Dear Friends,
This week’s Torah Portion, Ki-Tetze, contains the final series of laws dictated by Moses to the People of Israel as he prepares to leave them. Rather than dealing with laws pertaining to the community as a whole, this portion addresses private behavior such as family relationships, returning lost items, charging excessive interest and the treatment of animals. (This is the portion in which we learn that we may not take eggs from a nest while the mother is watching, and we may not use both an ox and an ass to plow our fields due to the greater strength of the ox.)
This is also the portion in which we read,
“When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet (ma’akeh) for your roof, so that you do not bring bloodguilt on your house if anyone should fall from it.”
While, on the surface, this rule might first seem to specifically appear to simply pertain to preventing people from falling off buildings, Judaism has long taken a larger, broader view of its intent. As the great teacher Maimonides states in his work Sefer ha-Mitzvot, the Book of Commandments, the real purpose of this law is to instruct us “to remove any obstacles and traps from all your property and build a railing around all roofs, ditches or holes and their like, so that no one can fall into them and get injured. We must also make sure to remove all other hazardous objects that we might control.”
In other words, for Maimonides and later scholars, the requirement to build a parapet was ultimately understood as a general statement on the centrality of preserving life. (In fact, in another work Maimonides includes the law in a section entitled, “the Laws of the Murderer and the Preservation of Life.”) This is why I, and many colleagues, have long used the requirement to build a parapet as analogous to the need to strengthen and apply existing gun safety laws. In and of themselves neither a flat roof nor a gun cause harm, but their potential to CAUSE harm requires us to take steps to prevent injury or death.
On reflection, however, I think there is another lesson to be drawn from the requirement of the parapet.
While it can become a threat, a flat roof is not an imminent danger to people’s wellbeing on its own. Thus, the instruction to build a parapet requires us to see the potential danger the roof poses and take action to mitigate that risk. In other words, the parapet requires us to take a longer view. We are required to act because of what MIGHT happen in the future.
Thus, this week’s Torah Portion challenges us to slow down and anticipate the potential ramifications of our actions, and then modify what we do based on this longer view. That is especially important as we approach the upcoming election. For while candidates often use the issues of the moment, whether perceived or real, to garner votes, our vote isn’t just about tomorrow. It is about the type of country and world we want in five, ten and twenty years.
Do we want a nation that will continue to embrace the rule of law? If so, which candidate will more likely lead us in that direction?
Do we want a nation that respects each individual’s autonomy over the choices they make with their bodies? If so, which candidate will more likely lead us in that direction?
Do we want a nation that respects the rights of all people? If so, which candidate will more likely lead us in that direction?
Do we want a nation that will, at long last, find a way to end the epidemic of gun violence? If so, which candidate will more likely lead us in that direction?
None of these issues will be resolved the day after the election. But before we cast our votes it behooves us to listen to the guidance of this week’s Torah portion and take a look at where we want to be, not just tomorrow, but far in the future.
And of course, most importantly, if we want to have a voice in building a future that has the proper parapets, we need to vote this November.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Daniel Cohen