Bat Kol International, Weekly Torah Nuggets
Parashat Ki Tavo | Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8
“And He will set you, in fame and renown and glory, high above all the nations that He has made; and that you will be, as He promised, a holy people (Am Kadosh) to YHWH your God” (Deut. 26:19).
“When you come (ki tavo) into the land…” (26:1).
Here, poised at the Jordan, within sight of the land, Moses’ words (devarim) are at last released from his bound tongue (see Ex 4:10). His final teachings flow in their eloquence, as he focuses on the way God’s treasured people (l’am segulah, 26:18)—those chosen by God (7:6)—should conduct themselves in the land.
A covenant is renewed.
“The LORD will establish you as His holy people (Am Kadosh) if you keep the commandments of the LORD and walk in the ways of the LORD your God” (28:9).
Am Kadosh. These words appear five times in Deuteronomy (7:6, 14:2, 14:21, 26:19, 28:9) and nowhere else in the Tanakh. Am translates as people. Moses addresses the people in familial terms, as a people intimately connected to each other and joined in a reciprocal covenant with God.
Reciprocity is key; God and the Israelite people are bound in a consecrated, sacred relationship, one that is utterly dependent on Israel’s fidelity, for God has chosen Israel from “all the people on earth” (14:2).
Reflection:
1. What does “being holy” mean to you personally?
2. How does being “a holy people” resonate with you in the context of being deeply and meaningfully connected to a faith community?
Elizabeth Young, Australia
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“Since the spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews is thus so great, this sacred synod wants to foster and recommend that mutual understanding and respect which is the fruit, above all, of biblical and theological studies.”
Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions: Nostra Aetate, No. 4