פָּרָשַׁת כִּי תֵצֵא

Parshat Ki Teitzei holds more mitzvot than any other parsha (the Sefer HaChinuch counts seventy-four), as Moshe Rabbeinu teaches Bnei Yisrael (the children of Israel) how a holy people lives in its land: in war, in the family, with property, and in kindness and honesty. It opens with the yefat toar (the captive woman), who mourns her parents a full month before a soldier may marry her; the firstborn of a hated wife, who still receives the double portion; the ben sorer umoreh (the wayward and rebellious son); and the burial of an executed man on the same day.

Then come mitzvot of daily life: returning lost property (hashavat aveidah); sending away the mother bird (shiluach haken), with the promise of long life; a maakeh (guardrail) on the roof; no kilayim (mixed seeds) in the vineyard and no shaatnez (wool and linen together); and tzitzit on the four corners of a garment. The laws of marriage follow, and who may marry into the kehal Hashem (the congregation of Hashem). The army camp is kept holy, "for Hashem your G-d walks in the midst of your camp." A runaway slave is not handed back, a brother is lent to without interest, and vows are kept.

The parsha continues with the get (keritut - bill of divorce between husband and wife), the new husband's year at home, pledges returned by nightfall, wages paid the same day, and the forgotten sheaf, olives and grapes left for the ger (stranger, convert), the orphan and the widow, "remember that you were a slave in Mitzrayim (Egypt)." It closes with the limit on lashes, yibum and chalitzah, honest weights and measures, and the command to remember Amalek and wipe out his memory. These last pesukim (25:17–19) are the special reading of Parshat Zachor.