Study Desk

Therefore you are to listen to what Adonai your God says and obey his mitzvot and laws, which I am giving you today."

"‘A curse on anyone who dishonors his father or mother.' All the people are to say, ‘Amen!'

"‘A curse on anyone who moves his neighbor's boundary marker.' All the people are to say, ‘Amen!'

"‘A curse on anyone who causes a blind person to lose his way on the road.' All the people are to say, ‘Amen!'

"‘A curse on anyone who has sexual relations with his father's wife, because he has violated his father's rights.' All the people are to say, ‘Amen!'

"‘A curse on anyone who has sexual relations with his sister, no matter whether she is the daughter of his father or of his mother.' All the people are to say, ‘Amen!'

"‘A curse on anyone who has sexual relations with his mother-in-law.' All the people are to say, ‘Amen!'

"If you listen closely to what Adonai your God says, observing and obeying all his mitzvot which I am giving you today, Adonai your God will raise you high above all the nations on earth;

" Adonai will establish you as a people separated out for himself, as he has sworn to you — if you will observe the mitzvot of Adonai your God and follow his ways.

Then all the peoples on earth will see that Adonai 's name, his presence, is with you; so that they will be afraid of you.

Adonai will open for you his good treasure, the sky, to give your land its rain at the right seasons and to bless everything you undertake. You will lend to many nations and not borrow;

"But if you refuse to pay attention to what Adonai your God says, and do not observe and obey all his mitzvot and regulations which I am giving you today, then all the following curses will be yours in abundance:

"All these curses will come on you, pursuing you and overtaking you until you are destroyed, because you didn't pay attention to what Adonai your God said, observing his mitzvot and regulations that he gave you.

Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will be without pity for his brother, his beloved wife or his surviving children,

to the degree that he will refuse to share with any of them the flesh of his children whom he is eating; because if he did, he would have nothing left for himself — in the severity of the siege and distress your enemies are inflicting on you in all your towns.

(vii) Then Moshe summoned all Isra'el and said to them, "You saw everything Adonai did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his servants and to all his land;

Therefore, observe the words of this covenant and obey them; so that you can make everything you do prosper. Haftarah Ki Tavo: Yesha‘yahu (Isaiah) 60:1–22 B'rit Hadashah suggested readings for Parashah Ki Tavo: Mattityahu (Matthew) 13:1–23; Luke 21:1–4; Acts 28:17–31; Romans 11:1–15 [In regular years read with Parashah 52, in leap years read separately] "Today you are standing, all of you, before Adonai your God — your heads, your tribes, your leaders and your officers — all the men of Isra'el, along with your little ones, your wives and your foreigners here with you in your camp, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water. The purpose is that you should enter into the covenant of Adonai your God and into his oath which Adonai your God is making with you today, (LY: ii) so that he can establish you today for himself as a people, and so that for you he will be God — as he said to you and as he swore to your ancestors, to Avraham, Yitz'chak and Ya‘akov. "But I am not making this covenant and this oath only with you. Rather, I am making it both with him who is standing here with us today before Adonai our God and also with him who is not here with us today. (LY: iii) For you know how we lived in the land of Egypt and how we came directly through the nations you passed through; and you saw their detestable things and their idols of wood, stone, silver and gold that they had with them. So let there not be among you a man, woman, family or tribe whose heart turns away today from Adonai our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Let there not be among you a root bearing such bitter poison and wormwood. If there is such a person, when he hears the words of this curse, he will bless himself secretly, saying to himself, ‘I will be all right, even though I will stubbornly keep doing whatever I feel like doing; so that I, although "dry," [sinful,] will be added to the "watered" [righteous].' But Adonai will not forgive him. Rather, the anger and jealousy of Adonai will blaze up against that person. Every curse written in this book will be upon him. Adonai will blot out his name from under heaven. Adonai will single him out from all the tribes of Isra'el to experience what is bad in all the curses of the covenant written in this book of the Torah. "When the next generation, your children who will grow up after you, and the foreigner who arrives from a distant land, see the plagues of that land and the diseases with which Adonai has made it sick, and that the whole land has become burning sulfur and salt, that it isn't being sown or bearing crops or even producing grass — like the overthrow of S'dom, ‘Amora, Admah and Tzvoyim, which Adonai overthrew in his furious anger — then all the nations will ask, ‘Why did Adonai do this to this land? What is the meaning of such frenzied, furious anger?' People will answer, ‘It's because they abandoned the covenant of Adonai , the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went and served other gods, prostrating themselves before them, gods they had not known and which he had not assigned them. For this reason, the anger of Adonai blazed up against this land and brought upon it every curse written in this book; and Adonai , in anger, fury and incensed with indignation, uprooted them from their land and threw them out into another land — as it is today.' "Things which are hidden belong to Adonai our God. But the things that have been revealed belong to us and our children forever, so that we can observe all the words of this Torah.

The purpose is that you should enter into the covenant of Adonai your God and into his oath which Adonai your God is making with you today,

But Adonai will not forgive him. Rather, the anger and jealousy of Adonai will blaze up against that person. Every curse written in this book will be upon him. Adonai will blot out his name from under heaven.

and that the whole land has become burning sulfur and salt, that it isn't being sown or bearing crops or even producing grass — like the overthrow of S'dom, ‘Amora, Admah and Tzvoyim, which Adonai overthrew in his furious anger —