Ki Tavo – How To Be A Light Unto the Nations Everyday Of Your Life
Dvar Torah by Rabbi David Baum, Congregation Shaarei Kodesh, August 28, 2010
There are many famous chain emails that we send as Jews, and one that I have often read is the list of Jewish Nobel Prize candidates. In fact, Jewish Nobel Prize winners account for 22% of all winners, and Jews represent 36% of all U.S. recipients. Keep in mind that Jews make up only .25% of the world population and 1 – 2% of the U.S. population. We are quite proud of these people that have made a difference in the world and changed humanity for the better. They have given our world many blessings.
But rarely do I receive the other types of emails. The emails of Jews who have done bad things and have left the world worse off than when they came into it. I am sure that you can name a few of these people who have made our lives more difficult especially in the last couple of years.
Our actions have the potential to bring both blessings and curses to our world and to our reputation as Jews, but something we often do not think about is how we affect God through our actions.
Our parashah, Ki Tavo, deals with the reality of living amongst others. Bnai Israel is about to enter a new land where they will not be alone. Their actions had a great impact in the wilderness, but amongst non-Jews, they will have an even greater impact. And so our Torah gives us a list of blessings and curses. The Torah states the great blessings that we will receive if we follow God’s commandments. Deuteronomy 28 states:
“Now if you obey the Lord your God, to observe faithfully all His commandments which I enjoin upon you this day, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. All these blessings shall come upon you and take effect, if you will but heed the word of the Lord your God.”
The Torah goes on to proudly list all the blessings that we will get, and the Torah ends with the connection that others will make between us and God.
9The Lord will establish you as His holy people, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. 10And all the peoples of the earth shall see that the Lord‘s name is proclaimed over you, and they shall stand in fear of you.
When we do a great thing that is praiseworthy, that makes us look good, we also sanctify God, a Kiddush Hashem. Kiddush Hashem is a term that we use for a Jew who give his or her life up for being a Jew, but the essence of this word is the sanctification of God through positive action which brings honor to God’s name.
But there is another side.
The parashah goes on to list a torrent of curses that are so extreme that Jewish law states that the Torah reader must read these lines in a hushed voice. They are hard words to hear out loud.
There is a term for this that our Rabbis developed called Chillul Hashem, a desecration of God’s name. This term comes from the words in Leviticus 22:32
לב וְלֹא תְחַלְּלוּ, אֶת-שֵׁם קָדְשִׁי, וְנִקְדַּשְׁתִּי, בְּתוֹךְ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל: אֲנִי יי, מְקַדִּשְׁכֶם.
32You shall not profane My holy name, that I may be sanctified in the midst of the Israelite people—I the Lord who sanctify you,
The Tosefta, a Rabbinic work that dates around the time of the Mishnah, defines this term: “Robbery from a non-Jew is more serious than robbery from a Jew because of the desecration of God’s Name (Hillul Hashem).” (Tosefta Bava Kamma 10:15)
The Talmud gives another example of Hillul Hashem when a shopkeeper who gives a lot of credit out to his customers and then collects it all at once. (Kiddushin 40a).
Dr. Meir Tamiri, a seminal figure in Jewish business ethics, writes that Economic misbehavior is one of the most common examples of Hillul Hashem. Spread by modern means of communication and the mass media to an extent unknown before in human history. Thus the desecratory effect of such immoral actions is multiplied. Jews involved in fraudulent bankruptcy, white collar crime, tax evasion, economic exploitation in whatever form, or Social Security fraud automatically contribute to the defamation of His Holy Name.
This was written in his book, Al Chet: Sins of the Marketplace, published in 1962 (if he only knew what would happen in the future).
It is interesting that the overwhelming majority of our confessions on Yom Kippur are in the plural: Al Chet SheCHATANU lefanecha, for the sins that WE have sinned before You…
When we sin in public, not only do we sin before God, but we sin before the entire world, and this has an effect on God.
The parashah began with great blessings, but ended with these awful curses. After we read these curses toward the end of our parashah, it is hard to feel good.
For the last couple of years, when we have heard about one Jewish businessman after another cheating and lying in public, just like after we hear a torrent of curses, it is hard to feel good.
As we reflect back upon the sins we have caused, sometimes we forget about the blessings.
And so our Haftarah reminds us about our special relationship with God.
Our Haftarah, Isaiah 60, is a message of hope and consolation for Israel. It speaks about a future time where zion will be restored and the author uses the imagery of light to show Israel’s success. There is a midrash about a line from our Haftarah, “No longer shall you need the sun For light by day, nor the shining of the moon for radiance (by night); for the Lord shall be your light ever lasting.” The Midrash talked about the idea of God giving light to the rest of the world through the Beit Hamikdash, the Holy Temple in Jerusalem where God dwelled on Earth. The Rabbis talked about the windows of the Beit HaMikdash being different than windows of a regular house because instead of being designed to let light in, the windows of the Holy Temple were designed to let the light out to the rest of the world. This light was akin to the sun on Earth that gave warmth and hope to everyone. One would think that this light was extinguished when the Beit Hamikdash was destroyed, but it wasn’t. After the Temple was destroyed, we brought the holiness of the Temple into our synagogues and our homes, we created a number of “mikdashei me’at,” small temples. The light was never extinguished, rather, it is in all of us.
Dr. Meir Tamari goes on to give the other side of his argument after he talks about those Jews who have sinned. He writes, “Conversely when Jewish-owned corporations and individual businessmen conduct themselves scrupulously and in accordance with God’s Law, they bring honor and sanctification both to the Jewish People and to He Who spoke and the world was.”
How we act in the world, especially in regards to how we conduct ourselves in business in our everyday lives, has tremendous implications for us and for God.
God cares how we look to the rest of the world which is why we must do tesuvah, repentance, for the sins of our fellow Jews. It is up to us to show the light that we have in us to the rest of the world. Each one of you can do this in your personal life.
You can act as a model for your fellow Jew in how you live and act in a world amongst non-Jews. You can light the spark within yourself and spread it to your fellow Jew, and then we must come together as a community to show the rest of the world the beautiful light that we have in us.
Israel is often called an “or lagoyim” “light unto the nations,” but often times people look at this as being too self centered, that we think we are too important. I respectfully disagree. We are an important people, if we do the right things. We are a special people who were chosen to bring God’s light to the world, but it is up to each generation to ensure that we stay special.
