Ki Teitzei: Stubborn and Rebellious Misreadings of the Torah

I had a funny experience this week. On Monday morning, we had two special Torah readers attend our regular morning minyan. Every week,

the Torah is read on Monday and Thursday (as well as Saturday), and on weeks when we are celebrating a Bar or Bat Mitzvah (or both) at Ohev Shalom, we invite our students to come and read Torah for us at the morning minyan. It's a smaller crowd in a more intimate sanctuary, and it's a great place to chant Torah readings in a real service, that can also be a safe environment in which to make a mistake or two. And this Monday, our two celebrants, Sierra and Zach Hellman, came with their family and read from the Torah... and they did incredibly well! However, I found it kind of odd to hear a 13-year old chant this one particularly troubling section of our parashah, and it's the subject of my Take on Torah this week.

Deuteronomy, chapter 21, verses 18-21, tells of the 'stubborn and wayward son.' If two parents are raising just an awful child, who makes their lives miserable and won't listen to anything they say or do, then the parents can bring their child to the city gates (where the courts were convened), and they can have their child stoned to death. Yeah, you

read that correctly. And so I found it somewhat odd to hear a young teenager - in this case, one of two really great kids being celebrated this week - chant this passage about the rebellious child. On the one hand, I've gotten to know enough parents of teenagers, that I know this law sounds appealing every once in a while! But of course, on the other, none of us could ever imagine actually DOING something like this! Besides, what is this meant to teach us? How would anyone derive a positive, constructive, helpful lesson from such a barbaric act? Surely some, if not all, of you are also wondering what happened to the Torah's famous decree about preserving life above all else! It's hard for us to make any sense of this in any way.

It also doesn't help, when we've been reading in the news lately about ISIS, the absolutely horrific terrorist organization in the Middle East, that has been perpetrating unthinkable beheadings. It is a complete perversion of religious law, but nevertheless they DO justify their actions

with religious excuses. And sadly, we are all familiar with other groups - Muslim, Christian, Hindu, and yes, even Jewish - that rationalize their barbaric behavior by pointing to God and holy scripture. Let's not kid ourselves. The Bible DOES contain archaic and draconian laws, like the 'stubborn and rebellious child' of Deuteronomy 21. But I fundamentally believe that all these groups are misreading their scriptures, and they are misreading God. Religion is a precious and invaluable thing, that also demands responsibility, discernment... and love. You cannot - you simply CANNOT - read it literally and without interpretation. That is when you begin to kill people for being 'infidels.'

But here's the thing: We still read about the Torah's unfortunate problem child, because we need to constantly remind ourselves what literal reading of the text can lead to.

We don't white-wash the texts of our Tradition because they make us uncomfortable. They SHOULD make us uncomfortable! We can't forget that some people abuse the text, and pervert it to suit their needs. And the way we continuously remind ourselves to be vigilant, and to only use religion to inspire us for good, is to read the tough texts of our Scripture and KNOW that we're better than that. All the better, then, when those texts are being chanted by impressive B'nai Mitzvah students who give us such hope that our religious tradition is in good hands.

Photos in this blog post:
1. CC image courtesy of Roy Lindman on Wikimedia Commons
2. CC image courtesy of Ibn Battuta on Wikimedia Commons
3. CC image of "Preaching 'Holy War' during an uprising in British India" courtesy of Paul Barlow on Wikimedia Commons
4. CC image courtesy of Pikiwikisrael on Wikimedia Commons