Ki Teitzei
Deuteronomy 21:10 – 25:19
Ki Teitzei contains more commandments than any other parasha — seventy-four by traditional count — spanning family law, civil law, commercial ethics, and compassion for the vulnerable. The laws address the captive woman, the rights of the firstborn, the rebellious son, burial of the executed, returning lost property, the prohibition of cross-dressing, sending away the mother bird, building a parapet on a roof, and prohibitions against mixed planting and weaving. Laws of marriage, divorce, and sexual morality are detailed, as are protections for workers, widows, orphans, and strangers. The parasha concludes with the command to remember Amalek's attack and to blot out their memory.
Key figures
- Moses — Delivers the most extensive collection of laws in Deuteronomy
Famous verses
- 22:6-7 If a bird's nest chance to be before you in the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the mother sitting upon the young, or upon the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young;
- 24:16 The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers; every man shall be put to death for his own sin.
- 25:13-15 You shall not have in your bag diverse weights, a great and a small.
Haftarah: {'ref': 'Isaiah 54:1-10', 'connection': "The fifth Haftarah of consolation; Isaiah compares Israel to a barren woman who will rejoice with many children, and promises an everlasting covenant of peace — the compassion that underlies Ki Teitzei's extensive social legislation."}
Total gematria: 403,731.