Ki TavoDevarim (deuteronomy)

Conquering the Land
Moses continued, “As you have been taught, when you enter the land that GOD, your God, is giving you as an inheritance, you must take possession of it by conquering it from its present inhabitants and then divide it among your tribes and settle in it.

As you have also been taught, once you enter the land, every landowner among you must bring the first fruits of the seven species previously mentioned as distinguishing the Land of Israel to the Temple (or, until the Temple is built, to the Tabernacle – and so in all further references to the Temple) as an offering. This obligation will not take effect, however, until you conquer the land completely from its previous inhabitants, divide it among your tribes, and settle in it. Every year, when your produce begins to ripen, out of all the various first fruits of the earth that you harvest from your land that GOD, your God, is giving you, you must take one specimen from each of these seven species, designate it verbally as the first fruit, and tie a marker around it so you will be able to recognize it later. When they ripen, you must place these fruits in a basket and, taking it with you, go to the place to which GOD, your God, will choose to attach His Name, i.e., the Temple.

Once you enter the precincts of the Temple mount, place the basket on your shoulder and enter the Courtyard of the Temple. You must then approach one of the priests who will be in office in those days and say to him, ‘I am not ungrateful to God. I declare today’ – since you may only perform this ceremony once a year – ‘to GOD, your God, that I have come to the land that GOD swore to our forefathers to give us.’ Having said this, take the basket off your shoulder and hold it by its edge.

The priest must then place his hands under the basket, supporting it from underneath while you hold on to its edge. The priest will thus take the basket from the sole support of your hands, and move it, together with you, in the four lateral directions and then up and down, before the Altar of GOD, your God. The priest must then remove his hands from under the basket, leaving you to hold it by yourself.

Recounting God’s Kindnesses
You must then raise your voice as you recount God’s kindnesses, contrasting our previous periods of settlement, which proved precarious, with our present, secure settlement in our land. Specifically, you must pronounce the following declaration before GOD, your God: ‘An Aramean sought to be the destroyer of my forefather,’ referring to how Jacob, after living for 20 years in Aram, had to flee from Laban, who intended to kill him and his whole family but was prevented by God from doing so. Still referring to Jacob, continue: ‘He went down to Egypt and sojourned there with his family, which was then only a small number of people, and he became a great, mighty, and populous nation there.

Yet, although we lived in their land for 210 years, the Egyptians treated us cruelly, afflicted us, and imposed hard labor upon us.

So we cried out to GOD, God of our fathers, and GOD heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression.

And GOD took us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, with a great manifestation of His presence, and with signs and marvels,

and He brought us to this place’ – referring to the Temple to which you have now come in order to show your appreciation to God for having given it to us – ‘and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and date- and fig-honey.’

Addressing God directly, continue: ‘Now, behold, in recognition of Your kindness in giving us this land, I have brought the first of the fruit of the soil that You, GOD, have given me.’ After you finish reciting this declaration, you must move the basket in the four lateral directions and then up and down before GOD, your God – this time by yourself – and then prostrate yourself before GOD, your God. You must then give the fruits to the priest, and they will be his to eat. A heavenly voice will then announce: ‘In reward for having brought your first fruits today, you will merit to bring first fruits from your next year’s successful crop!’

The obligation to recite this declaration applies only when you bring your first fruits to the Temple between Shavu’ot and Sukot, for since that is the harvest season, you will then be rejoicing over all the good that GOD, your God, has granted you and your household. If, however, you bring your first fruits later, you should simply move the basket as prescribed and give it to the priest without reciting the declaration. The obligation to bring first fruits applies equally to you; to the Levite, should he plant the relevant crops in his designated cities; and to the convert who is among you, but a convert – no matter when he brings his first fruits – does not recite the declaration, since he is not a descendant of Jacob.

