From: Netvort@aol.com
Sent: Friday, August 31, 2007 4:07 AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort : parshas Ki Savo, 5767

      


                                                   I've Had Enough   
          
                 By Rabbi Joshua (sufficiently known as The Hoffer) Hoffman



  Near the end of the section of tochacha, or rebuke, the Torah tells us, "Because you have not served the Lord, your God, with joy and with goodness of heart, out of abundance of everything" (Devorim 28:47). Most commentators view this as the reason the Torah gives for the terrible punishments described in this section. We have discussed, in the past, why the nation is deserving of such horrendous punishment for a seemingly minor offense. There is, however, another way of understanding his verse, which is offered by Rav Meir Simcha HaKohein of Dvinsk in his Meshech Chochmah. He explains that the verse should be split into two parts, the first part telling us that we are punished for not serving God, and the second part telling as that the reason we did not serve God is because that our happiness came from the abundance of good that we had, from material riches, rather than from spiritual depth. Rav Meir Simcha points out that a verse in the beginning of the parsha, in connection with the bringing of bikkurim, or first fruits, to the Temple, explains what the source of the proper kind of rejoicing should be. We are told there, "And you shall rejoice with all the goodness that the Lord, your God, has given you" (Devorim 26:11). The idea expressed here is that our joy should not come from the material possessions themselves, but from the fact that God has given them to us, thereby demonstrating His love for us.

  Perhaps we can add to this explanation by saying that when the Torah tells us that the people rejoiced over the abundance of good they had, they were viewing their possessions in the wrong way. They realized that they had a great amount of wealth,  and this made them happy, although they would have been even happier if they had more. The proper attitude, however, is that a person should be happy with whatever he has, realizing that it comes from God, and God provides him with exactly what he needs to accomplish his task in life. This approach to life can be seen in the contrasting attitudes of Ya'akov and Eisav to their possessions, as recorded in parshas Vayishlach. When Ya'akov offered gifts to Eisav, Eisav said, " I have plenty" (Berishis 33:9) while Ya'akov said, "I have everything" (Bereishis 33:11). While Eisav, who was rooted in materialism, remarked on how abundant his possessions were, Ya'akov simply said that God has provided him with precisely what he needs. Thus, the verse in the beginning of the parsha, which teaches us that we should be joyous over the fact that it is God who provides us with our possessions, also teaches us since it is, in fact, God who provides us with our needs, we should realize that what we have is exactly what we need. As we have mentioned in the past, Rav Yosef Albo, in his Sefer HaIkkarim, or Book of Principles, explains that joy comes when a person acts in accordance with the nature of his soul. In our context, knowing that what we have is given to us by God, Who knows what we need to fulfill our mission in this world, should be the cause of our joy, rather than what we have, per se, causing us joy. 

  There is another way of connecting the verse at the beginning of the parsha with the verse included in the tochacha. Rav Tzvi Yehudah Kook, in a talk included in the recently published collection, Peamim, says that true joy comes only when we are in Eretz Yisroel. This is what the Torah is telling us when it says, " And you shall rejoice with all the goodness that the Lord, your God, has given you," in reference to the bikkurim, the first fruits produced in the land. The verse that is embedded in the tochacha comes to teach us that, in Eretz Yisroel, joy comes in a background of darkness. In the midst of the difficulties and darkness which we experience, we should be able to realize joy in being in Eretz Yisroel.  Although Rav Tzvi Yehudah does not say this, this seems to be the meaning of what the rabbis tell us, that Eretz Yisroel is one of three good gifts which God gives us that we receive only through afflictions, or suffering. The idea here is that without any hardship involved, a gift is not meaningful to a person. Viewed in this way, we can say that the parsha begins by telling us that true joy can only come in Eretz Yisroel, which is the place where the Jewish nation is able to carry out its function of being a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Furthermore, this joy comes in the midst of darkness and suffering which puts the joy into relief, bringing us to understand that the challenges that God presents us with are meant to bring out our inner potential, to arouse us to fulfill our national task, and for each of us to fulfill our personal task in the context of the wider  national goal.



  Please address all correspondence to the author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following address - JoshHoff @ AOL.com.

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