For the second time in two weeks, the name of the Torah portion begins with the Hebrew word Ki– כי. In last week’s Torah portion Ki Teitzei, Ki means when, as when you go out to war these are the rules. This week’s Ki, as in Ki Tavo, has the slightly different meaning, “only when,” as in only when you settle in the land of Canaan are you obligated. The same word, two meanings. Why?
Many words have multiple meanings or functions, but Ki has so many it is impossible to categorize. In modern Hebrew, the answer is easy, Ki means “because.” But, according to Bible.hub (https://biblehub.com/hebrew/3588.htm) there are well over twenty other possibilities. Rashi, in his commentary on Gittin 90a, says there are four meanings in Torah, to which other commentators add three more.
Now, the question of why this matters. This week’s Torah portion is a perfect example of a simple two letter word, altering our entire understanding of pages of Jewish law. If Ki means “when,” as in “when we enter the land,” we are obligated to bring first fruit offerings no matter whether we control the land of Canaan or not. By adding the word “only” to the translation, as in only when we enter the land and control it are we obligated, we introduce a huge contingency.
This use of Ki is key to our current Covid protocols. Only when we have low case counts and a high percentage of vaccinated individuals, can we resume normal activities. This makes our understanding of Ki the key to proceed ahead with our decision making. And, why the intricacies of human language can be so impossibly hard to decipher.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Alex