Parashat Ki Tavo: You Have Become a People

At the start of a training session with a pedagogical team, a teacher challenged me: “There’s no such thing as a ‘Jewish people.’ ‘People’ is an invented concept with an agenda. Five hundred years ago, a Sephardic Jew identified with religion, village, and family – not with a people.” Knowing these claims echo important positions held by sociologists and political scientists, I suggested we at least agree that nowadays peoples exist, and that one is the Jewish people. She refused.

A historical reality

It is a historical fact that the concept of a “people” has existed for thousands of years. People lived within tribal communities yet still saw themselves as members of the same people. This appears in our Torah portion, where the word “people” (am) recurs at least nine times: “Moses and the levitical priests spoke to all Israel, saying: Silence! Hear, O Israel! Today you have become the people of the Lord your God.” (Deuteronomy 27:9).

There is no consensus among scholars about what makes a group a “people,” or whether the modern concept is a direct continuation of the ancient one or a new invention. But I believe there are satisfactory answers.

Defining a people

A people is a large group sharing a common culture that persists across generations. The group’s members see themselves as belonging to it, and other groups recognize them as such. In other words, a people has two foundational components: one cultural, the other a matter of consciousness.

The cultural component includes a connection to common language, territory, foundational texts, and history; shared customs and symbols; shared values; songs and creative works. Importantly, a people’s culture must change and evolve – a culture that doesn’t change freezes into a museum exhibit. Cultural change doesn’t indicate disintegration; it shows a livingpeople.

To this is added internal and external consciousness of peoplehood. Without a group’s own recognition that they are a people, and without others recognizing them as such, there is no people. The term “nation” (leom) simply denotes a people that desires political sovereignty – that wants a state.

The moment of becoming

So what happened in this week’s Torah portion that suddenly, forty years after the Exodus, it says, “Today you have become the people” – when the Book of Exodus had already said, “I will take you to be My people, and I will be your God.” (Exodus 6:7)

Various commentators consider this to be the renewal of the covenant – this time made out of choice and love, in contrast to the covenant at Sinai, which was based on fear and power. The wording reflects this. In Exodus it is written, “I will take you to be My people” – one-sided, almost forceful language – whereas here it says, “You have become the people.” This time choice lay at the heart of a natural process.

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808–1888) adds: “To-day you have become a people! The common duty to, and responsibility for the Torah which has just been declared for all of you without exception, the common care of the Torah to the guard of which you have all been posted, that makes you into a nation. To-day, before you get the impending possession of the Land, the common possession of the Torah, is what makes you into a nation. You can lose the Land, as indeed you may, but the Torah and your everlasting duty to it remains your everlasting unloseable bond which united you as a nation.” (Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch on Deuteronomy 27:9)

The unlosable bond

Hirsch emphasizes that a people’s existence doesn't depend on land – the Torah unites us. We know the Torah in its literal sense is no longer the unifying covenant, but as a term representing Israel’s culture, it continues passing through generations. Jewish culture perseveres through the disputes around it.

That’s why I told that teacher that, in my view, there certainly is a Jewish people – and whether such a people continues to exist depends on us.

Lior Tal Sadeh is an educator, writer, and author of “What Is Above, What Is Below” (Carmel, 2022). He hosts the daily “Source of Inspiration” podcast, produced by Beit Avi Chai.

For more insights into Parashat Ki Tavo, listen to “Source of Inspiration” (in Hebrew).

Translation of most Hebrew texts sourced from Sefaria.org

 Main Photo: AI