Ki Thavo: Promises

 The parsha opens with the fulfillment of the dream: 

וְהָיָה֙ כִּֽי־תָב֣וֹא אֶל־הָאָ֔רֶץ

When you enter the land 

Finally, the Promised land. Of course, there is a tax that is  an offering of  gratitude for the blessings. There is an obligatory pilgrimage to the capitol ( site to be determined in the text; Jerusalem by later tradition)  A declaration is prescribed : 

אֲרַמִּי֙ אֹבֵ֣ד אָבִ֔י

Arami Oved Avi, a formula repeated annually at the Passover seder. 

The Jewish Publication Society translates this: 

My father was a fugitive Aramean.

Koren translates it similarly.

In the Haggadah, the phrase is used to represent the evil intentions of Lavan, patriarch Jacob's Aramian uncle and father in law. The Haggadah says that Lavan was worse than Pharaoh. He wanted to destroy the entire nation

Onkelos is aligned with the Haggadah. He translates the Torah passage: 

לָבָן אֲרַמָּאָה בָּעָא לְאוֹבָדָא יָת אַבָּא

Lavan the Arami wanted to destroy my forefather. 

Two things are clear: this is an origin story and the (fore)father is an Arami. He is not a Canaanite.  We are not the indigenous people returning to the homeland of our origin.  The founder, whether he is Abraham ( who was born in Aram) or Jacob ( who returned from Aram, escaping from Lavan) [or some later Hebrew or Jew] is an invader. The promised land has ethical difficulties from day one. 

The (fore)father is escaping, a victim of persecution. He was forced to migrate under a threat of death. Does that justify the invasion? It does not guarantee a welcome. The locals shout: "send them back to where they came from." The exiles cannot go back, they have been banished; there is no longer a "place they came from." This is a foundational story of desperation

The parsha assumes a time  of peaceful settlement after the conquest.  There will be prosperity and peace if the laws are kept. The blessings will be overwhelming. The tale soon takes a disturbing turn. The bulk of the parsha is the litany of horrors that will ensue if the people violate the rules and thereby distort their values. It is almost as bad as the holocaust. 

Exile from the promised land is an important element of the chastisement. Foreign status strips the migrant of the protections granted to the citizen. The disenfranchised alien is the easiest victim of abuse. The refugee is willing to endure some additional degradation as part of the price of survival. But even this will be denied. 

וֶהֱשִֽׁיבְךָ֨ יְ׀ מִצְרַ֘יִם֮ בׇּאֳנִיּוֹת֒ בַּדֶּ֙רֶךְ֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר אָמַ֣רְתִּֽי לְךָ֔ לֹא־תֹסִ֥יף ע֖וֹד לִרְאֹתָ֑הּ וְהִתְמַכַּרְתֶּ֨ם שָׁ֧ם לְאֹיְבֶ֛יךָ לַעֲבָדִ֥ים וְלִשְׁפָח֖וֹת וְאֵ֥ין קֹנֶֽה׃ {ס}        

Gd will send you back to Egypt in galleys, by a route which I told you you should not see again. There you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but none will buy.

Gd's promise is not irrevocable. There is an ongoing agreement. The guarantees apply only if the beneficiary abides by all the conditions in the contract...and the contract has (at least) 613 clauses with innumerable ( and changing) details.  Gd made us permanent refugees.  The only return is to the earth from which we were created. 

This week, my daughter, Elisheva, gave birth to a baby. That baby, in order to live, invades the home of Shmuel and Chava and Elisheva and Judah. The mixture of joy and travail of this new arrival will be worked over many years; it will probably come to a set of favorable resolutions.  We are all born immigrants.