Evergreen

Parashat Ki Teitzei contains numerous examples of how we should structure and categorize our decisions and their consequences.

Moses enumerates many laws that relate to topics of family relationships, interpersonal ethics, forbidden mixtures, and sexuality.

Our society is judged on the basis of how we treat our most vulnerable members.

The laws regarding the purity of the Tabernacle and the purity of military camps remind us to ensure the sanctity of all of our dwelling places.

By linking the incident of the female prisoner of war to the hated wife and rebellious child, Rashi encourages us to consider the consequences of treating others as objects.

The commandment to remove a corpse from the stake on which it is impaled teaches us the importance of respecting the holiness of the body.

The reward of long life for the seemingly simple commandment of shooing away a mother bird before taking her young teaches us that no act is trivial.

The instructions to pursue justice and practice communal responsibility should motivate us to constantly improve our efforts to alleviate the crises that affect our people.

Moses reviews for the Israelites their system of justice, the rules of kingship, their relationship to idolatrous nations, and the rules of doing battle.

The understanding that Israelite troops were addressed on two different occasions before they entered war reflects the idea that our reactions to war often depend on its imminence.