From: Netvort@aol.com Sent: Friday, September 23, 2005 1:13 AM To: JoshHoff@aol.com Subject: Netvort : parshas Ki Savo, 5765 Think Again By Rabbi Joshua (conceptually known as The Hoffer) Hoffman The Talmud in Megillah tells us that there is a special enactment of the rabbis to read, publicly, the section of blessings and curses in parshas Ki Savo before Rosh Hashanah, to indicate our hope that the old year with its curses should come to an end, and the new year with its blessings should begin. Although the Talmud does not say this, the implication is that we also hope for the new year and its blessings to begin. We have shown, in the past, how this statement can also be applied to the beginning of this week's parsha, which discusses the mitzvoh of bringing one's first fruits to the Temple, and reciting a paragraph that recapitulates the history of the nation from its very beginnings until the present.(see Netvort to parshas Ki Savo, 5760). I would now like to look further into the parsha and demonstrate how the section of blessings and curses itself indicates our hope for an end to the old year’s curses and the beginning o the new year’s blessings. In the beginning of the section of the blessings, we are told," It shall be that if you listen to the voice of God, to perform all of His commandments, that I command you this day, that the Lord, your God, will make you supreme over all the nations of the earth. All these blessings will overtake you, if you listen to the voice of the Lord, your God' (Devorim 28:1-2). The phrase 'will overtake you,' used here, is a translation of the Hebrew word 'vehisigucha,' which also appears in the parallel passage at the beginning of the curses, as we read, "But it will be that if you do not listen to the voice of the Lord, your God, to perform all His commandments, and all the decrees that I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you" (Devorim 28:15). Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsh, in his commentary to the first verse which begins the section of blessings, explains this term, as used there, to mean that the blessings will come even though we performed the mitzvos without any thought of receiving reward for them. The true reward for performing the commandments comes in the next world, he continues. The blessings that the Torah describes here are merely the means to enable us to continue performing the mitzvos. The difficulty with this explanation is that, although based on an understanding of the blessings that is formulated by the Rambam, it does not seem to have application to the parallel verse in the section of the curses. Given the unique nature and apparent superfluity of this term, however, one would think that its usage in the two verses would be similar. Rabbi Avrohom Abba Yudelevitch, in his Darash Av, gives an explanation of the term 'vehisigucha' that does have a similar application to both the verse which begins the section of the blessings and the verse which begins the section of the curses, although in a reverse sense, as we shall see. He understands the word 'vehisigucha' to mean 'to pursue, ‘and writes that God will bestow blessings upon us for performing the commandments, and we will benefit from these blessings even if we do all that is possible to prevent these blessings from taking effect. In other words, the blessings will pursue us, even if we flee from them. He gives the example of a wealthy nineteenth century Polish businessman named Kalman Tolechinski who gave his son forty thousand rubles to start him off in business, and arranged for him to meet with an agent to purchase merchandise. The son insisted on buying only black cloth, and invested all of his money in it, despite the protestations of his father and the rest of his family that this made no sense. As it turned out, the Poles staged a revolution against the Russians and the man whom the Poles had thought would become the next king was killed. As a result, there was a huge market for black cloth, to wear as a sign of mourning, and the only person who could provide that cloth was Kalman's son, who had bought up the market, and therefore made a ’killing ’ (pardon the pun!).. Thus, even though this person had seemingly done all that was possible to prevent his own success in business, success pursued him and he prospered. In the same way, writes Rabbi Yudelevitch, when the Jewish nation performs God's commandments, even if they act in a way that would seem to preclude earthly success, virtually running away from God's blessings, the blessings will pursue them, and they will prosper. Although Rabbi Yudelevitch does not say this, we can explain the parallel verse in the section of curses to mean that if the Jewish nation does not perform God's commandments, then even if they do all they can to avoid the curses that the Torah says they will receive, the curses will pursue them and they will suffer the consequences of their sins. In this way, the symmetry between the two parallel verses is preserved. I would like to present a third way of understanding the term' vehisigucha,' which goes beyond symmetry, and actually understands the word to have the same meaning and to convey the same message in both verses. I once heard the Yiddish writer and teacher Rabbi Aharon Ben Zion Shurin, brother-in- law of my teacher, Rav Aharon Soloveichik, zt"l, explain the word 'vehisigucha' in our verses to mean,' and you will understand it,' from the word 'hasagah,' or conception. Often, said Rabbi Shurin, we already have a blessing in our midst, in our everyday lives, but we do not appreciate it. What the Torah is telling us here is that when we perform God's commandments and remain true to His Torah, we will understand the true meaning of blessings in life, and realize that God is constantly blessing us with our needs. We can expand on this idea by taking note of the comment of Rabbi Sholom Noach Brozovski of Slonim in his Nesivos Shalom to parshas Re'eh, commentating on the verse, "See I place before you today a blessing and a curse" (Devorim 11:26). He writes that each person has his own purpose in life to fulfill, that only he can fulfill, at this juncture of history. God gives us, each day, the means we needs to fulfill that mission, and this is the blessing that the Torah refers to. Following this approach, we can say, based on Rabbi Shurin's explanation of the term 'vehisigucha,' that if we properly perform God's commandments, we will comprehend what the real blessing in life is, and understand that God is constantly providing us with it. We still need to understand, however, how this relates to the use of the word 'vehisigucha' in the section of the curses. Rabbeinu Bachya ben Asher, in his commentary to the verse which begins the section of curses, notes that the word 'vehisigucha' Is written out fully there, with a 'vav’ after the letter ‘gimmel’, while it is written deficiently in the section of blessings, without a 'vav' after the gimmel. Through the extra’ vav, ‘he says, there is a hint to God's name, thus giving the message that God is with us in our suffering, and we do not need to fear that we will be destroyed. Following on this comment of Rabbeinu Bachya, and based on Rabbi Shurin's explanation of the word 'vehisgucha,' perhaps we can say that we need to understand the curses that God brings upon us, just as we need to understand the blessings we receive. If we understand the curses correctly, we will realize that God lies behind them, and, ultimately, they are meant for our good, to bring us back to His service, and the fulfillment of our purpose in life. Based on this explanation, we can now return to the Talmudic passage in Megillah and explain it to mean that if we properly understand the educative purpose behind the curses enumerated in parshas Ki Savo, we will realize that the curses are ultimately a blessing for us, in that they help us return to God and to fulfill our purpose in this world. With this understanding in mind, we can truly say, 'let the year and its curses end, and let the year with its blessings begin,' because we now appreciate the fact that the curses are really the foundations of our future blessings. Please address all correspondence to the author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following address - JoshHoff @ AOL.com. To subscribe to Netvort, send a message with subject line subscribe, to Netvort@aol.com. To unsubscribe, send message with subject line unsubscribe, to the same address.