Comments (0)Flow Of Information
Parshat Ki Tavo
September 4, 2009Rabbi Andrew Busch
Special to the Jewish Times
Yehuda Amichai wrote, “Sheltered by good news, sheltered even by the bad, now we are at home.”
The late Israeli poet was capturing the great hope and comfort that come from being at home. Shelter relates to more than just protection from the weather, night and attack. In fact, many of us realize that our homes do not provide complete safety from the elements or from the passions of life. Many are fearful in their own homes, from abuse or other issues.
Thankfully, there are organizations, synagogues and professionals able to assist with such challenges. Yet, we still desire shelter from life’s storms. These lines, from one of Amichai’s last poems, build up the symbol of home as a shelter from information, not only physical blows.
Amichai’s quick verse acknowledges that our home life doesn’t necessarily differentiate from different kinds of information that come our way. As we shut our doors, we may shut ourselves off from the news and realities of the world. Ironically, in our modern, information-rich times, we may live more separate, home by home, from news of the world than our ancestors did, either in Biblical times or even in recent villages.
Parshat Ki Tavo assumes that peoples and individuals will hear of each others’ status and challenges. Thus, we read of messages carved into stones at the entryway to the Land of Israel and public recitations of blessings and curses. Deuteronomy 28 assumes that the world will know of our ancestors’ fate.
Here, this last book of the Torah is building upon the very promise made to Abraham in Genesis 12. If we are to be a source of blessing to all people, then we can assume that our news will be worth following. Yet Ki Tavo also reminds us of what happens if we don’t follow the proper path.
In a dire tone, Deuteronomy 28:37 warns: “You will become an example-of-desolation, a proverb, and a byword.” This translation by Everett Fox captures the public and ongoing “horror” (as mentioned in Deuteronomy verse 35) that will befall those who don’t walk the straight and narrow. The Torah assumes that the world will share in our news and our blessings and, thus, also assumes that our failings and curses will be very public knowledge.
Word clearly traveled fast in the ancient world, despite the lack of technology. Our ancestors were concerned that the entire Middle East would know about their failings and their consequences. Deuteronomy 28:37 adds insult to injury, or maybe just fairly raises the stakes, by proclaiming that news of our fate will be shared publicly.
Today, many people are perfectly happy to be interviewed in a newspaper, on TV or for a blog after they have made an error of judgment. In ancient times, we seemed to desire that our misdeeds remained more private. Despite the overload of electronic information and the lack of humility, I still believe many of us would prefer our misdeeds and mistakes remain quiet, if not hidden altogether.
Yehuda Amichai rightly reminds us that our doors can block us from the rest of the world and that this is sometimes comforting and sometimes dangerous. Deuteronomy truly notes that news will travel and we shouldn’t think we can control it. There remains a power in knowing that others will share in the knowledge of our fates.
As we prepare for the High Holy Days, may we seek a year of better behavior, not to shelter news, but because it is better in the first place.
Rabbi Andrew Busch serves Baltimore Hebrew Congregation.