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    Cutting the Gett – Ki Tetzei

    The laws in the sidra include a section on marriage and divorce. Two opposites – union and separation.

    The Torah ordains that the separation be recorded in a document, sefer k’ritut, “a deed of cutting apart”.

    The symbolism is represented in the divorce procedure. There is a sheet of paper on which the text is written, but after being handed over the document is then cut across to symbolise that it has done its work and has severed the marital bond.

    But there a difference between human beings and God. On earth the very altar weeps when a couple are divorced, but between God and the Jewish people there can never be a divorce, whatever the provocation.

    The covenant that binds God and Israel has unfortunately often been under challenge. Events have led God to be tempted to abandon Israel, but it never happened.

    Israel have had times when they felt God didn’t love them any more, but they knew that however hard it sometimes is to believe in God, without God life loses all quality and meaning.

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