Ki Tetze (When You Go Out)

 

Torah Portion: Ki Tetze (When You Go Out) Deut. 21:10-25:19

HafTorah: Isaiah 54:1-10

 

Tonight we begin first looking at the Torah section of Ki Tetze – in English this is “When You Go Out.” I asked you to think about some principles that run through this section of scripture and I want to get to that in a minute. First, I would like to look at Deut. 23:3-5. Here we see that the Torah cautions us against letting an Amonite or a Moabite come into the assembly of the L-rd. The phrase “come into the assembly of the L-rd” could mean conversion. They were inhospitable to you and they hired Ba’alm to curse you. This is a strange pairing of reasons. What connection could there have possibly been. One is not being hospitable while the other is attempted genocide. So what do you think the connection is here?