This week’s portion, Ki Tetzei, is filled with mitzvot (commandments) – more than in any other portion, with 74 of 613 mitzvot just in these few chapters. They range from laws of war to forbidden sexual relationships to economic justice. Some mitzvot are ones that still resonate with us in our day, while others were rooted in a particular time and place and warrant reinterpretation, yet across the board, most mitzvot are presented in one of two ways. One is framed as a cause and consequence – if you violate (or follow) this commandment, then here’s how you should respond. The other is simply, “Do not do this.”
But there are two mitzvot in Ki Tetzei that add an additional wrinkle – for these two mitzvot, we are told that performing them leads to a long life. First, in Deuteronomy 22:6-7, the text says:
If, along the road, you chance upon a bird’s nest, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs and the mother sitting over the fledglings or on the eggs, do not take the mother together with her young. Let the mother go, and take only the young, in order that you may fare well and have a long life.
Then, a few chapters later in Deuteronomy 25:13-15, the Torah says:
You shall not have in your pouch alternate weights, larger and smaller. You shall not have in your house alternate measures, a larger and a smaller. You must have completely honest weights and completely honest measures, if you are to endure long on the soil that your God is giving you.
(Incidentally, there’s only one other mitzvah – albeit appearing twice – where the reward of a long life is described; in Exodus 20:12 and Deuteronomy 5:16, we are told that honoring our parents would provide the same reward).
The link among these mitzvot and their reward isn’t so clear. Rabbis such as Sforno and Maimonides argue that showing compassion to an animal – particularly a parent – is a model for how God acts, and we, in turn, should act that way. Yet we also know that in the real world, doing the right thing doesn’t always lead to a reward (see, for example, the story of Elisha ben Avuyah in Kiddushin 39b). Not only that, while the Rabbis often link the mitzvah of honoring one’s parents with sending away the mother bird, they don’t bring in the honest weights and measures.
So perhaps instead, these mitzvot are meant to fall more under the category of “cause and consequence,” rather than “reward and punishment,” and not a focus on individual choices, but on societal responsibility. In other words, following just laws (hopefully) leads us to a long life, since such regulations strive to provide protection – allowing us to flourish in our own land and our own lives.
When it comes to life, perhaps the most important factor is our health. After all, if we are dealing with illness (whether it’s acute or chronic), we know there’s a greater chance of a shorter life. But more than specific health choices, laws and regulations are what extend our lives.
So much of our society focuses on the choices we make surrounding our health, be it diet, regular medical checkups, and exercise. And yet one of the biggest impacts on our health are the laws our country has passed – developing vaccines, ensuring meat isn’t contaminated, discouraging smoking, and so on. Yes, our personal choices matter, but public health is precisely that – public health.
Over the last year, there has been a commendable mission and goal to “Make America Healthy Again.” But missions and goals need to be activated through specific laws and regulations – personal actions won’t move the needle. In 2011, for example, Michelle Obama presented the “Let’s Move” campaign to address the obesity crisis, encouraging people to eat healthy and move. It ultimately didn’t do much, however, in large part because trying to address complex issues like health and nutrition through simple solutions aren’t effective.
Indeed, while it’s commendable to remove certain food dyes, helping people become more healthy – and living longer – is a slow, incremental process, and one where the government can make a huge difference, for good or for ill. In the words of journalist Tom Bartlett, “As the architects of Let’s Move learned, handshake deals don’t carry the same weight as regulatory oversight.”
That’s why so many scientists and experts are deeply concerned by the MAHA movement. The slogan is a good one. But the legislation, recommendations, and actions proposed by Secretary Kennedy – or, more accurately, the regulations being removed – will ultimately make us poorer, sicker, and more vulnerable. As an op-ed in the New York Times written by nine former directors of the CDC across the political spectrum reminds us:
When the C.D.C. was created in 1946, the average life expectancy in the United States was around 66 years. Today it is more than 78 years. While medical advances have helped, it is public health that has played the biggest role in improving both the length and the quality of life in our nation. The C.D.C. has led efforts to eradicate smallpox, increase access to lifesaving vaccinations and significantly reduce smoking rates. The agency is also on the front lines in communities across the country, delivering crucial but often less visible wins — such as containing an outbreak of H.I.V. cases in Scott County, Ind., and protecting residents in East Palestine, Ohio, from toxic chemical exposure.
We all want a long life. We all want to feel like we are doing the right thing. We all like it when our good behavior is rewarded. But that’s not the way the world works, unfortunately, and good ideas and good intentions aren’t enough to protect those on the margins and help all people flourish. While most people want the same things – health, peace, security, freedom – laws and regulations help provide the guardrails on which to enact those values.
We may struggle with some of the mitzvot in this portion and the Torah as a whole. We may even grapple with how cosmic rewards and punishments are meted out. But at their core, laws are what truly help increase the likelihood of making us more healthy. And compassion and honesty – the two mitzvot linking us to a long life – are what’s needed most in our country.