Ki Sovō and Curses / כּי־תבוא און קללהות

This is a weekly series

of parsha dvarim (Tōrah commentaries) written by an orthodox atheist transsexual anarchist, with guest posts from comrades. It's the work of each generation to extricate meaning from our cultural and religious inheritance, and it's crucial that we resist the narrative that Zionism owns Judaism. We aim to offer comment which is true to the pshat (i.e. engages with the plain meaning of the text, especially when it's difficult) and uses Tōrah like a light to reflect on our modern times.

An appeal

My friend Kamal needs help. He is struggling to find food and pay for medical treatment for his family in Gaza. Please share and donate what you can.

Content note

Genocide in Palestine

This week Mōshe Rebeynu gives us the promise of blessings and curses, should we obey (or not) Hashem's commandments. The curses mirror and rival parsha Bekhukosay in their beautiful, tormented imagery. When I wrote that dvar in the middle of the Ōmer, I had already stopped counting. I wasn't shomer mitsvos and couldn't see a way to engage through my rage and grief. We, the Jews, had become a horror in our blood-soaked tallises. My only comfort in this text was knowing that my comrades and ancestors have been tortured by it too and yet wrestled with it anyway: the holiness is in the wrestling.

This week my practice is more observant: today I laid tefilin, davened, blew shofar, and studied Tōrah with my mother. What changed? Nothing. But something.

Many commentaries on this parsha focus on the nicer sections about blessings and the commandments of first fruits and tithing, but I'm grateful that Rachel's painting is mired in the curses. She sees the wreckage of our misdeeds and wallows in it. She paints the earth orange with ochre pigment (iron) and uses pthalocyanine (copper) for the sky. There is no produce. Disembodied bird feet loom. Everything is hidden and everything is wrong.

Does it matter if you are good when the majority is not? Of course it does. Does it change the cursed outcome? Of course not.