Zakhor eit asher-asah l’kha Amaleik baderekh
btzeitkhem miMitzraiyim.
Remember what Amalek did to you on the way when you
came out of Egypt. (D’varim 25:17)
Parashat
Ki Teitzei is a collection of life lessons. Interestingly, I just completed a
rereading of It Was On Fire When I Lay Down On It, by Robert Fulghum.
Robert Fulghum first garnered fame as the author of “All I Needed to Know I
Learned in Kindergarten.” That first essay, which became a book by the same
name, and the book I just finished are collections of life lessons. As with our
parasha, these lessons are not particularly long; nor are they complicated.
They cover a wide range of topics. Our parasha begins with marrying a captive
of war, transitions to a rebellious son, which may sometimes feel like war, but
isn’t, then to favouritism among children and inheritance law, and what to do
with the body of an executed criminal. It continues with returning lost
property, helping animals, cross-dressing, collecting eggs, building parapets,
mixing seeds, yoking an ox and a donkey together, shatnez, tzitziyot, marriage
law, and who can join the “congregation of A’donai. As if that were not enough,
the parasha goes on with holiness and purity, religious prostitution, charging
interest, vows, eating from a neighbour’s produce, divorce, exemptions from
military service (kolel study is not one of them), collateral, slavery,
leprosy, privacy, treatment of workers, individual responsibility, injustice, civil
cases, kindness to animals, levirate marriage, sexual harassment, and weights
and measures. The parasha then ends with a reminder of what Amalek did to
Israel, attacking the weak and tired. A stranger mix of topics, it would be
hard to find. The parasha seemingly jumps from topic to topic as the whim takes
it. However, the reminder of Amalek’s actions ties it together. The theme of
each of these is protecting the unprotected, the disadvantaged, the weak and
weary who bring up the rear. J.K. Rowling, in the name of Dumbledore, says the
following, “It is our choices… that show what we truly are, far more than our
abilities.” It really doesn’t matter what you can do if the choices you make
take advantage of others. Strength is not in our abilities to dominate, but in
our choice to care.
Please enjoy this. It too is
about the choices we make in how we interact.
“All
I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” By Robert Fulghum
Most
of what I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I
learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school
mountain, but there in the sand pile at Sunday school. These are the things I
learned:
Share
everything. Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say you're sorry
when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies and
cold milk are good for you. Live a balanced life -
Learn some and think some
and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work everyday some. Take a
nap every afternoon. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic,
hold hands and stick together. Be aware of wonder.
Remember
the little seed in the plastic cup? The roots go down and the plant goes up and
nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that. Goldfish and hamsters
and white mice and even the little seed in the plastic cup -- they all die. So
do we. And then remember the book about Dick and Jane and the first word you
learned, the biggest word of all: look. Everything you need to know is in there
somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics
and sane living.
Think
what a better world it would be if we all -- the whole world -- had cookies and
milk about 3 o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a
nap. Or if we had a basic policy in our nation and other nations to always put
things back where we found them and cleaned up our own messes. And it is still
true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, it is best to
hold hands and stick together.
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