By Shelley Neese
This week’s Torah portion covers Deuteronomy 26:1 to 29:8. It takes its name, Ki Tavo, from its opening Hebrew words, which mean “When you come” or “When you enter.” The commandments that follow are for when Israel crosses the Jordan River, takes possession of the land, and settles into its new national life. Before Moses hands the people off to their new leader, Joshua, he reminds them of the laws and teachings they received at Sinai. The new generation did not witness, or was too young to remember, God descending upon Sinai with the rumble of thunder and flash of lightning. They did not smell the thick smoke or feel the ground shaking beneath them. Of course, they heard the stories from their parents and believed the witness of the tribal leaders. However, they needed their own Sinai moment, led by their appointed leader with the full participation of the rising generation. They needed their own founding story.
Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim
Moses lays out the procedural details for the covenant ceremony. He and the elders of Israel instructed:
Keep the entire commandment that I am commanding you today. On the day that you cross over the Jordan into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall set up large stones and cover them with plaster. You shall write on them all the words of this law when you have crossed over, to enter the land that the LORD your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, promised you.
So when you have crossed over the Jordan, you shall set up these stones, about which I am commanding you today, on Mount Ebal, and you shall cover them with plaster. And you shall build an altar there to the LORD your God, an altar of stones on which you have not used an iron tool. You must build the altar of the LORD your God of unhewn stones. On it you shall offer burnt offerings to the LORD your God, make sacrifices of well-being, and eat them there, rejoicing before the LORD your God. You shall write on the stones all the words of this law very clearly. (Deut 27:1–8)
The ceremony of blessings and curses is a liturgical act, a wedding ceremony, in a sense, between the twelve tribes and their one true God. God wants the tribes of Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali to gather on Mount Ebal. The tribes of Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin should gather at Mount Gerizim. No explanation is given for the specific makeup of the groups. The Levites were responsible for announcing each curse. Those on Mount Gerizim were to pronounce blessings. After each curse and each blessing, the people shouted, “Amen!”
The Blessings for Obedience are the most beautiful portion (Deut 28:1–14). God promises that if they do not turn aside from his commands, he will open the heavens and give them bounty. God will open their wombs, their harvests, and their baskets. If the Israelites remember the past and stay true to the teachings, they will live and thrive in the land.
On the opposite note, however, if they turn away from him, God will close their wombs and curse their fields and livestock (Deut 28:15–68). If they forget how God delivered them from Egypt, if they ignore the voice of the Lord, and if they break the holy laws and are unfaithful to their God, they will lose the land. It will be a reverse Exodus, with God taking them from the land of their freedom back into slavery.
When you read the blessings and curses, it seems as if it bears a little heavier on the curses than the blessings. However, none of the curses is permanent. All the people have to do is repent, turn back to God, and they are reunited with the blessings.
The covenant ceremony did not take place until Joshua emerged victorious after the battle of Ai. In Joshua 8, we see that Joshua followed Moses’s instructions to the letter. He built a stone altar on Mount Ebal to make sacrifices to the Lord. Joshua then took plastered white stones and inscribed the Torah on them. Joshua assembled the people and read out the blessings and curses, just as they were written in the Book of the Law.
Ebal and Gerizim
Geographically and historically, Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim are the two prominent mountain ridges that flank the valley of Shechem. When Abraham first entered Canaan, he stopped at Shechem, at the oak of Moreh. There, God appeared to him and promised the land to his descendants (Gen 12:6–7). Many generations later, Jacob bought a parcel of land where he pitched his tent and built an altar (Gen 33:18–20). God did not choose Shechem arbitrarily as the place for the covenant ceremony. He intentionally designed it so they would return to the holy ground where God first made a promise to their ancestor Abraham and where their ancestor Jacob acquired the first plot.
