Weekly D'var Torah

There are ninety-eight curses in this week’s Parsha Ki Tavo, more than anywhere else in all of scripture. It starts like this:

If you do not listen to the Voice of G-d and fulfill the Mitzvot (commandments) which I (Moses) am commanding you today, then all of these curses shall come upon you and catch up with you: Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed in the country. Cursed shall be your kneading bowl and fruit basket. Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your earth, the calving of your herd and the lambing of your flock.

The first series of seven curses is horrific and terrifying. But what comes next is even worse:

The skies above your head shall be copper and the earth beneath your feet shall be iron....You shall be utterly routed by your enemies and slain and the beasts of the earth shall feed on your carcasses. You shall be smitten with madness, blindness and dismay. You shall grope blindly at noon.... Your children will be delivered captive to another people and you shall pine for them constantly but you will be helpless.

And even then, there is worse to come:

A nation whom you knew not will swoop down upon you and besiege you in your cities. In your starvation and desperation, you will eat your own children. You will become scarce and dwindle away when once you were as numerous as the stars. You will become a sign and a warning, a detestation to all the nations. You shall be scattered across the world and serve gods of wood and stone whom you knew not. And even there you shall find no peace. You shall be forever haunted, hunted, hated. You shall be brought back to Egypt and sell yourselves in that cursed place as slaves- and no one will buy you.

And then comes the surprising and perhaps even shocking conclusion. Why did all of these horrific things come to pass? Why was the Divine protection removed?

All because you did not serve HaShem your G-d in joy and gladness when you were blessed with abundance.

Just let that teaching sink in for a moment. All of the horror, loss, displacement and catastrophe would never have happened if you had only performed G-d’s Mitzvot: visited the sick, studied the Torah, celebrated Shabbat and the holidays, given Tzedaka, acted with lovingkindness, all with joy and gratitude.

What can this possibly mean? The Zohar, the repository of mystical knowledge, says that the curses are not curses at all but blessings. By listing them in all of their gruesome detail, they are forever trapped in the bonds of G-d’s word, never to be fully loosed upon Israel. Sometimes, naming the worst can rob it of its power. More than that though, lighting a Shabbat candle, saying Shema, making a l’chaim with indifference is entirely different than doing the same action with joy. Joy that is in the compass and power of every one of us with little effort. Think of a child looking at their parent performing a Jewish action whether a ritual like shaking a
Lulav, attending synagogue or as simple as saying a blessing over wine or bread. In one scenario, the parent acts in a quick, perfunctory and offhanded fashion. What might be the impression that this makes on the child? And by way of contrast, think of the same scenario where the parent’s eyes light up with joy and gratitude as they lift the wine cup or hold up the challah or any other Jewish act. Imagine the impression it leaves if the parent blesses the child before Yom Kippur with genuine tenderness and love. In which scenario is the child more likely
to be inspired by their parent’s action? In which scenario is the child more likely to continue to take part in Jewish life?

The Torah may speak about the dissolution and disintegration that follows abandoning joy and gratitude, but what the real point is that these two qualities can channel blessing through even the smallest Jewish act. The curses, as bad as they are, are finite. But the blessings of joy and gratitude are not. The most easily understood application of this teaching is indeed a parent setting an example for a child. But any time that a Mitzvah is infused with joy and gratitude, even if you are performing it alone, our Torah teaches that it matters far beyond our ability to
measure or comprehend. Joy can come whenever we allow ourselves to be mindful enough to say, “I have been given this opportunity to bring a little bit of light into the world through this act of connection or this small deed of kindness and compassion. I am the only one in all of creation who has been given this particular moment, this particular opportunity and this particular action.

That awareness, teaches the Torah, that spark of joy and gratitude, makes every Mitzvah, every sincere action making a Jewish value real, truly echo in eternity and awaken the wellsprings of blessing, starting a cascade of positive consequences that we may never even be aware of but are asked to trust that it is true. A kind action’s effects are impossible to gauge and that is why doing even one Mitzvah is not only an act of joy and gratitude but also an act of faith.

L’shana Tova! May you be graced to see even a tiny bit of the light that you shine in the world.