Fulfilling the Duty to Give Agricultural Gifts
As you have been taught, you must take two types of tithes from your produce every year. By the time you have finished taking all the tithes of your produce that had grown in the third year of the seven-year cycle culminating in the sabbatical year – this third year being the year in which you are required to give the first tithe as usual, but in place of the second tithe you must give the tithe for the poor – it will be the middle of the fourth year. For many types of fruit ripen (and are therefore harvested) only in the first half of the calendar year following the year that they bud in. Thus, only by Nisan of the fourth year will you have been able to give all of the third year’s first tithe to the Levite and all of the third year’s tithe for the poor to the convert, the orphan, and the widow, taking care to give each one enough so that they can eat to satiation in your cities.

God has therefore fixed the day before Passover of the fourth year as the deadline for fulfilling your obligations vis-à-vis the tithes of produce of the third year. If you neglected to fulfill your obligations vis-à-vis the tithes of the first and second years, as described above, this same deadline will apply for fulfilling these obligations, as well. After completing all these obligations by that date, you must then, on the seventh day of Passover, declare before GOD, your God: ‘I have removed from my house the second tithe and the fourth-year fruit, both of which are considered holy because they must be eaten in the holy Temple city; and I have also given the first tithe to the Levite, the first fruits and the terumah to the priest, and the tithe for the poor to the convert, the orphan, and the widow, in accordance with all Your commandments that You commanded me regarding the precise order in which to give the gifts due from my produce: first the first fruits, then terumah, then the first tithe, and finally the second tithe (or tithe for the poor, depending on the year). I have not transgressed any of Your commandments, either by substituting one species of fruit for the gift due from another species or by substituting the produce of one year for the gift due from the produce of another year. Furthermore, I have not forgotten to thank You for granting me the opportunity to tithe my produce.

I did not consume any of the second tithe while in my grief, i.e., on the day one of my close relatives died, for this is forbidden. Nor did I consume any of it while I or the tithed produce was ritually defiled; neither did I use any of it to make a coffin or shrouds for the dead, for this, too, is forbidden. I have obeyed GOD, my God, by bringing it to the Temple city; I have acted in accordance with all that You commanded me regarding rejoicing myself and gladdening others.

Being that we have exceeded the requirements of the law, please bless us, too, beyond the limitations of nature, as You promised You would. Even if we are guilty of any misdeeds on account of which we have forfeited Your blessings, may the merit of the gifts we have given the poor compensate for them, so that You look down favorably upon us from Your holy dwelling, heaven, and bless Your people Israel and the land that You have given to us as You swore to our forefathers – a land flowing with milk and date- and fig-honey.’ The same rules and procedures for tithing the produce of the first three years of each sabbatical-year cycle apply to tithing the produce of the second three years of each cycle.

The Ever-New Covenant
As you have been taught, whenever you are studying the Torah or performing God’s commandments, you should feel as if God is forging His relationship with you anew every day. With regard to the commandment to bring your first fruits to the Temple, however, even though you will only fulfill this commandment once a year, you should relate to this commandment every day of your life with the enthusiasm intrinsic to a new experience, as if this very day, GOD, your God, is commanding you to fulfill these rules and ordinances regarding your first fruits. In return, God promises you that you will be privileged to safeguard these rules and ordinances – by constantly studying the Torah’s instructions regarding how to perform them – and perform them with all your heart and with all your soul.

Similarly, you should live every day of your life as if today – i.e., that very day – you have singled out GOD from all other, false deities to be your God, meaning that you have committed yourselves to walk in His ways; to safeguard His rules, commandments, and ordinances by studying how to perform them; and to obey Him.

If you behave in this manner, GOD will reciprocally behave toward you each day as if He has set you apart today – i.e., that very day – from all other nations to be His treasured people, just as He spoke concerning you; to have you safeguard all His commandments by studying how to perform them;

Reaffirming the Covenant
Moses, together with the elders of Israel, commanded the people, saying, “You must unceasingly safeguard all the commandments that I am commanding you this day by assiduously studying how to properly perform them.

