Parshat Ki Teitzei: August 21, 2021 – 13 Elul 5781

Shabbat Shalom!

Erev Shabbat

Friday, August 20
Candle lighting: 7:29 pm

Parshat Ki Teitzei

  • Stone Chumash p. 1046
  • 110 Psukim
  • Haftorah: Isaiah Ch.54 – “Roni Akara” Stone  Chumash pg.1201

Important Shabbat Times

  • Candle lighting: 7:29 pm
  • Vasikin (Sunrise): 6:27:15 am
  • Latest Shma: 9:46 am
  • Earliest Mincha: 1:40 pm
  • Pirkei Avot: Chapters 1 & 2
  • Havdalah: 8:26 pm
  • Zoom Havdalah: 8:40 pm

Parshat Ki Teitzei

contains more mitzvot than any other parsha in the Torah, weighing in at a grand total of 74 (out of 613) mitzvot. (Parshat Mishpatim comes in second, with 54 mitzvot). To enumerate all of them would be beyond the scope of a summary, so we will concentrate on a few of the more famous ones.

Ki Teitzei describes the following laws:

  • Do not take the chicks or eggs in the presence of the mother bird;
  • Lost items must be returned to the original owners;
  • Burial must be performed as quickly as possible;
  • It is prohibited to extradite a slave to his original owner outside the Land of  Israel;
  • It is prohibited to charge interest on a loan;
  • The laws of divorce;
  • The laws of the “honeymoon” year;
  • Do not punish the sons for the sins of the fathers;
  • Show favoritism toward widows and orphans, but also do not judge them at court any differently than anybody else;
  • The laws of levirate marriage;
  • Never forget the actions of Amalek.

This week, we read the fifth in the series of haftarot of consolation taken from the book of Isaiah, but we also add the haftorah which we missed two weeks ago, “Aniya Soara.” Zion is personified. She is finally completely consoled and is compared at the time of her redemption to a woman who was unable to conceive a child and now discovers herself pregnant. She is also compared to a woman whose husband had abandoned her, yet when he returns (at the time of redemption), she will forget her former sorrow, as a result of all the new attention showered upon her.

Dinim from the Parsha: The Get

A Jewish divorce may be initiated by either the husband or the wife, but must be written and transferred solely by the husband to the wife, either directly or through his agent. Today, the husband must personally appoint a scribe and witnesses, in the presence of a Rabbinical court (not via telephone or skype), and declare that he wants them to initiate a divorce proceeding and that he does so for his sake, for his wife’s sake, and for the sake of a Jewish divorce (this declaration is referred to as “Lishma”). The get is hand calligraphed by the scribe. He too must declare that he does this lishma.

The get consists of twelve lines, or the numerical value of the word get (interestingly, the letters gimmel and tet never appear together in the entire Tanach!). The get describes the husband’s free will decision to divorce his wife, so that she will be permitted to any man whomsoever she should desire, and no one may ever prevent her from doing so. The divorce is signed by two witnesses in Hebrew, and they too declare that they are signing the divorce lishma. The get is then given into the husband’s hands in the presence of two witnesses. He places the bill of divorce into the hands of his wife, or into the hands of his agent/s. In turn, the agent places the divorce into the wife’s hands in the presence of two witnesses. As soon as it reaches her hands, even if she is miles away, she is divorced from him, from that moment on.