Parsha Thoughts – Ki Tavo
Long-Form Thank-Yous
We say practically the entire Haggadah when bringing Bikkurim: we talk about all Hashem has done for us, starting all the way back with grandpa Avraham. Why not just thank Him for the fruit, short and sweet?
Suppose a person receives a shirt as a present. Is it appropriate to thank for one sleeve of it? Of course not!- the sleeve is only a small part of the total article: the shirt. Thanking for the sleeve would be positively insulting!
The same with thanking Hashem. While we do also thank for specific things, inasmuch as those specifics are part of His general caring for us, it is appropriate to recognize and thank for the whole.
Of course, its more than that. Its like the guy always lending a hand and giving a hundred small favors. When we get some excuse to thank him do we restrict our remarks solely to the occasion he is being honored for?
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Underwater Stones
The Jewish people were to write the Torah on twelve stone and set them into the Yarden bed. Afterwards they were to unearth a second set from the river-bed, write the Torah on them, and set them up at Har Eival. (A third group was set up at Gilgal)
What use is there in setting stones at the bottom of a river? Who sees them there?
One of the kinderlach answered that someone will eventually dive down and find them. He will wonder how they got there, and the miracle of the Jews’ passing through the Yarden on dry land will have been remembered.
Another one of the kinderlach suggested that when the Egyptians will be going down and drowning, they will read the Torah written there on the stones, and do t’shuvah before dying. (The dates and location are a bit off, but the thought is certainly magnificent!).
One suggestion is that Torah is compared to water. When the Torah itself is submerged that indicates total submergence in Torah.
The Rekanti expresses the thought that our survival in Eretz Yisroel is unnatural, solely in the Torah’s merit. We symbolize our total commitment for, and our total dependence on the Torah, by publicly writing the Torah in Eretz Yisroel at the very first second possible. Not even waiting to cross, we hurried to accept the Torah right in middle of the river!
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We Are Yes Responsible!
We proclaim that we have fulfilled the requirements of Maaser and Tzeddakah: ‘[we]… have finished giving our Maaser to the Levi, stranger and widow, and they have eaten in your cities and were satisfied’.
What does their eating have to do with us? They can throw it in the garbage! Why not only mention that we have given our Maaser?
Some people view Maaser as money not belonging to them. They merely give it out, perhaps like a gabbai tzeddakah. This is admirable, it shows great nobility of spirit. But I’m not sure if its true or if one is to think this way. The Torah indicates that I am indeed responsible that the poor man eat lunch today. It is my business. True, my responsibility is limited; I need not pay out all my money in feeding the poor, only one tenth. But when I do give that tenth, I am giving my own money, in actualization of my own responsibility.
This is the message here: we need to feel responsible for the poor.
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Being Happy In Life
When bringing Bikkurim we are told to be happy with all the good Hashem grants us. Well, doesn’t that depend? Perhaps this was a bad year and the crop was weak. What is there to be happy about?
Obviously, there still is what to be happy about, despite the crop being below expectation. One can, and ought, develop the capability of being joyful with whatever he has. In fact, one better.
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Crime And Punishment
Why are there only 14 pesukim of reward for keeping the Torah while there are 64 of punishment if we don’t? Why aren’t they at least equal? What about positive reinforcement?
Some answers are;
A. Its easier to list things that go wrong. Saying that our eyesight is fine means little, saying that we will go blind means much. So the Torah covers all the good bases in those fourteen, but needs much more to discuss the bad.
B. Threat works better than reward. Saying that if you do such and such you will gain a raise will not work as well as saying that if you do not do it you will get a demotion. Even a five cent per hour demotion works better than a dollar an hour raise! So the Torah focuses on threats because it more effective.
C. Just the opposite! People are more motivated by the positive than by negative, just as people get an E-z pass to save money, yet those same folks talk on their cellphones while driving, which can make them lose big money. Why? Because negative, punishment, is less effective than reward. So the Torah needs to talk lots on the punishment to balance out the few pesukim it talks reward. Fourteen of good equals sixty four bad.
D. People tend to take good for granted, so telling people that such and such good will happen to them may be wasted. They will think it was going to happen anyhow. But bad is always the Yad Hashem, people become very religious when something bad happens. So its easier to threaten, because bad is (supposedly!) Hashem’s sphere of activity.
E. People will one day claim there is no G-d. They will not do so by asking why do I, a worthless punk, deserve such a nice car. Rather it will be by saying ‘How can my uncle, a nice man, die so young?’ So the Tochacha is there to spell things out. Its a safety net; if you think that such and such a catastrophe proves there is no G-d, think again, because here G-d Himself foretold this very happening. We only need this for bad things, for only the bad makes people question G-d.
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Either – Or
‘Instead of that which you did not serve Hashem with happiness and good-heartedness amidst abundance, you will serve enemies that Hashem will send upon you in hunger and thirst and lack, who will place an iron yoke upon your neck until you are destroyed’
The Torah is making an Either-Or point here; we can never be completely free. Either we serve Hashem, or we serve our enemies. We choose. By the way, if you serve Hashem, He treats His servants well; you will have abundance. Whereas your enemies….
The moral is that if we don’t like our situation perhaps check who we serve. Maybe we have been choosing the wrong masters!
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Rashi ‘Today you have become a nation unto Hashem’ in reference to the Jews’ complaint that Moshe entrusted the Torah he had written to the Levi’im; ‘Today they are trustees, but tomorrow they will claim the Torah is theirs and they are in charge of it. We refuse to lose the Torah!’ When Moshe heard that, he exclaimed ‘Truly, Today you have become Hashem’s nation!’
The Jews have been keeping the Torah for forty years now. Why are they only called His Nation now?
Rabbi Chaim Mintz shlit”a suggested that the test of where one truly stands is not by how many mitzvos one performs. Its in what one feels when he misses a mitzvah. Does he feel pain and loss, or say ‘Just as well!’
When the Jews protested losing Torah, only then were they truly Hashem’s nation. Do we see Mitzvos as our gain?
©2013
kollel parshah | Tiferet Ramot 83-21, Jerusalem, Israel, 97290
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