From: Netvort@aol.com
Sent: Friday, September 08, 2006
9:56 AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort : parshas Ki
Savo, 5766
Out of
Proportion
By Rabbi Joshua (disproportionately known as The Hoffer)
Hoffman
Rav Amnon Bazak, in his Nekudas Pesicha, points out an
interesting contrast between this week's parsha, Ki Savo, and parshas Re'eh.
Both parshiyos mention the blessings and curses to be given at Mt. Gerizim and
Mt. Eival. However, while parshas Re’eh goes on to explain, at length, the way
to attain the blessings, namely, through observing the mitzvos of the Torah,
parshas Ki Savo places much greater emphasis on the curses than on the
blessings. In fact, even though the Torah commands the nation to place the
blessings and the curses on the respective mountains, only the curses are
spelled out. Moreover, in the section of the tochecha, or rebuke, which follows,
fourteen verses present blessings, and fifty-three verses present curses and
punishments. In addition, although the section of tochacha in parshas Bechukosai
ends with a comforting note, the section in Ki Savo ends abruptly, with a
description of the Jewish exiles being placed on the market as slaves, with no
prospective customers (Devorim 28:68). What is the reason for this difference in
emphasis? Rav Bazak suggests that the difference may be due to the different
stages in Moshe's farewell oration to the people in which the two parshiyos were
presented to them. Parshas Re'eh is set at the beginning of the mitzvoh section
of Moshe's address, and, as such, emphasizes the positive nature of Torah
observance. Parshas Ki Savo, on the other hand, begins the final stage of
Moshe's address, in which he delivers more rebuke and warning, in hopes that
this will move the nation to observe the Torah out of fear of the punishment
that will come if they transgress its commandments.
I do not
believe that Rav Bazak's solution to the problem he presents is tenable, because
it misrepresents the real nature of Moshe's rebuke of his people. From the very
beginning of his farewell address, in parshas Devorim, we find that he tempered,
and sometimes preceded, his message of rebuke with expressions of love. For
example, in parshas Devorim, he tells them, " I said to you at that time,
saying, I cannot carry you alone. The Lord, your God has increased you and
behold you are today as the stars in the heaven in abundance. May the Lord, the
God of your forefathers, add to you a thousand times yourselves, and bless you
as He has spoken of you. How can I alone carry your burden and your quarrels?"
(Devorim 1:10-12). I would, therefore, like to suggest a different approach to
the focus on punishments and curses in this week's parsha, based on an insight
provided by Rabbi Shlomo Goren in his Toras HaMikra.
As a
prelude to the covenant at Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Eival, where the blessings and
curses were to be delivered, Moshe tells the people, "Keep the commandment that
I am commanding you this day. It shall be on the day that you cross the Yardein…
that you shall set up great stones for yourself and you shall coat them with
plaster. You shall inscribe on them all the words of the Torah… It shall be when
you cross the Yardein, you shall erect these stones… There you shall build an
altar for the Lord your God…You shall slaughter olah offerings to the Lord your
God. You shall slaughter peace offerings and eat there, and you shall rejoice
before the Lord, your God. You shall inscribe upon the stones this Torah, well
clarified" (Devorim 27:1-8). Thus, in conjunction with the covenant to be made
at the site of the two mountains, as perpetuated by the writing of the Torah on
the stones, the people were commanded to bring sacrifices and rejoice before
God. The Talmud (Pesachim 109a) derives from these verses that the obligation of
rejoicing on the festivals consists, in the time when the Temple is standing, in
consuming meat. The commentary of Tosafos there asks why this obligation is
derived from the verses written in connection with the covenant at Mt. Gerizim
and Mt. Eival, rather than from verses written in connection with the festivals
themselves. Rabbi Goren further asks, what kind of simcha, or rejoicing, was
there at this covenant, that called for the sacrifices that were brought, in the
first place? Weren't curses and punishments given there? In light of Rabbi
Bazak's comments, we may strengthen this question by noting the seeming
disproportionate emphasis on curses and punishment in this presentation of the
covenant ! Why, then, did the rabbis choose to learn the nature of the
obligation of rejoicing on the festivals from these verses?
Rabbi Goren answers his questions by pointing to the nature of the covenant at
Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Eival. After all, wasn't a covenant to observe the
commandments of the Torah already made at Mt.Sinai? Why, then, was there a need
to make another covenant? The commentaries explain that this covenant was one
which created the corporate identity of the Jewish nation and imposed upon it
mutual responsibility for the observance of mitzvos. By virtue of this covenant,
a Jew who has already fulfilled, for example, the mitzvoh of shofar on Rosh
HaShanah can still blow it for someone else who has not yet fulfilled the
mitzvoh, even though only one who is obligated in a mitzvoh can fulfill it on
behalf of someone else. The reason is that because all Jews are responsible for
each other, as long as even one Jew has not fulfilled a particular mitzvoh, no
Jew has performed it in a complete way. As the medieval commentator Ritva
explains, this is because the Jewish people are considered as one collective
body. This could only be accomplished in Eretz Yisroel, where the Jewish nation
is truly one, as the Zohar says in pashas Emor. As Rav Yosef Dov Halevi
Soloveitchik explained, the covenant was begun by Moshe in the plains of Moav,
shortly before the people crossed the Yardein, but only completed in Eretz
Yisroel, at Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Eival, under the leadership of Yehoshua.