On the same day that you cross the Jordan River in order to enter the land that GOD, your God, is giving you, you must, at your first encampment, set up for yourself a pile of 12 boulders, which you must take from the bed of the Jordan River. You must later plaster them with lime and

write upon them all the words of this Torah, as will be described presently. All this is an essential part of your crossing into the land to possess it, and is required in order for you to enter the land that GOD, your God, is giving you – a land flowing with milk and date- and fig-honey – as GOD, God of your forefathers, has spoken to you.

Finally, after you have crossed the Jordan River, you must, on that same day, proceed directly to Shechem, between Mount Gerizim and Mount Eival, taking these 12 boulders with you, and perform the ceremony of blessings and curses that will be described presently. After that, you must set up these boulders, regarding which I command you this day, on Mount Eival, as an altar. You must then plaster them with lime.

You will thus build there an altar to GOD, your God; this altar will be constructed out of these boulders. You must not wield any iron tool upon them to cut them to size; rather,

you must build the altar of GOD, your God, out of whole boulders. You must then offer up ascent-offerings on it to GOD, your God.

After this, you must slaughter animals as peace-offerings, and you must eat your portions of these peace-offerings there. In this manner you must rejoice before GOD, your God.

Translating the Torah
But before you sacrifice on this ad hoc altar, you must first write upon the plastered boulders all the words of this Torah, translated very clearly into the world’s 70 archetypal languages. After this, still on the same day, you must scrape the plaster off the altar, dismantle it, and return – bringing the 12 boulders with you – to your initial encampment, and erect a memorial there out of these boulders.”

After describing this ceremony, Moses and the Levitic priests spoke to all Israel, saying, “Pay special attention and listen, people of Israel! See how important it is to God that you be impressed with the eternal vitality of your covenant with Him! Every day, you must live as if this day – i.e., that very day – you have become a people covenantally bound to GOD, your God.

You must therefore obey GOD, your God, and fulfill His commandments and His rules concerning which I command you today.”

The Ceremony at Shechem
Moses commanded the people on that day, saying,

The following tribes will stand on Mount Eival so the priests and Levites can turn and face them for the purpose of pronouncing the curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.

Once everyone is in position, the priests and Levites will speak up, saying the following pronouncements to every individual of Israel – even though they will only be facing half the people at a time – in a loud voice. They will first couch each pronouncement as a blessing, facing Mount Gerizim, and then as a curse, facing Mount Eival. These pronouncements chiefly concern behavior that can go undetected and therefore uncorrected.

First, facing Mount Gerizim, they will say, ‘Blessed be the man who does not make any sculpted or molten image, which is an abomination to God – being the handiwork of a craftsman – and does not set it up in secret!’ All the people will respond, saying, ‘Amen!’ Then, facing Mount Eival, the priests and Levites will say, ‘Cursed be the man who makes any sculpted or molten image, which is an abomination to GOD – being the handiwork of a craftsman – and sets it up in secret!’ All the people will respond, saying, ‘Amen!’

Again facing Mount Gerizim, the priests and Levites will say, ‘Blessed be he who does not disrespect his father and mother!’ All the people will respond, saying, ‘Amen!’ Again facing Mount Eival, the priests and Levites will say, ‘Cursed be he who disrespects his father and mother!’ All the people will say, ‘Amen!’

Again facing Mount Gerizim, the priests and Levites will say, ‘Blessed be he who does not push back his neighbor’s landmark!’ All the people will respond, saying, ‘Amen!’ Again facing Mount Eival, the priests and Levites will say, ‘Cursed be he who pushes back his neighbor’s landmark!’ All the people will say, ‘Amen!’

