Parshas Ki Savo

Hi everyone, I hope this helps you go into your Shabbos more prepared and I hope you learn something new!

This week’s Parsha is called Parshas Ki Savo (KEY-SUH-VO). Parshas Ki Savo begins or continues with Moses speaking to the B’nai Yisroel (Jewish people.) Moses at this point is teaching the Jewish people about the Mitzvah of giving the first fruits of the harvest to a Kohen (priest) and he brings it as an offering to Hashem. The reason for this is because we are thanking Hashem for the wonderful ground that he gave us. Nowadays, because there is no Bais HaMikdash (Holy Temple) and no Mizbayach (altar for offerings to Hashem) inside we are not able to perform this Mitzvah. The Mitzvah of giving the first fruits to a Kohen is called Bekorim (BE-KU-RIM). When a Jew gives his first fruits to the Kohen it symbolizes that he dedicates everything he has to the service of Hashem. Hashem specified it should be our first fruits that go to the Kohanim (priests) because Hashem knew that those were the fruits we get the most excited about and to give them over to a Kohen shows our commitment, loyalty, and discipline. It also points out for us that one of the reasons for creation was so Hashem could bestow his kindness on us and we could make the recognition that everything in our life is a gift from Hashem.

Moses also goes over the blessings and curses that will be distributed on Mount Ebal and Mount Grizim when the Jewish people enter into the land of Israel. First, Moses lists all the curses they will face. When Moses goes over the blessings one of them is, “Hashem shall place you as a head and not a tail…” The Ramban (a very famous commentator on Torah) says that the Torah doesn’t need to mention both a head and a tail, because if the Torah just said Hashem will make you as a head, it will be implied that you won’t be a tail. Or, if it just said, Hashem will not make you as a tail then that too would imply that Hashem will make you as a head. We know that the Torah is perfect and does not have any extra words - so, our question is why mention both? Before we answer our question let’s first figure out what head and tail really mean. According to the Ramban, the head refers to a leader of leaders and the tail is refers to followers. So, with this information we can now understand this passuk (passage) in the Torah. The Ramban says that saying that Hashem will make you as a head and not a tail isn’t a redundancy, for it’s possible for a nation to be a head (leader,) to some of the people, but also a follower of other nations. But what is happening here is that Hashem is promising that if Israel is worthy (by living according to the Torah), it will be respected as leaders by all of the other nations. - Also Artscroll Chumash.

Having learned this, may the B’nai Yisroel (all of the Jewish people) take it upon themselves to start or increase their study of Torah so that we, as a nation merit to be respected by all of the other nations! -Amen!

HAVE A GREAT SHABBOS AND WEEKEND!

Stay tuned for next week as we learn about two Parshas called,

Nitzavim (NI-TZ-UH-VIM) and Vayalech (VAH-YAY-LECH)!