D'var Torah

With television and movie writers and actors on strike, there’s a dearth of new shows to watch these days, and it will get worse as the strike continues into the fall season. However, I have a solution! Read this week’s Torah portion, Ki Tavo (Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8) and buckle in for a horror story of the list of curses that will befall the Jewish people if we are not faithful to God. It’s quite a graphic read, and maybe should come with a warning!

Here are some of them to give you a quick taste:

Cursed shall you be in your comings and cursed shall you be in your goings.

יהוה will let loose against you calamity, panic, and frustration in all the enterprises you undertake, so that you shall soon be utterly wiped out because of your evildoing in forsaking Me.

יהוה will make pestilence cling to you, until putting an end to you in the land that you are entering to possess.

יהוה will strike you with consumption, fever, and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew; they shall hound you until you perish.

Your carcasses shall become food for all the birds of the sky and all the beasts of the earth, with none to frighten them off.

יהוה will strike you with the Egyptian inflammation, with hemorrhoids, boil-scars, and itch, from which you shall never recover.

יהוה will strike you with madness, blindness, and dismay.

Your sons and daughters shall be delivered to another people, while you look on; and your eyes shall strain for them constantly, but you shall be helpless.

A people you do not know shall eat up the produce of your soil and all your gains; you shall be abused and downtrodden continually, until you are driven mad by what your eyes behold.

(Deut. 28:16 ff)

Yikes! Of course, none of this will come to pass, the Torah tell us, if we are faithful to God. Then we will be blessed:

Blessed shall you be in your comings and blessed shall you be in your goings.

יהוה will put to rout before [your army] the enemies who attack you;

יהוה will ordain blessings for you upon your barns and upon all your undertakings: you will be blessed in the land that your God יהוה is giving you.

יהוה will establish you as God’s holy people, as was sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of your God יהוה and walk in God’s ways.

And all the peoples of the earth shall see that יהוה’s name is proclaimed over you, and they shall stand in fear of you.

(Deut 28: 6-10)

Pfew! Rabbi David Hoffman, formerly with Jewish Theological Seminary, writes that it is customary to read this Torah portion – about the blessings and curses – before Rosh Hashanah.

He suggests that on the most basic level, reading this will help us get into the mindset of making good choices as we re-imagine what we can do to be our better selves in the New Year and the benefits that will come to us if we make good choices, verses what might befall us if we make bad choices.

But Dr. Hoffman goes on to suggest a different connection that Maimonides suggests about the blessings, curses, and Rosh Hashanah. Maimonides asserts that it is more than just a series of promises and threats by God. It is actually a mitzvah – a commandment that we must fulfill. The Talmud teaches that prior to entering the Land of Israel, individuals were held accountable for their own actions. However, as the Israelites prepare to cross the Jordan into the Land of Israel, this changed. Now, the Talmud tells us (Talmud: Sanhedrin 43b) that the entire People take the blame for an individual’s sins. “Blessings would be earned and experienced by the group. Communal calamity would be the price for individual destructive decisions,” writes Dr. Hoffman. So, what is the mitzvah, according to Dr. Hoffman? It is “Arevut” which is recognizing that we all are connected to each other and responsible for each other: “Kol Yisraeil Arevim zeh la zeh” (Talmud: Shevuot 39a).

Reading these blessings and curses in Ki Tavo before Rosh Hashanah helps us remember it is not just our obligation to better ourselves in the New Year ahead, but it is also our obligation to help others do the same. Curses come to us because others have sinned. Blessings come to us because others have made good choices too. As we prepare during this month of Elul for the Days of Awe ahead, may be reminded of how we all – the Children of Israel – are truly connected as a people.