Ki Tavo

When Israel is settled in the land, the farmer takes the first of all its fruit in a basket to the place the LORD chooses and declares before the altar the whole story in miniature: "My father was a wandering Aramean; he went down to Egypt few in number... and the Egyptians dealt harshly with us... and we cried to the LORD, the God of our fathers... and He brought us out with a strong hand... and He brought us to this place, and gave us this land flowing with milk and honey. And now, behold, I have brought the first of the fruit of the ground that You, O LORD, have given me." The third-year tithe has its own declaration — given to the Levite, stranger, orphan, and widow, nothing withheld or misused. This day seals a mutual affirmation: you have declared the LORD to be your God; the LORD has declared you His treasured people.

On the day the Jordan is crossed, great stones are set up on Mount Ebal, plastered, and inscribed with all the words of this Torah, beside an altar of unhewn stones. Six tribes stand on Gerizim for the blessing and six on Ebal for the curse, and the Levites call out twelve curses — on secret idolatry, dishonored parents, moved boundaries, the misled blind, perverted justice for the vulnerable, hidden violence — with all the people answering "Amen."

The blessings for obedience follow: blessed in city and field, in the fruit of womb and ground and beast, in basket and kneading bowl, coming in and going out; enemies fleeing seven ways; "the LORD will make you the head and not the tail." Then the long tochachah, the curses, in terrible detail — sickness and drought, defeat and plunder, madness and helplessness, the sky bronze and the earth iron, siege and its horrors, and scattering among all peoples, "and among those nations you shall find no rest... in the morning you shall say, 'Would it were evening!'" — ending with a return to Egypt in ships. The portion closes quietly: Moses summons all Israel and recalls the forty years — clothes that did not wear out, bread and wine forgone, Sihon and Og defeated — "yet the LORD has not given you a heart to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, until this day. Therefore keep the words of this covenant and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do."