Ki Tavo 5775:                        A Sad Story

By Rabbi Joshua (sadly known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

The main section of Parshas Ki Tavo consists of the tochecha, the verses of rebuke describing the punishment that will befall the people for not observing the mitzvos. These verses are preceded by verses of blessings that will be given when they do observe the mitzvos. Several mitzvos precede the blessings and curses, beginning with the mitzvah of bringing Bikkurim, the first fruits of the land of Israel, to the Kohen in the Beis HaMikdash. On one level, the connection between this mitzvah and the section on blessings and curses is easily understood. Bringing Bikkkurim is an expression of gratitude to God, and a recognition that it is only through His help that we are able to produce a crop. Lack of gratitude, the rabbis tell us, eventually leads to a denial of God, and this, in turn, brings punishment, as described in the tochecha.

There is, however, another level of connection between the mitzvah of Bikkurim and the section of rebuke. After presenting the declaration to be made by the farmer upon bringing his bikkurim to the Beis HaMikdash, the Torah says, "You shall rejoice with all the goodness that the Lord your God has given you and your household " (Devarim 26:11). Rabbi Hillel Lieberman, Hy"d, in his Ahavas Ha'aretz, says that the source of all adversity is sadness. Rav Kook, in his Shemoneh Kevatzim says that the one character trait that has no positive side to it is that of atzvus, or sadness and depression. The rabbis tell us that Shechem is a place designated for adversity. It is there, says Rabbi Lieberman, that we first encounter sadness, when the brothers learn about the rape of their sister Dinah (Bereishis 34:7). To correct this situation, the people were commanded to build an altar on Mt. Eival, in Shechem, on the day they entered Eretz Yisroel, as recorded in the parsha before the section of rebuke. This was done with joy, reflecting the verse later recorded in Divrei HaYamim (1, 17:27). As Rav Kook writes in his work Oros, Eretz Yisroel is an organic part of the Jewish people, part of its very nature and, therefore, it should be approached with joy, since joy is caused, as Rav Yosef Albo teaches in his Sefer HaIkarim, when a person acts in accordance with the nature of his soul. When the farmer brings his Bikkurim to the Beis HaMikdash, then, he is told to do so in joy, as marking the significance of settling in the land.

With this teaching in the background, we can understand the connection between the bringing of Bikkurim and the tochecha. Near the end of the tochecha, we are told that severe punishment comes because we did not serve God out of joy. A lack of joy in one's service of God reflects a lack of appreciation of one's own nature and the extent to which God's mitzvos and the bounty he provided us correspond to what he needs in order to live properly, especially in Eretz Yisroel. If we understand this message, we will be able to enhance our service of God, and avoid the severity of the punishment outlined in the parsha.