Ki Teitzei contains 74 (!!!) mitzvot, 27 positive and 47 prohibitions (from Torah Tidbits).
Some of these mitzvot are easy to understand using our modern day sensibilities; others are more difficult to comprehend. As the tribes are about to enter The Land promised to them there is so much to remember, so many rules to understand. This is a post about learning the rules of the game. If we give up before we learn the rules, we will miss out on the game.
This is a edited reprint of a piece a wrote a few years ago. I was very grateful to my friend, EC, for reading it at the morning minyan.
Friends, may we hear better news soon and may all of learn the rules of the game.
Shabbat Shalom,
Leann
Play!
There are so many rules in this game!
If we could just order them,
maybe
just maybe
we could organize them
like a deck of cards.
One by one, we‘d take all those teachings
in our hands;
stack them,
Shuffle and shuffle again.
All those hearts and clubs,
spades and diamonds.
The deck feels so good in our hands,
but we keep forgetting how to play the game!
If we could just remember we’d do better.
We’d lay our cards on the table
and understand which are the low cards
and which are the high?
Which to hold close to our chests
and which to discard?
We’d wonder about the rules. Who wins and who loses?
Fear not, fellow players,
do not despair.
Your game may not be perfect yet,
you may be still a mere novice,
but there is still time to learn the rules.
So pick up that deck!
Reshuffle it, fresh and crisp.
Sit up,
deal out those cards and play the game!
Remember, it is you who holds the cards,
Right between your fingers.
The whole deck.
The high cards, low cards
and all those cards in between.
It’s never too late to play.
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