The look on Tina’s face said it all. “Isn’t there anything else in the portion we can take a look at?” she asked me, after we read through the verses her daughter Isabella had been assigned. We had just delved into the treatment of captive women in war, polygamous relationships featuring a loved and an unloved wife, and the command to stone a wayward son, none of which was appropriate for a Bat Mitzvah speech.
Not all B’nei Mitzvah portions are created equal. Some have stories and drama, great teachings, prayers, and happy endings. And, then there are others like this week’s Torah portion, Ki Tetzei, about war, servitude, sexism, and bloodshed. In this type of situation, writing a D’var Torah can be infinitely more difficult. In counseling students, I will offer three choices. They can dig deeper into the text and try to find a verse or two that speaks to them. They can put the Torah portion in context of the time it was written in, appreciating that thousands of years have passed and the cultural understandings of our ancestors may be different than ours. Or they can offer a critique, painting the picture of a better world outside of the text.
Isabella Ferber wisely chose to find the parts of the portion most redeemable to modern ears: “Be kind to strangers.” This is something Jews at any time and place could agree upon. We are a people that understands what it means to be a stranger in a strange land. By emphasizing the best parts of our tradition, Isabella brought joy into an otherwise dark section of the Torah. Mazel Tov to the entire Ferber family on a job well done!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Alex