Parashat: Ki Tavo

Parashat: Ki Tavo
Deuteronomy 26:1–29:8

I led you through the wilderness forty years; the clothes on your back did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet; you had no bread to eat and no wine or other intoxicant to drink—that you might know that I יהוה am your God.

— Deuteronomy 29:4-5

At the end of this week’s parsha, which is mostly concerned with the blessing the Israelites will receive if they follow God’s mitzvot and the curses that await them if they do not, the Israelites are reminded of the wonders God performed in delivering them from Egypt to the Promised Land. In a collection of midrash written on the book of Deuteronomy, the Rabbi Elazar wonders how their clothes could have survived forty years in the wilderness without any wear or tear. He asks his father-in-law, who responds that the Israelites were dressed in clothes given to them by the angels at Mt. Sinai, which had miraculous properties, such that they grew as the wearer grew, were bleached by the clouds, and had their scent freshened by the grass.

— Rachel Petroff Kessler