Netvort:
parshas Ki Savo, 5769: The Hidden Message
By
Rabbi Joshua (esoterically known as The Hoffer) Hoffman
This
week's parsha is replete with the usage of the word ' hayom' or
'today' as pointed out by Rabbi Yehudah Shaviv in his work, MiSinai
Ba. Perhaps the most well-known usage is in the verse, "This
day, the Lord, your God, commands you to perform these statutes, and
the laws, and you shall observe and perform them with all your heart
and all your soul" (Devarim, 26:16). Rashi, based on the Sifrei
and Tanchuma, explains the term 'hayom' here to mean that each day
term ' hayom' in these mitzvos should be new in our eyes, as if they
were commanded regarding them that day. This relationship to mitzvos
is the exact opposite of the relationship mentioned in the section of
rebuke ('tochecha'), in which we are told that the terrible
punishments the nation will suffer will come as a result of not
serving God with joy and a good heart (Devarim 28, 47). Rabbi Moshe
Sternbach, in his Ta'am VaDa'as, cites Rabbeinu Yonah in Sha'arei
Teshuvah who speaks at length of the problem of performing mitzvos by
rote. The measure of one's commitment to the mitzvos, says Rabbi
Sternbaach, is the degree to which he feels joy in performing them. A
feeling of freshness in performing the mitzvos, of having received
them today, contributes to one's sense of joy in fulfilling his
duties to God.
I would like to focus, however, on the use of
'hayom' at the beginning and the end of the parsha. In the beginning
of the parsha, the Torah relates the mitzvos of bringing the
bikkurim, or first fruits, to the kohein in the Temple, and reciting
a declaration about that event. The farmer says to the kohein, "
I declare this day to the Lord, your God, that I have come to the
land that God swore to our forefathers to give us" (Devarim,
26:3).He then goes on to recapitulate the history of the nation from
the time it descended to Egypt until the time when it entered the
land. We need to understand the use of 'hayom' here, because,
obviously, the farmer did not enter the land on the day that he was
bringing his first fruits!
Near the end of the parsha,
immediately after the section of rebuke, Moshe tells the people, "You
have seen all that God has done to Pharaoh and all his slaves and all
his land, those great signs and wonders.... But the Lord did not give
you a heart to know, or eyes to see, or ears to hear, until this
day (Devarim, 29: 1-2). Rashi brings a midrash to explain what it was
that happened that particular day which gave the nation this sense of
understanding, but I would like to suggest that the meaning is
connected to what follows, and, in turn, to the meaning of 'hayom' in
the beginning of the parsha.
Moshe goes on to tell the
people that he led them in the wilderness for forty years, and they
did not eat bread or drink wine or intoxicating drink during that
time, "so that they will know that he is the Lord their God. He
then relates the battle that Sichon and Og waged against the nation,
from which they emerged victorious, capturing the lands of these two
kingdoms, and providing an inheritance to Reuvan, Gad and half of the
tribe of Menashe. In short, Moshe was telling them, on the last day
of his life, as the midrash says, that today, after witnessing the
consequences of the battles with Sichon and Og, and standing at the
doorstep to Eretz Yisroel, they understand that all the trials and
travails they had gone through over the past forty years were
actually for the good, despite the complaining that they engaged in
over those years, thinking that it was bad. In retrospect, they now
understood that all that God had put them through was really for
their benefit.
This is also the message that the farmer
conveys when he brings his first fruit, and recapitulates the
nation's history from the time of the exile in Egypt. Although, at
the time, the exile seemed to them to be a bad thing, in retrospect,
they now understand that it was really for their good, just as Yosef
told his brothers, when he revealed himself to them in Egypt, not to
feel bad, because about what they did to him, because God, who was
ultimately behind his descent to that country, considered it to be
good. Similarly, on the day that the farmer brings his first fruits
to the Temple, he reviews the history of the nation and declares that
he now understands how all that happened was for the good,
as it has culminated in his settling in the land and enjoying its
fruits.
This message, of the hidden blessing in things
which appear to be bad, emerges, according to some commentators, from
the section of rebuke, as well. There is a custom to read this
section in a low voice, presumably because of the sad nature of what
is being read. However, Rabbi Dovid Avraham Mandelbaum, in his Pardes
Yosef HeChadash, cites sources which say, on the contrary, that it is
read in this way because, according to the Zohar, each curse has
hidden within it a blessing. Reading these verses in a low voice thus
attunes us to look for the hidden blessing contained within. He adds
that according to the Zohar, this section, even though it does not
contain an explicit concluding message of comfort, as does the
section of rebuke in parshas Bechukosai does, in a hidden way,
contain such a message, if we know how to read the section in a
deeper way. Our challenge, then, while still in exile, is to look for
God's hidden presence among us, and understand, each day, that the
events in our own lives, and in the life of nation, are, ultimately,
for the good, and will lead to our final return to Eretz Yisroel,
speedily and in our time.
Partial
archives are available at
http://www.yucs.org/heights/torah/bysubject/
In
addition, archives from 5764-5768 are now available at
yeshivasbrisk.freeservers.com/netvort.html. My thanks to
Ben Zion Lazovsky, son of Rabbi Louis Lazovsky, both of Chicago,
for arranging this archive.