Deception
Again facing Mount Gerizim, the priests and Levites will say, ‘Blessed be he who does not, figuratively speaking, misguide a “blind person” on the way – i.e., who does not give detrimental advice to someone who is uninformed regarding a particular matter!’ All the people will respond, saying, ‘Amen!’ Again facing Mount Eival, the priests and Levites will say, ‘Cursed be he who figuratively misguides a “blind person” on the way!’ All the people will say, ‘Amen!’

Oppression
Again facing Mount Gerizim, the priests and Levites will say, ‘Blessed be he who does not pervert the judgment of the convert, the orphan, or the widow!’ All the people will respond, saying, ‘Amen!’ Again facing Mount Eival, the priests and Levites will say, ‘Cursed be he who perverts the judgment of the convert, the orphan, or the widow!’ All the people will say, ‘Amen!’

Bestiality
Again facing Mount Gerizim, the priests and Levites will say, ‘Blessed be he who does not engage in carnal relations with any animal!’ All the people will respond, saying, ‘Amen!’ Again facing Mount Eival, the priests and Levites will say, ‘Cursed be he who engages in carnal relations with any animal!’ All the people will say, ‘Amen!’

Again facing Mount Gerizim, the priests and Levites will say, ‘Blessed be he who does not fornicate with his sister, whether she be the daughter of his father or of his mother!’ All the people will respond, saying, ‘Amen!’ Again facing Mount Eival, the priests and Levites will say, ‘Cursed be he who fornicates with his sister, whether she be the daughter of his father or of his mother!’ All the people will say, ‘Amen!’

Again facing Mount Gerizim, the priests and Levites will say, ‘Blessed be he who does not fornicate with his mother-in-law!’ All the people will respond, saying, ‘Amen!’ Again facing Mount Eival, the priests and Levites will say, ‘Cursed be he who fornicates with his mother-in-law!’ All the people will say, ‘Amen!’

Again facing Mount Gerizim, the priests and Levites will say, ‘Blessed be he who does not “strike his fellow” in secret, by engaging in injurious gossip against him!’ All the people will respond, saying, ‘Amen!’ Again facing Mount Eival, the priests and Levites will say, ‘Cursed be he who “strikes his fellow” in secret!’ All the people will say, ‘Amen!’

Bribery
Again facing Mount Gerizim, the priests and Levites will say, ‘Blessed be he who, when officiating as a judge, does not take a bribe to put an innocent person to death!’ All the people will respond, saying, ‘Amen!’ Again facing Mount Eival, the priests and Levites will say, ‘Cursed be he who takes a bribe to put an innocent person to death!’ All the people will say, ‘Amen!’

The priests and Levites will then utter a general blessing and curse that apply to the entire legal corpus of the Torah: Facing Mount Gerizim for the final time, they will say, ‘Blessed be he who upholds all the words of this Torah by fulfilling them!’ All the people will respond, saying, ‘Amen!’ Facing Mount Eival for the final time, the priests and Levites will say, ‘Cursed be he who does not uphold all the words of this Torah by fulfilling them!’ All the people will say, ‘Amen!’ This will conclude the ceremony.

Moses’ Blessings
You will not have to pursue prosperity; rather, all the following blessings will pursue you and overtake you if you obey GOD, your God:

You will be blessed both in the city and in the field.

Blessed will be your children, the fruit of your womb; your crops, the fruit of your soil; your animals, the fruit of your livestock: the offspring of your cattle and the choice of your flocks.

Just as you are blessed when you enter the world, being free of sin, so will you be similarly blessed when you depart the world.

GOD will command the blessing of success to accompany you in your granaries and in all your endeavors. He will bless you in the land that GOD, your God, is giving you.

GOD will establish you as His holy people, as He swore to you, if you safeguard the commandments of GOD, your God, by studying how to perform them properly, and walk in His ways.

Then all the peoples of the earth will see that the Name of GOD is associated only with you, as His chosen people, and they will fear you.

GOD will make you superior to them with regard to children, the fruit of your womb; with regard to your cattle, the fruit of your livestock; and with regard to your produce, the fruit of your soil, on the land that GOD swore to your forefathers to give you.