It was this creation of the corporate entity of the Jewish people, says Rabbi
Goren, the solidification of its national identity, that was the source of the
great simcha that was celebrated at the site of the covenant. Rav Goren does not
mention this, but we have, in the past, often referred to the teaching of Rabbi
Albo in his Sefer HaIkkarim, that a person attains simcha when he acts in
accordance with the nature of his soul. Since it is the nature of a Jew to want
to observe the mitzvos of the Torah, doing so should bring him joy. Transferring
this concept to the national level, then, when the formation of the collective
entity of the Jewish nation, to serve as the bearer of God’s name in this world,
can be seen as a fulfillment of its nature, and, so, the event when this
occurred was an occasion for joy. Based on this analysis of Rabbi Goren, I
believe that we can now begin to understand why there is such a focus on curses
and punishments in the covenant made at Mt. Gerizm and Mt.
Eival.
In the beginning of parshas Ki Savo, we are told of
the mitzvoh of vidui ma’aser, which entails gathering whatever trumos and
ma'asros one has in his possession on the fourth and seventh years of the
shemittah cycles, and making a declaration that we have fulfilled the various
details involved in the mitzvos of ma'aser. As part of this declaration, the
farmer says, "I have listened to the voice of the Lord, my God ; I have acted
according to everything You have commanded me" (Devorim 26:14). Rashi, citing
the Sifrei, explains that when the farmer says that he has done all that God
commanded, he means that he has rejoiced and brought joy to others with the
ma'aser. The farmer further says, "Gaze down ('hashkifa') ... and bless Your
people Yisroel, and the ground that You gave us, as You swore to our
forefathers, a land flowing with milk and honey" (Devorim 26:15). The midrash,
in Shemos Rabbah (41:1), points out that the word 'hashkifa' has a connotation
of pain throughout Scripture except for this one verse in Ki Savo, and that the
difference in this verse is because the people who bring out their ma'aser
convert a curse to a blessing. Rabbi Elchanan Adler, a rosh yeshivah at Rabbi
Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, suggested, in a recent talk, that this
power is a result of the simcha in which the mitzvoh is done. Perhaps we can add
that this simcha is a result of connecting to the Jewish people, as the Sifrei
says, rejoicing and causing others to rejoice. Just as the covenant at Mt.
Gerizim and Mt. Eival generated great joy through the creation of the corporate
entity of the Jewish people, so too, performing the mitzvos connected with
ma'aser, giving it to others, including the poor among the nation, who receive
ma'aser ani, promotes the feeling of unity among the nation. Moreover, ma'aser
is a mitzvoh that relates to Eretz Yisroel, which unifies the Jewish people. It
is, then, this strengthening of the unity of the Jewish people that generates
simcha, and in turn is able to convert a curse to a blessing.
Returning to the covenant at Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Eival,
we can now understand the seeming emphasis on curses that we saw in it, as
pointed out by Rabbi Bazak, and still understand why there was such a feeling of
joy in connection with it. Because this covenant resulted in the creation of the
corporate entity of the Jewish nation, the principle of mutual responsibility
came into effect. While this principle, on the one hand, could have a negative
effect, causing each person in the nation to suffer the curses pronounced if the
mitzvos would not be observed, it can also have a positive effect, when the
people do keep the mitzvos, thereby enabling the nation to fulfill its task as
the representative of God in this world, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
By doing this, they would have the ability to convert the curses into blessings,
and bring great joy to the world. Seen in this way, the more curses that were
pronounced, the more opportunity existed to bring about blessings, both to the
Jewish nation, and the world in general, by acting as an example for them.
This past week, I attended a celebration of the completion of
tractate Yoma in the Daf Yomi cycle. At this completion celebration, or siyum,
Rabbi Haskel Besser, a member of the presidium of Agudath Israel of America,
spoke, and pointed out that on the night of Rosh HaShanah, we eat certain fruits
and vegetables, and, based on their names, mention blessings that we pray God
will grant us. He pointed out that not all of the names of these foods have good
connotations. For example, the leek is called 'karsi,' which means 'to cut off.'
However, the blessing we pronounce before eating it is, "may our
enemies be cut off." My teacher, Rav Aharon Soloveichik, noted that this can be
done in any language, so that a person can take the fruit dubbed uglee and pray
that our enemies should have an ugly year. Although there are a number of
different explanations for this custom, Rabbi Besser explained that the idea
behind it is that on Rosh Hashanah, we have the ability to convert the bad to
the good, and we pray that God's attribute of justice will be changed to His
attribute of mercy. Rabbi Besser went on to show that our ability to effect this
change is especially pronounced on Yom Kippur, when God grants us atonement for
our sins. Although Rabbi Besser did not say this, following Rabbi Goren's
analysis and our explanation of it, this ability comes as a result of the joy
that emanates from the strengthening of the corporate identity of the Jewish
nation, which is God's representative in this world. By committing ourselves to
this calling, we further Jewish unity, and thereby promote God's glory in this
world. As we read the section of blessings and curses in the synagogue this
week, let us, as the Talmud tells us, hope that it will mark the end of the
calamities we have experienced this past year, and the beginning of a new year
filled with God's blessings.
Please address all
correspondence to the author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following address -
JoshHoff @ AOL.com.
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