With more than seventy laws detailed (72 according to Maimonides; 74 by other counts), this week’s Torah portion, Ki Tetze, contains more laws than almost any other single portion of the Torah. At first glance, the various laws read as a miscellany list of unconnected themes: marriage/divorce, personal property, employee-employer relations.
Enveloping the hodgepodge list and creating a sense of having journeyed full circle, the verses at both the beginning and the end of the portion outline specific mitzvot about how to treat our enemies during times of war. In between the envelope ends, however, are not laws of war, but rather rules of engagement for how a person is to function as an individual and within the context of a living society.
Amongst the long list of responsibilities is the command to protect the property of one’s fellow citizen. So says the Torah:
If you see the ox of your fellow citizen gone astray; do not ignore it; you must take it back to your fellow citizen. If your fellow citizen does not live near you or you do not know who he is, you shall bring it home and it shall remain with you until your fellow citizen claims it; then shall you give it back to him… and so too shall you do with anything that your fellow citizen loses and you find; you can not remain indifferent.
It is not enough to simply return one’s neighbor’s property. The same respect given to the human being should also be accorded his/her property. Property has sanctity attached to it and ultimately all property belongs to God. We are but caretakers and guardians. If we find an individual's lost property, we are duty bound to "restore it" to that individual, since its original guardian was entrusted with it by God. By restoring it to its owner, we carry out God’s will.
The Torah goes one step further. No matter what ‘you cannot remain indifferent.’ In many ways, this phrase could be seen as the overriding connection and theme for the entire portion. It is so easy to turn the other cheek, to ignore the people around us as we strive to succeed and to achieve our own goals. Indifference, is after all, the death of any relationship and the birth of far reaching consequences.
In the words of Edmund Burke, an important player in 18th century England and in political theory once said ‘All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing’. The result of individuals failing to act in relationship to one another ends in a complete breakdown of the social order leading to anarchy, war and destruction where few (if any) would ultimately realize their individual goals.
Consequently, the Torah reminds us that whether it be the person with whom we share our home, one’s employee or employer, the person next door, the poor, the needy, or any of our fellow citizens – it is impossible for the individual or the society to succeed without each one of us living within relationship – to others around us and to the society itself. By attuning to ourselves to the needs, cries, and suffering of those around us, we help strengthen the circles of society so that they can withstand the threat of hostile forces from the outside. So, the Torah asks us to expand our circle of family and friends to include those around us and those other members of the community who become our ‘brethren’.
Furthermore, as Jews, our social contract centers not on organization to preserve the individual, but on social organization for the sake of performing the Divine Will. When we transcend our complacency to involve ourselves in the life of others - to care for their property, to show concern for animals, to enter fair business arrangements with employees or employers and other clientele, to restore dignity even in situations like war where dignity is so hard to find, to show concern for the widow, the orphan and the needy – then we serve God.
As Elie Weisel so eloquently reminds us “The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.”
May we all learn to love, to become artists, to have faith, and to live! And through it, may we see the day when war and bloodshed cease!
Shabbat Shalom.