Friends of Itamar

Leah’s Blog – Ki Tavo September 2024

Ki Tavo – TIME TO GO HOME -September 2024

Perhaps it was a ringing in the sky that woke me. Sometimes I get insomnia – there are good reasons, not so much for fear and worry as apprehension. The timing in our story is significant, we reach the climax of the war of our enemies unto us –now, after a frozen year, after layers of time that we passively let it happen. For the honor of our little sister who was taken and kidnapped, then raped – the hour has arrived. We roar now. So I wrap myself in a robe and take the stairs up to the living room. The golden yellow light shines off the brass keyhole in the bureau here comforting as the Bet El bourbon I pour into a tiny glass. Sunny sweetness and a pleasant buzz runs through me; I can face the window now. The white moon shines like a spot light over the dark mountains facing me, our portion of the week- Har Gerizzim and Har Eval. The black sky, the backdrop for the perpetual cloud hanging over the curves of the two mountains. So much silence for what was once our nation proclaiming loudly our oaths in betrothal. The sound ricocheted then in the perfect amphitheater of rock. I sit a bit more and the minarets begin to vibrate prayers to allah, sounds that echo out of the valley and bounce off the mountains into my open window. Imagine yourself in the body heart and soul of this portion- KI TAVO. Not a mention of Dinah or Yosef and the atrocities done to them below in the valley there, only vows to do the right thing.

Bless and be blessed curse and be cursed- it’s that simple.

This is the collective consciousness of Am Yisrael. You sow, you reap.

Nearer to dreaming now as the comfort of the first birds of early dawn begin to chirp, I descend back to bed. Epiphany always hits me as the night ends. The promise stays as real as the stars. Abraham appears to me in this place. There are blessings here, the story begins in the past, one the outer world knows little of. I have psychic reality here, thinking back- the power of Yosef Hatzaddik. I have a premonition in this place- what we thought was bad was for good. Strengthening in faith. This is what Yosef said as his brothers hid their faces in shame as he revealed himself to them after they sold him to the Yishmaelites. KI TAVO is a one -time event and much detail was given to it. Here we stood together, two halves that became whole. Here we became brothers. The hidden message in KI TAVO is the sphere of influence of this territory and who it belongs to. Yosef. Efrayim and Menashe- the cut running through the two mountains. It is the heart of the Land of Israel given until eternity to Am Yisrael.

But we need to be worthy.

Here I can truly see from the river to the sea.

Answering the pain of Dina, Yosef and other cursed events that happened here are the blessings pouring down from this heart, these lungs, these two mountains. Not in spitefulness but repayment begins as Shimon and Levi took the honor of their little sister back. As well as we reconcile as a nation. We come together as one here proclaiming we will not partake of strange acts, hidden to the eye, false g-ds, evil ways. Here we are demanded of TIKKUN- fixing the broken vessel which we can and will do. We declare allegiance to our ketubah here -the Torah, the guide to living on this land. TIME TO GO HOME- this great event of KI TAVO happened as we laid Yosef to rest here in the valley. The dry bones rattle in the night now – THE TIME HAS COME.

Shabbat shalom dearest friends- xoxoxoxox, Leah