This is a difficult parashah. Parashat Ki Tetze contains some of the Torah’s most challenging subjects: the woman captured in war, the unloved wife, the wayward and rebellious son, and the laws of yibum. These are halachic responses to complicated human circumstances, and some of them make hard reading for a modern audience. They deal not with life at its best, but with life at its most difficult and painful.

There is another side to these laws: the way they are lived. In this week’s role model, Boaz, we see a man confronting one of these situations with dignity, restraint, and chesed. That, perhaps, is the lesson Ki Tetze wants us to remember. The law matters, but so does the manner in which it is carried out.

The laws of yibum take me to one of my favourite books in Tanach, Megillat Rut. I have learned a great deal about Ruth over the years, but this time I found myself looking more closely at Boaz. And in him I found some beautiful lessons, both for understanding this week’s parashah and for navigating life itself.

Boaz was a man of wealth, influence, and considerable power. Yet the defining feature of his leadership was not authority but chesed. Megillat Rut presents a man whose kindness was almost institutional, woven into the way he ran his fields, treated his workers, and cared for the vulnerable.

More importantly, when confronted with Ruth’s vulnerability and Naomi’s loss, Boaz acted with extraordinary dignity and restraint. He fulfilled obligations, but he never lost sight of the people behind them.

In many ways, Boaz represents the human face of the laws found in Ki Tetze. The Torah gives us legal frameworks for navigating difficult situations. Boaz reminds us how those frameworks are meant to be lived. Because the Torah asks not only whether we fulfil our obligations, but how we treat the human being standing inside them.

This week’s parashah gives us the law of yibum:

כי ישבו אחים יחדו ומת אחד מהם ובן אין לו לא תהיה אשת המת החוצה לאיש זר יבמה יבא עליה ולקחה לו לאשה ויבמה

כי ישבו אחים יחדו ומת אחד מהם ובן אין לו לא תהיה אשת המת החוצה לאיש זר יבמה יבא עליה ולקחה לו לאשה ויבמה

“When brothers dwell together and one of them dies and leaves no offspring, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall unite with her: he shall take her as his wife and perform the levir’s duty.” (Devarim 25:5)

“When brothers dwell together and one of them dies and leaves no offspring, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall unite with her: he shall take her as his wife and perform the levir’s duty.” (Devarim 25:5)

It is a strange law to modern ears, and the Torah knows it. The very next verses describe what happens when the brother refuses: the public ceremony of chalitzah, the removed........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)