of the ceremony – the first command to write the Torah and the command to build a sacrificial altar – are backward-looking because they signify known objects and actions. The first command to write the words of the Torah on the stones corresponds to the Sinai stage of Jewish history. Then we offer sacrifices on an altar. This corresponds to the period of the two Temples and the expression of Judaism in sacrificial forms. But the second command to write the Torah on the stones calls upon us to add something entirely new – explanation. This is the kernel of the concept of a living Oral Tradition to accompany the Torah we were gifted at Sinai.

Who will write these explanations? We cannot copy them from the books, for the books are the Torah, not her explanation. As we entered the Promised Land, we, ourselves, were commanded to take responsibility for creating explanations for the Torah. The original stones upon which we undertook that mission are long gone. But the command to make sense of the Torah, to explain her teachings to others and to ourselves, is with us to this day.

Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi David Greenstein

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