A BISSEL TORAH: KI TEITZEI: READING BETWEEN THE LINES
By: Suri Davis
This is a parshah brimming with interesting laws. It pays to know the medrash and Jewish history to fill in the gap on a few of these laws. Just to mention a few:
If there is a betrothed woman who was taken by a man to whom she is not engaged, and they were found in the city, both she and the man are killed. But if they were found in the field, the man is killed and the woman is not. Why is this? We give the woman the benefit of the doubt. In the city, if she was taken by force, she would have screamed and those around her would have heard her and known that she was taken by force. But if she is in the field, even if she screams, no one will hear her to identify that she was taken by force, so we give her the benefit of the doubt that she screamed, but that no one heard her, that she was taken against her will, and she is not killed. Deuteronomy 22:23.
If a man rapes a virgin, he has to pay her father damages, he must marry the girl and cannot send her away all of her days. Deuteronomy 22:28. This verse is actually used to explain a whole different concept. Shabbos 88a: At the time that G-d offered the Jews the torah, He held over their head a mountain, to coerce them to accept the torah [which they finally did in the time of Queen Esther]. The question arises as to why G-d forced the Jews to accept the Torah, and this verse is used to explain, that since G-d forced the Jews into a relationship with Him, no matter how poorly the Jews act towards G-d, He can never divorce them and send them away from Him.
We learn that those of the nation of Ammon and Moab are never permitted to marry a Jew because they refused to give water and bread to the Jews as they wandered in the desert, and because they sent Bilam to curse the Jews, which G-d turned into a blessing because G-d loves His nation. Don’t even ask how they are doing. On Shavuoth, we read the book of Ruth. Ruth is a Moabite princess, and she marries a Jew, Machlon, the son of Naomi. How is it possible that a Moabite woman can marry a Jew, if it explicitly states that a Moabite can never marry in. The answer is found in Kesuvos 7a and Yevamos 77b, that only a male Moabite is not permitted to enter into the nation of Israel, a woman may, because it is in the purview of man to provide strangers with food and determine war. The women were not included in these decisions and actions. Deuteronomy 23:4. It was one king in the chain of Moab who changed the destiny of Moab and Judaism, King Eglon. When the Judge Ehud came to kill him, Ehud told Eglon, who was obese, that he had a word of G-d to tell him. Eglon stood to hear the word of G-d, and in this merit, his descendant Ruth married into Judaism and from her is destined to come the Messiah.
Just a few examples, how each verse in the Torah is packed with wisdom buried in it, that a lifetime of studying continues to uncover. So infinitely deep. Deceptively easy to read.
As the beginning of a new Jewish year approaches may we reinvigorate our commitment to learning and hasten the redemption speedily in our time.
Good Shabbos.
-Suri