Ki Teitzei
So many mitzvotHow can we keep all of them?We just have to try
This week's parsha contains 72 of the Torah's 613 commandments. We can't possibly fulfill them all, can we? So we do the best we can.Some of the commandments in Ki Teitzei seem to be things we wouldn't want to do - having the community stone a rebellious child to death (Deut 21:21) or having a man marry his brother's widow (25:5). And what does the prohibition against cross dressing (22:5) mean at a time when it's common for women to wear pants or men to have earrings?I recently came across an essay that addresses this dilemma. It begins, "Torah does not change, but we do." Click here to read the entire thing at the website of the journal Sh'ma. The image accompanying this post is of Keith Haring's 2008 installation The Ten Commandments at Deitch Studios in New York. Click here to view more images.