Ki Tavo - Shishi

Greetings and welcome to Shnaim Mikra, the podcast series developed and sponsored by the Orthodox Union, hosted here at OU.org.

In each one of these podcasts, we read, translate, study, analyze, and discuss one of the aliyot of the current week's parasha.

My name is Yitzhak Et Shalom, and it's my delight to be studying Parashat Ki Tavo with you this week, as an exception to the aforementioned.

We have a particular pedagogic style in these podcasts, and we have an extremely long aliyah, and one that is more or less monothematic.

Instead of reading through the entire aliyah, we'll sketch an overview and talk about the general theme.

Such is the case with this podcast alone among all seven of Parshat Ki Tavo, and that is the sixth aliyah.

And the sixth aliyah is mentioned in the previous podcast, includes the end of the blessing part of the contract signed in Arvot Moav, and includes all of the punishment clause of what will happen to Bnei Yisrael if they fail to heed the commands to which they are signing here at Arvot Moav, the new generation about to enter the land.

As mentioned in the previous podcast, the common tradition based on the Halakha and Masach HaMikilat is that we always begin the Aliyah, which includes the curse, from the middle of the blessing, so that the person called up to read and saying the bracha, says the bracha over words of blessing.

We don't conclude at the end of the curse, but we go a bit further to the end of the section, which includes a neutral, if not positive, verse.

And, of course, this blessing and curse, to some extent, parrot, but are extremely distinct from the ones at the end of Parshat Vayikra, which is the covenant signed with the first generation at the foot of Harsinai.

And it's a difference that we talked about back then, several months ago in our study of Parshat Bechokotai, but it bears repetition because the mirror side of the distinction, of course, is significant here.