PARASHA 050 MAIN PAGE
Ki Tavo "when you come" D'varim/Deuteronomy 26:1–29:8
The name of the Parshah, "Ki Tavo," means "when you come," and it is
found in Deuteronomy 26:1. Moses instructs the people of Israel: When
you enter the land that
GOD is giving to you as your eternal heritage, and you settle it and
cultivate it, bring the first-ripened fruits (bikkurim) of your orchard
to the Holy Temple, and declare your gratitude for all that GOD
has done for you.
Our Parshah also includes the laws of the tithes given to the Levites
and to the poor, and detailed instructions on how to proclaim the
blessings and the curses on Mount Gerizim and Mount Eival—as discussed
in the beginning of the Parshah of Re’eh. Moses reminds the people that
they are GOD’S chosen people, and that they, in turn, have chosen GOD.
The latter part of Ki Tavo consists of the Tochachah (“Rebuke”). After
listing the blessings with which GOD will reward the people when they
follow the laws of the Torah, Moses gives a long, harsh account of the
bad things—illness, famine, poverty and exile—that shall befall them if
they abandon GOD’S commandments. Moses concludes by telling the people
that only today, forty years after their birth as a people, have they
attained “a heart to know, eyes to see and ears to hear.”
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