Parashat Kit Tetzei - Building a Society That Cares for All - 9/4/25

This week’s Torah portion, Ki Tetzei, presents us with one of the densest collections of laws in the entire Torah—more than seventy in all. Many of them concern relationships between people and, in particular, how we treat those who are vulnerable.

We read, for example:

●     “You shall not abuse a needy and destitute laborer, whether a fellow Israelite or a stranger” (Deut. 24:14).

●     “You shall not subvert the rights of the stranger or the orphan, and you shall not take a widow’s garment in pawn” (Deut. 24:17).

●     And in the laws of gleaning: “When you reap the harvest in your field and overlook a sheaf, do not turn back to get it; it shall go to the stranger, the orphan, and the widow” (Deut. 24:19).

Again and again, the Torah draws our attention not to those at the center of power, but to those at its margins. The stranger, the widow, the orphan, the laborer—those who in the biblical world had the least protection—are given the Torah’s direct concern.

Last week, we reflected on justice (tzedek, tzedek tirdof). But Ki Tetzei goes even further. These passages are not about law courts and verdicts. They are about weaving a social fabric in which no one is left out in the cold. Justice can be abstract, but these commandments are concrete: leave grain in your fields, do not delay wages, respect the dignity of those who cannot defend themselves.

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks taught that the strength of a society is measured by how it treats its weakest members. In Ki Tetzei, the Torah offers a blueprint for such a society. A community is strong not only when its laws are fair, but when its members feel responsible for one another—when we see the hungry, the grieving, and the struggling, and we act to lighten their burden.

These mitzvot remind us that holiness is not only found in prayer or ritual, but in the way we build daily life. The Torah insists that ethical responsibility belongs in the marketplace, in the fields, and in our interactions with workers and neighbors.

In our own day, the categories may look different, but the call remains the same. Who are the vulnerable among us? Who is at risk of being overlooked or excluded? The Torah’s vision urges us to widen our circle of concern, to ensure that the bonds of community are strong enough to hold every one of us.

May we take to heart the wisdom of Ki Tetzei: that a good society is not built only on justice in theory, but on compassion in practice. And may we continue to strengthen our community by ensuring that no one is left behind.

-Rabbi Hannah Wallick