Rabbi Kideckel's Weekly Message

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Ki Tavo 2025

In this week's Torah reading, Ki Tavo, we are given a unique experience. While we hear a normal, clear voice for the blessings, we are asked to read the curses—the “tochecha,” or “the rebuke”—in a hushed undertone. This custom has a profound meaning: it acknowledges the harshness of the curses while hoping to soften their impact, with the tradition teaching that we do so to avoid the prosecuting angels from hearing them and bringing us to trial.

This intentional moment of transition from clear to soft, from blessing to rebuke, serves as a powerful guidepost for us as we stand on the cusp of the High Holy Days. It's a reminder that our actions carry weight and that our choices truly matter.

David Hoffman, an adjunct professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary, suggests that “the Talmud—in the name of Abaye—suggests a more optimistic answer to our question: “So that the year may end along with its curses.” As we finish the year, we read all of the curses—putting them behind us, as if to say, so should our troubles be behind us. Then we can begin the new year with a clean slate, fresh for our new ways of being in the world, without any negative baggage. Indeed, this is a lovely framing for the end of one year and the start of another.”

Occurring just before our communal Selichot service, the portion provides the perfect entry point for our personal journey of teshuvah, or repentance. It’s an opportunity to reflect on the past year and begin to imagine the one to come, knowing that our hope is for a year full of blessing and free from challenge.

The final words of the portion offer us a beautiful prayer, one that Moses utters on behalf of our people and one that we can carry with us as we prepare for Rosh Hashanah: "Look down from Your holy abode, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel and the soil You have given us, a land flowing with milk and honey, as You swore to our fathers."(Deuteronomy 26:15).

May we all find a sense of peace and purpose in this moment of reflection and enter the new year with an abundance of blessings.

I hope that you will join with us for our Selichot service this Saturday evening as we begin our period of teshuvah and introspection. May we find within each other the goodness and the kindness to accept true and honest teshuvah.

A note: This Shabbat, our reading will include the chanting of the weekly haftorah, which is set as one of the special readings that transitions us to the High Holy Days.