Family Parshah
Kt Teitzei Roundup

For those of you who have been following the previous parshiot, you know that we've gone through lots of mitzvot. Well, this parshah brings lots more. Seventy-four more, to be exact. Let's get started!

Returning lost objects: When we find something that somebody has lost, if there's any way we can figure out how it belonged to, we must return it to the owner. This is big mitzvah.

Burying the dead: Another biggie: Respecting the body of a dead person and burying it as soon as possible.

Protecting the mom: Before we take eggs or baby birds from a nest, we must send away the mother bird, so she shouldn't see and be sad. We learn from this to be compassionate to all creatures.

Fencing: Anyone who builds a new house has to make a fence for the roof, so nobody should fall and get hurt. This teaches us that we have to always take precautions to make sure that there are no dangers that might trip up others.

No mixing: We must be careful not to create kilayim, which is a mixture of two different things. For example, we can't plant two types of plants too close to each other where they might cross-pollinate. Same with animals: we can't yoke together two different animals; for example, an ox and a donkey. Similar to this is the idea of shaatnez: we may not wear wool and linen mixed together.

Tzitzit: Anytime we wear something that has four corners, we have to attach strings, called tzitzit, at the corners. In order to do this mitzvah at all times, we wear a special garment with four corners with the strings attached. That garment is called tzitzit as well.

Eating on the job: When you have someone working for you in the field, picking fruit or vegetables, you must let him eat whatever he wants. He can't just take whatever he wants home with him, but eating on the job is his right.

A lesson from Miriam: If someone says something bad about another Jew, he is punished with tzaraat. We learned about this a while back in parshot Tazria and Metzorah. The Jews are reminded of this here, and Miriam is held up as an example that all the Jews saw. Because she spoke ill of Moses, she got tzaraat.

The final mitzvah in this parshah is to remember Amalek, the evil nation who attacked the Jews after they left Egypt, and work to erase its memory.