This week's parsha is Parshat Ki Teitze, a Parsha literally about "Going Out."
The parsha includes a wide ranging selection of commandments and scholars look to unravel the common thread -and message.
One powerful message can certainly be found in the obligation known as hashavat aveidah, which happens when a sheep goes out/wanders off. The text reads:
"You shall not see your brother's ox or his sheep go astray [nidahim], and hide yourself from them: you should surely return them (the hebrew has a double language/emphasis -hasheiv t'ashiveim) to your brother. If your brother is not near you and you do not know him, then gather it inside your house, and it should remain with you until your brother asks after it, and you return it to him. So shall you do for his donkey, so shall you do for his garment, and so shall you do for any lost article of your brother that he has lost, and you have found: you may not hide yourself." (Deuteronomy 22:1-3)
This technical and seemingly limited law reflects several important ideas, as understood by Chazal.
First, we're talking about the need to put oneself out. Go out of your physical space and leave your emotional comfort zone. You need to chase after a walking --or more likely, running -- animal, catch it, and store it. You need to do this even if you don't know the owner and, probably right around the time you are sure the owner will never come a'calling, if he or she does, you need to graciously give up the animal. AND YOU KNOW WHAT? According to the Midrash, IF THE SAME ANIMAL runs away again, you need to chase it and return it -again. And again. 4 or 5 times. That is what is expected of you.
In explaining the rationale, the Torah uses a powerful expression: you may not hide yourself. You can't shirk your responsibility. That is the second idea. This phrase anticipates the words which Mordechai will tell Esther HaMalkah in the Purim story: "Al tidami binafsheich lihamaleit bais hamelech" -do not think you can escape your fate, hiding out in the royal palace.
The ending of Mordechai's phrase also whispers to us: "...ki im hachareish tacharishi baeis hazos revach vihatzalah yaamod layehudim mimakom acher viat uveis avich toveidu umi yodeia im laeis kazoos higaat lamalchus" -For if you persist in keeping silent at a time like this, relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another place, while you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows if precisely for such an occasion you were brought to be queen.” It's both a carrot and stick approach. You are special; this may very well be the role you were meant to carry out. But at the same time, God has a Plan B, and so if you don't live up to your obligation, others will be fine, the world will be OK -- but you will have lost out on the/your chance to do good.
There's a third message for us, on both a symbolic and literal level. This neighbor, the one for whom you must inconvenience yourself -who is this neighbor to you? "If your brother is not near you" -that's both a geographical description and a description of your relationship. Your neighbor is either literally, as the verse continues, someone "you do not know" or, perhaps just as common, someone you know but from whom you are estranged. Either way, he is not "close."
But on another level he is close. He is not a neighbor -that was imprecise. He is described as "your brother"; whether you know him or not, whether you have seen him before or not, whether you like him or not. It is a relationship that stretches the outer bounds of family(1), but is demanded by our common Father, Avinu Shebashamayim.
Making this leap brings us to our fourth message: Rabbi Moshe Alsheikh has a fascinating reading of verse 1 and the double language used. We'll repeat the verse. It says:
"You shall not see your brother's ox or his sheep go astray and hide yourself from them: you should surely return them (the hebrew has a double language/emphasis -hasheiv t'ashiveim) to your brother."
In Ha'aretz, Rabbi Benjamin Lau cites the Alsheikh and expounds on this explanation:
"Alsheikh suggests another reading of "hashev teshivam l'ahikha": 'Hashev refers to the initial instance of returning the stray animal; teshivam refers to all subsequent occasions. The first time we return the animal, we do so because the Torah commands it; later on, we return the animal because we want to, because we fervently desire to carry out God's wishes. When we obey this commandment the first time, our hearts are uplifted so that we will obey it again ... The commandment will be so firmly rooted in us and we will be so well versed in it, that we will be unable to look the other way when we see a lost item belonging to our neighbor.'
According to this pedagogical approach, human nature can be changed when we internalize new habits: When we abandon "I" and focus on "you" the first time, for example, we do so because we have been commanded - because the Torah imposes its teachings upon us. A new habit turns what has been imposed on us into something that we freely desire for ourselves. Thus, 'Thou mayest not hide thyself' must be read: 'You will not want to hide yourself, or look the other way.' "
There's a fifth and final thought, found in Or HaChaim. Given that the Jewish people are often compared to sheep, Or HaChaim understands this law metaphorically. If you are lucky enough to be close to God, then sharing that knowledge with others is not only natural, but something God asks you to do: Return them to their sheperd. We're not talking about forced conversions or roving rabbis with sign up sheets -what we are saying is: take responsibility for your broader family. Share your knowledge, hopes and dreams. What I find most beautiful about this law and about these verses is the interplay between man and God. When we teach people about God, part of what we are teaching is how much God asks us to look after each other. All of the explanations above are complementary. Religion at its best needs to make us better, better as people and better TO people.
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End Notes
(1) At the start of this piece, I mentioned that commentators look to find a unified theme for this parsha. According to Rabbi Yitz Etshalom, as quoted on Project Genesis site, that theme is family and so this makes an interesting extension/footnote to that theme. In Rabbi Etzshalom's words:
There is, however, a theme which ties most of the Parashah together and which is a likely candidate to follow the themes of R'eh and Shof'tim.
"A subject which occupies a major part of our Parashah is marriage, divorce and related issues (e.g. adultery, rape, levirate marriage ["Yibbum"] etc.). Although there seem to be some exceptions to this generalization, the Mitzvot in our Parashah are focused around issues of family. We have moved from a definition of the national polity - both in mission and in constitution (R'eh) to the national government (Shof'tim) to the micro-unit upon which the success (or failure) of the national endeavor rests - the family."
(2) This echoes the famous line from high holidays where God as our sheperd counts each Jew
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