GOD will open up His good treasury – heaven – for you, in order to provide your land with its rain in its right time and thereby bless everything you do. You will be so wealthy that you will lend to many nations, but you will not need to borrow.

GOD will place you at the head of the world, as leaders, and not at the tail, as subordinates; and you will be only at the top in all senses, and not at the bottom, if you obey the commandments of GOD, your God, regarding which I am commanding you today to safeguard them by studying how to perform them, and to perform them.

You must veer neither right nor left from all of the matters about which I am commanding you today, by following other peoples’ deities and worshiping them.

You will be cursed both in the city and in the field.

Cursed will be your food basket and your kneading bowl.

Cursed will be your children, the fruit of your womb; your crops, the fruit of your soil; as well as the offspring of your cattle and the choice of your flocks.

You will be cursed when you enter your home and you will be cursed when you leave it.

Speaking again of God in the third person, Moses continued: “GOD will infect you with a disease that will spread like an epidemic and that will persist until it has eradicated you from the land that you are entering in order to possess.

GOD will turn the rain of your land into a cause of dust and mud: not being sufficient to grow any crops, as just stated, it will also not be sufficient to weigh down the soil, so the wind will blow the damp dust onto the vegetation, encrusting the leaves so they cannot breathe, thus killing the plants. The rain will rain down upon you from the sky in this detrimental manner until you are destroyed for lack of food.

War
GOD will cause you to be beaten by your enemy: you will attack them from one direction, but they will overcome you and terrify you so much that you will flee from them, dispersing in seven directions. You, as an example of what can happen to a nation, will become a source of terror for all the kingdoms on earth.

Your corpse will be food for all the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth, and no one will frighten them away from eating your corpse.

Infirmities
GOD will strike you with the horrible boils of Egypt, which are wet outside and dry inside; with hemorrhoids; with oozing boils; and with dry boils, from all of which you will be unable to be healed.

GOD will strike you with insanity, blindness, and bewilderment.

Failure
You will grope at midday as the blind man gropes in the dark, and you will be unsuccessful in your undertakings. You will be nothing but constantly contested in whatever you do and robbed, and there will be no one who will rescue you.

Frustration
You will betroth a woman, but another man will fornicate with her. You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not redeem its fourth-year fruits, the first that may be eaten.

Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat from it. Your donkey will be robbed from you right in front of you, and it will not return to you. Your flock will be given over to your enemies, and there will be no one who will rescue it for you.

Your sons and daughters will be given over to another people as your own eyes see it happen; you will long for them all day long, but be powerless to do anything about it.

A people unknown to you will consume the fruit of your soil and the results of all your toil. You will be nothing but constantly contested in whatever you do, and crushed.

You will go insane from the vision that you will behold before your eyes.

GOD will strike you on the knees and on the legs with a terrible skin eruption, from which you will be unable to be healed; it will eventually cover your entire body, from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.

You will become an object of astonishment, an archetype of extraordinary misfortune, and a topic of discussion among all the peoples to whose lands GOD will lead you.

You will take out a great deal of seed to sow in the field, yet you will gather in little produce, for the locusts will finish it off.

You will plant vineyards and work them, but you will neither drink their wine nor gather their grapes, for the worms will devour them.

You will bear sons and daughters, but they will not remain yours, for they will go into captivity.

The locust will denude all your trees of their fruit and all your fields of the fruit of your soil.

He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be at the head, while you will be at the tail.

These curses will serve as a sign and a marvel for you and your descendants forever.

Since you did not serve GOD, your God, with joy and with heartfelt gladness when you had an abundance of everything –

Defeat
you will instead serve your enemies, whom GOD will send against you, when you are in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and lacking everything. Your enemy will place an iron yoke upon your neck, working you until he has destroyed you.

