Ki Teitzei כִּי-תֵצֵא - When You Go Out
Torah Portion:
Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19
Deuteronomy 21:10–21
21:10 When you go out to battle against your enemies, and Hashem your Elohim delivers them into your hands, and you carry them away captive, 11 and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you are attracted to her, and desire to take her as your wife, 12 then you shall bring her home to your house. She shall shave her head and trim her nails. 13 She shall take off the clothing of her captivity, and shall remain in your house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month. After that, you shall go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. 14 It shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall let her go where she desires; but you shall not sell her at all for money. You shall not deal with her as a slave, because you have humbled her.
15 If a man has two wives, the one beloved and the other hated, and they have borne him children, both the beloved and the hated, and if the firstborn son is hers who was hated, 16 then it shall be, in the day that he causes his sons to inherit that which he has, that he may not give the son of the beloved the rights of the firstborn before the son of the hated, who is the firstborn; 17 but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the hated, by giving him a double portion of all that he has; for he is the beginning of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his.
18 If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and though they chasten him, will not listen to them, 19 then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city and to the gate of his place. 20 They shall tell the elders of his city, “This our son is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey our voice. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” 21 All the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall remove the evil from among you. All Israel shall hear, and fear.
Today’s Meditation:
Some interesting verses (commandments) today. What to do if you bring back a female enemy and want to take her as your wife? Or if you have two wives and one is hated, but she has the firstborn. It seems Hashem is fair even in these unusual situations. Not that we can understand all this, but we know we can trust in Hashem and His greatness. Some things in the Torah we may not be able to comprehend, but we can still depend on Hashem’s Word.
Today’s Challenge:
In the last part of today’s portion, we read about what happens to a disobedient, drunkard son. There is no mercy. He is taken out of the city and stoned. This may seem harsh to us today, but Hashem has His reasons once again. He wants to maintain peace and set an example. In verse 21, He explains why, “So you shall remove the evil from among you. All Israel shall hear, and fear.” First of all, He does not want any evil in His presence, and secondly, the rest of the people will see the punishment and be afraid to ever do the same.
My challenge to you today is to see if you are setting an example with your family and friends. If your child does something wrong, is there strict punishment? Or do you just casually say, “Oh, Johnny, please don’t do that.” I believe Hashem wants discipline for those who are rebellious. So they can learn and set an example. In this case, it was death. But we can look at it today as the death of a habit or sin. Be consistent and fair in your discipline. And let your children know that you do it because you love them.
