13 Elul 5776 | 16 September 2016
Parshat Ki Tetze
Rabbi Dr. Erin Leib Smokler
Director of Spiritual Development
Advanced Kollel: Executive Ordination Track
Class of 2018
Parshat Ki Tetze is packed with laws—laws regarding war; laws regarding marriage, inheritance, and children, rebellious and otherwise; laws regarding fair treatment of animals and workers; and so much more. In fact, this Torah portion contains more laws than any other portion, 74 of the 613.
Embedded within the lengthy litany are laws pertaining to lost objects and animals.
(א) לֹֽא־תִרְאֶה֩ אֶת־שׁ֨וֹר אָחִ֜יךָ א֤וֹ אֶת־שֵׂיוֹ֙ נִדָּחִ֔ים וְהִתְעַלַּמְתָּ֖ מֵהֶ֑ם הָשֵׁ֥ב תְּשִׁיבֵ֖ם לְאָחִֽיךָ׃ (ב) וְאִם־לֹ֨א קָר֥וֹב אָחִ֛יךָ אֵלֶ֖יךָ וְלֹ֣א יְדַעְתּ֑וֹ וַאֲסַפְתּוֹ֙ אֶל־תּ֣וֹךְ בֵּיתֶ֔ךָ וְהָיָ֣ה עִמְּךָ֗ עַ֣ד דְּרֹ֤שׁ אָחִ֙יךָ֙ אֹת֔וֹ וַהֲשֵׁבֹת֖וֹ לֽוֹ׃ (ג) וְכֵ֧ן תַּעֲשֶׂ֣ה לַחֲמֹר֗וֹ וְכֵ֣ן תַּעֲשֶׂה֮ לְשִׂמְלָתוֹ֒ וְכֵ֣ן תַּעֲשֶׂ֗ה לְכׇל־אֲבֵדַ֥ת אָחִ֛יךָ אֲשֶׁר־תֹּאבַ֥ד מִמֶּ֖נּוּ וּמְצָאתָ֑הּ לֹ֥א תוּכַ֖ל הִתְעַלֵּֽם׃ {ס} (ד) לֹא־תִרְאֶה֩ אֶת־חֲמ֨וֹר אָחִ֜יךָ א֤וֹ שׁוֹרוֹ֙ נֹפְלִ֣ים בַּדֶּ֔רֶךְ וְהִתְעַלַּמְתָּ֖ מֵהֶ֑ם הָקֵ֥ם תָּקִ֖ים עִמּֽוֹ׃ {ס}
1 If you see your fellow's ox or sheep going astray, do not ignore it; you must take it back to your fellow. 2 If your fellow does not live near you or you do not know who he is, you shall bring it home and it shall remain with you until your fellow claims it; then you shall give it back to him. 3 You shall do the same with his donkey; you shall do the same with his garment; and so too shall you do with anything that your fellow loses and you find: you must not remain indifferent. 4 If you see your fellow’s donkey or ox fallen on the road, do not ignore it; you must help him raise it.
These laws, known as hashavat aveidah, call on us to take responsibility for the possessions of other people. The human instinct is to avoid (להתעלם)—to not see what is before us, to not view other people's stuff as having a claim on us. So three times over the Torah warns against this indifference and prescribes active involvement. Faced with a lost, wandering animal, return it to its rightful owner. "הָשֵׁב תְּשִׁיבֵם לְאָחִיךָ". Confronted by a faltering animal, return it to its feet. "הָקֵם תָּקִים עִמּוֹ". Other people's belongings belong in your consciousness and your sphere of concern.
To the Chasidic ear, though, there is so much more that is adrift and off-kilter in the world, so many more types of lost objects that need finding. Reflecting on our verses, R. Yaacov Yosef of Polnoye (1710-1784) argues that wandering ox and sheep are metaphors for people who have lost their way.
והתעלמת מהם. ותרצה להתעלם מזה כאילו אין לך שייכות לכך. "And you will want to ignore them," he says. You will want to have nothing to do with these lonely, broken, wayward souls. They will make you feel uncomfortable. They will make you feel threatened. But:
השב תשיבם. לא לחינם הראו לך זאת, יש לך שייכות לזה: "השב," תחילה תחזור אתה בתשובה ואחר כך "תשיבם," תוכל להחזירם בתשובה גם הם.
But return them you must. It was not for nothing that they came into your awareness (lit. that they were shown to you). You have a stake in the matter. "Hashev," do you own teshuva (repentance) first for wanting to avoid them. And then "tishivem," return them—in teshuva, back into the circle of your life and your community.
Welcome them. Root them. Give them a sense of belonging once again.
The gifts of this embrace are enormous, the rebbe continues:
וזהו שנאמר הקם תקים עמו, כשהגדול בישראל כולל עצמו ומתאחד עם אנשי דורו אז יכול הוא להקימם כן. (תולדות יעקב יוסף, כי תצא)
The verse (Deut. 22:4) states, "you must help him raise it." But R. Yaacov Yosef reads this to mean, "you shall be raised along with it." When the great ones of Israel, the privileged ones, bind themselves to the rest of the generation, even the lowly ones, then they themselves are elevated. (Toldot Yaacov Yosef, Ki Tetze—English paraphrased and expanded)
The community is only whole when it makes space for the broken. Individuals can only stand proud when they help others stand erect.
R. Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter (1847-1905), the Sefat Emet, adds to this insight:
בפסוק לא תראה כו' והתעלמת כו' השב תשיבם כו' הקם תקים. יש לפרש כשאדם מרגיל עצמו כך שלא יוכל להתעלם מהפסד של חבירו. הן בגשמיות הן בתיקון הנפש. אז בכחו להשיב אליו אבידתו ולהקימו. ומכ"ש באדם עצמו שענין זה נוהג כשא"י לסבול את הפחיתות שבו אז הוא נושע: (שפת אמת, כי תצא תרל"ח)
When a person habituates himself such that he cannot ignore his friend's loss [or his friend who is lost], whether it be a physical or a spiritual loss, then he can truly return to him that which was missing and elevate it. But there is one step more. Such an individual—so skilled at seeing what is lost—then becomes adept at seeing the losses within himself. Then he may truly be redeemed. (Sefat Emet, Ki Tetze 1878—English paraphrased and expanded)
The apex of hashavat aveidah, the cultivated practice of returning that which has gone astray, is when we can see and not ignore and repair that which has come undone within ourselves. "Hashev tishivem," says the verse. Return to yourself.
During this season of teshuva, the charge to return all that has been lost resounds loudly. To all the people who have become "נדחים"—remote or rejected or just unmoored: It is time to come home. We take responsibility for your wanderings and want you back. And to all that is broken, lost, amiss within us: Let us make space to heal, to re-center, to return, and to be found.