GOD will bring upon you a nation from afar, from the end of the earth, who will conquer you unexpectedly, successfully, and quickly, the way the griffon vulture swoops down upon its prey. It will be a nation whose language you will not understand,

a brazen nation who neither respects the elderly nor shows favor to the young.

They will devour your animals, the fruit of your livestock, and your produce, the fruit of your soil, until they destroy you through starvation. They will be a nation who will not leave you any grain, wine, oil, the offspring of your cattle, or the choice of your flocks, until they annihilate you through starvation.

They will besiege you in all your cities, until your high and fortified walls in which you trust are overcome throughout all your land. They will besiege you in all your cities of the land that GOD, your God, has given you.

Cannibalism
You will eat your children, the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom GOD, your God, gave you, on account of the siege and the oppression of famine to which your enemies will subject you.

The most tender and delicate man among you, who would ordinarily be revolted even by the thought of eating human flesh, will be so famished that he will relish the taste of the flesh of his own children, and will therefore begrudge his own brother, the wife of his embrace, and the rest of his surviving children,

the newborn infants who emerge from between her legs, and her own small children whom she will bear, for out of utter destitution she will eat some of them in secret, hiding them from the others who are left, on account of the siege and the oppression of famine to which your enemies will subject you in your cities.

If you do not safeguard God’s commandments by studying the Torah’s instructions regarding how to fulfill all the words of this Torah, which are written in this scroll, thereby learning how to revere this glorious and awesome Name, i.e., that of GOD, your God,

Plagues
then GOD will intensify the plagues that He will bring upon you and upon your offspring beyond other plagues, afflicting you with worse, terrible, unyielding plagues and evil, unyielding sicknesses.

He will bring back upon you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded when you were in Egypt, and they will cleave to you.

In addition, GOD will bring upon you every disease and plague that is not written in the scroll of this Torah – that is, in this frightening section of curses – in order to destroy you.

Devastation
You will remain few in number instead of being how you once were – as numerous as the stars of the heavens – because you did not obey GOD, your God.

GOD will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will in effect serve other peoples’ deities, which were unknown to you or your forefathers – deities of wood and stone – by paying tribute and poll taxes to pagan priests.

You will find no respite among those nations, nor will your foot find any rest. There, GOD will give you a frightened, trembling heart, dashed hopes, and a depressed soul.

Fear
Your life will hang in suspense before you: you will live in daily fear both for your very life and for your livelihood, for you will be dependent on the availability of food in an unstable market. You will be afraid night and day, and since you will be dependent on bakeries for bread, which will in turn rely on an unreliable economy, you will not believe in the reliability of your own life.

Reassurances
After the people heard Moses’ 98 curses and recalled the 49 curses with which God had threatened them earlier, they became frightened, doubting if they could endure such suffering. Moses therefore summoned all of Israel in order to reassure them of God’s love for them, and said to them, “You have seen before your very eyes all that GOD did in Egypt, to Pharaoh, to all his servants, and to his entire land:

the great trials that you saw with your own eyes and those great signs and marvels. You have indeed appreciated these miracles, and they have taught you to believe in God’s omnipotence and to respect His word.

But this is not enough. You must also learn to appreciate God’s kindnesses. However, until this day, GOD did not give you a heart to know, eyes to see, and ears to hear – that is, with which to appreciate – His great kindnesses, specifically,” (and here Moses continued in God’s name)

“how I led you through the desert for 40 years, during which time your garments did not wear out from being worn on you, nor did your shoes wear out from being worn on your feet.

You neither ate bread nor drank new wine or old wine, but instead ate the miraculous manna and drank water from the miraculous well – all this in order that you would know that I am GOD, your God.”

Continuing in his own name, Moses said, “Furthermore, you came to this place, the territory east of the Jordan River, and King Sichon of Cheshbon and King Og of Bashan came out towards us in battle, but we smote them.

We took their land, and we gave it as an inheritance to the tribes of Reuben and Gad and to half of the tribe of Manasseh.