Despite the biblical importance of the site, modern tour groups and mainstream pilgrimage itineraries routinely bypass Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. The two mountains flank the Palestinian city of Nablus. Nablus is designated as Area A under the defunct Oslo Accords. That places it under complete civil and security control of the Palestinian Authority. Israeli law forbids Israeli citizens from entering Area A. That includes standard licensed Israeli tour guides and bus drivers.
For the lucky ones, however, there is an archaeological site on Mount Ebal, which features a mysterious Iron Age stone structure. The late Israeli archaeologist Adam Zertal discovered the site in 1980 during the comprehensive survey of the hill country of Manasseh. Between 1982 and 1989, Zertal conducted eight seasons of excavations. Zertal began the survey as a secular scholar with a minimalist view of early Israelite history. But by the time he was done, he was certain that the altar he found was indeed Joshua’s altar (Josh 8:30–35; Deut 27:4–8).
Adam Zertal’s excavations at Mount Ebal revealed that the altar complex developed across two distinct construction phases; either could be Joshua’s altar, depending on one’s date of the Conquest. The earliest altar (1230–1200 BCE) was a modest circular stone altar built directly on the natural bedrock. During the second phase (1200–1150 BCE), builders encased this primary circular installation beneath a monumental, rectangular altar made of unhewn fieldstones. This major expansion introduced a wide, inclined stone ramp, paved courtyards, and a surrounding enclosure wall. This structural evolution indicates that the site began as a localized sacrificial installation and later expanded into a prominent sanctuary.
In December 2019, an archaeological team led by Scott Stripling of the Associates for Biblical Research (ABR) went to Mount Ebal to sift the discarded dump material left behind by Zertal’s excavations. To their surprise, the team recovered a small, folded lead sheet known as a curse tablet. Measuring roughly two by two centimeters and only a few millimeters thick, the tablet was folded in half. What they didn’t know is if it had an internal inscription. Because the ancient metal was too brittle to unfold without breaking, the researchers sent it to a laboratory in Prague for specialized 3D X-ray scanning. These scans allowed scientists to look between the folded layers without opening the object.
Inside the fold, the language experts identified very early alphabetic letters that form an ancient curse formula. Their translation of the short text warns:
You are cursed by the god yhw, cursed.
You will die cursed.
Cursed you will surely die.
Cursed by yhw—cursed.
The tablet appears to use a short, three-letter version of God’s name (YHW). If correct, it would be the oldest written reference to the God of Israel ever found in the region. The find almost felt too good to be true. They found a curse inscription on the very mountain God designated as the place to pronounce curses for breaking the covenant.
The good news is that for determined travelers, it is not entirely off-limits. With military coordination, an armed convoy, and a bit of rugged hiking, you can still reach the archaeological site at Mount Ebal and see Joshua’s altar with your own eyes.
That’s it for this week. If you would like to get the study questions that go with the reading, please visit our website at www.thejerusalemconnection.us.
Shabbat Shalom.
Study Questions
1. Personalizing the Story (Deut 26:1–11) When offering the first fruits, every Israelite recited the historical confession beginning with “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor.” Why was it crucial for each individual farmer to rehearse the Exodus story when presenting their personal harvest? How does intentionally remembering where God brought your family or community from guard against spiritual complacency in seasons of abundance?
2. The Call to Hidden Integrity (Deut 27:11–26) The twelve curses proclaimed from Mount Ebal focus heavily on covert sins committed out of public view—such as secret idolatry, mistreating vulnerable people, moving boundary stones, or taking bribes. Why do you think the national covenant ceremony placed such strong emphasis on private integrity rather than visible, public crimes? What does this teach us about the true foundation of community trust and faithfulness to God?
3. Choosing Life in the Land (Deut 28:1–19; 29:1–8) The blessings and curses in Deuteronomy 28 mirror each other directly (“blessed in the city / cursed in the city”), framing covenant life as an active, daily choice with real outcomes. Considering that this assembly was about to cross into Canaan without Moses, why was it essential for them to ratify this covenant for themselves rather than relying on their parents’ experience at Sinai? How do we actively take personal ownership of our faith rather than simply inheriting it?