Parasha: Ki Tavo · Aliyah: Sixth (Yesod)

יקימך ה׳ לו לעם קדוש, "G'd will establish you for Him as a holy nation, etc." Starting with this verse up to and including verse 11 the Torah describes the rewards accruing to the Jewish people for not violating the negative comandments which are all subsumed above under the heading of שמר. This is why our verse repeats: "if you observe, i.e. not violate, the commandments of the Lord your G'd." A person acquires the attribute "holy" if he has refrained from violating negative commandments. We know this from Leviticus 19,2 where the imperative to be holy follows immediately after the legislation forbidding all kinds of sexual unions. This in turn is followed by another string of negative commandments. It is appropriate therefore for the Torah to write that as a result of your observing these negative commandments G'd will establish you as a holy nation for Him. Our sages in Vayikra Rabbah 24,6 also agree that the term "holy" is applied to people who refrain from violating the laws governing our sexual mores. These laws are all of the kind to which the observance called תשמר applies, i.e. one must merely refrain from violating them. It is appropriate therefore for the Torah to speak of G'd establishing us as a holy nation for Him in return for our observing these laws. The word לו, "for Him," is a hint that the Israelites will replace the angels when they qualify for the description "holy nation." G'd had selected the angels who are described as holy to stand in front of him as we know from Daniel 8,13. Once the Israelites will qualify for this description the angels will be merely adjuncts to them. We find an allusion to that time in Numbers 23,23: כעת יאמר ליעקב ולישראל מה פעל השם, "at a time when it will be said (revealed) to Jacob and to Israel what G'd has wrought" (compare Bamidbar Rabbah 20,20 on this verse).

וראו כל עמי הארץ, "Then all the people of the earth will see, etc." The promise in this verse also refers to the result of our observing the negative commandments. As long as a Jew observes these commandments his face never loses the צלם אלוקים, the image of G'd in which he has been created. As a result of his reflecting this צלם אלוקים, all other creatures, man and beast alike, will relate to him with awe. This is not true of Jews who indulge in the kind of activities which G'd has declared as being abominations in His eyes.

והותרך ה׳ לטובה בפרי בטנך, "And G'd will give you bountiful goodness, in the fruit of your womb, etc." Although the Torah had already mentioned earlier "the fruit of your womb will be blessed," there is a difference. At that time (verse 4) the promise was in return for studying Torah. Here the promise is a reward for observing the commandments. This is why the Torah had to detail it as one reward cannot be deduced from another reward. The Torah emphasises והותרך השם לטובה, "He will grant you additional goodness," and did not say פרי בטנך, "the fruit of your womb," because this promise is specifically designed to compensate you for observance of the negative commandments. The Torah means that in view of the fact that if one does not violate G'd's commandments one does not create negative, destructive forces in the universe, it follows that one's children will not be afflicted by these negative phenomena which are caused by one's own sins. Compare what I have written on the subject in connection with ראובן בכרי אתה, in Genesis 49,3.

בפרי בהמתך ובפדי אדמתך. Both of these blessings will accrue to you as a result of your observing the negative commandments.

יפתח ה׳ לך את אוצרו הטוב, "G'd will open for you His store of goodness, etc." From this point on until the end of verse 13 the Torah describes the reward for fulfilling the positive commandments. This is why verse 13 concludes with the words "if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your G'd." The channels which G'd employs to direct the outpourings of His goodness to earth are activated through performance of commandments rather than through the passive refraining from violating negative commandments.

יפתח ה׳ לך; "G'd will open for you." The pronoun "for you" is important as it indicates G'd's special providence for the Jew who observes these commandments. The new element in this promise is that although there may be many people whose conduct would preclude G'd from opening these channels of His bounty, G'd will not let this interfere with His special providence for the subject in our verse. The word הטוב in our verse is the mystical dimension of the "river" or "channel" of G'd's goodness we have referred to. It is what Solomon referred to in Proverbs 10,25 וצדיק יסוד עולם, "that the righteous is the foundation of the world." את השמים, "the heavens," this is a reference to the source of this input, a concept familiar to Kabbalists.

והלוית גוים רבים ואתה לו תלוה, "and you will lend to many nations but you will not have to borrow." It is a well known phenomenon in our literature that as long as the Jewish people observe G'd's laws the good the Gentiles experience in this world reaches them only via the Jewish people. Should the Jewish people, G'd forbid, not live in accordance with Torah precepts their פרנסה, livelihood, would consist only of scraps the Gentiles have left over. Moses illustrates this concept here by presenting both the positive side of the picture, i.e. "you will lend, etc.," and by implication, the negative side of the picture "and you will not have to borrow. If Moses had not presented the alternative we would not have recognised that the first half of the verse is a blessing as it is an accepted norm that the wealthy borrow from one another at different times, not because they are in need of sustenance.

ונתנך השם לראש, "and G'd will place you as a head, etc." Moses means that the fortunes of the people of Israel will be guided directly by the "head" i.e. G'd Himself, not an intermediary; ולא לזנב, "and not as a tail." This is a reference to the various "ministers" in the celestial regions which G'd has appointed to be in charge of the different nations of the world. The Israelites will always be on a "higher" level than these nations being cared for by G'd Himself. והיית רק למעלה ולא תהיה למטה; "you shall only be above and you will not be below." We may understand this best by referring to Yalkut Shimoni Jeremiah item 312, who explains Jeremiah 30,10: "and you My servant Jacob do not fear, etc." When Jacob had the dream with the ladder he observed angels ascending and descending. He assumed the angels to be the "ministers" of the various nations whose role in history would be ascents followed by descents. He was afraid that the same would happen to his descendants. Jeremiah reassures Jacob on that score. In our verse Moses tells us: "you will not be below," i.e. the fortunes of the Jewish people will not parallel those of the Gentiles whose place in the sun will be of brief duration. כי חשמע…לעשות, "when you hearken to carry out, etc." The Torah refers to the carrying out of positive commandments. Why did the Torah not write specifically what it is that we are to carry out, i.e. the commandments? The reason is that there are numerous commandments which most people can never carry out. Concerning these commandments all we can do is תשמע "to hear, i.e. to be prepared to fulfil these commandments if the opportunity arises and to study them meanwhile. Why does the Torah mention once more לשמר, seeing this is a description of how we relate to negative commandments, whereas these two verses speak about positive commandments? The Torah wanted to remind us that the reward for the carrying out of positive commandments can only be expected after one has first made a point of observing all the negative commandments. This is what the prophets meant when they described the sacrificial offerings of many Jews as an abomination. These Jews wanted to ingratiate themselves with G'd and reap rewards for fulfilling positive commandments while ignoring the negative commandments of the Torah. Positive commandments performed by sinners bear no fruit.

והיה אם לא תשמע, "It will be if you do not hearken, etc." The Torah made it plain here that unless we fulfil all three aspects of Judasim i.e. Torah study, scrupulous observance of the negative commandments, and the carrying out of positive commandments, some or all of the consequences described forthwith will occur. Learning Torah and not observing the negative commandments does not protect us. Observing both negative and positive commandments but neglecting the study of Torah will still result in the curses of the following verses being fulfilled. Non-observance of each of these three groups of Torah laws will attract its own kind of curses. The Torah commences by describing the punishments in store for the Jewish people if they fail to study Torah. .ארור אתה בעיר, "you will be cursed in the city;" this verse until the words ואבדך מהר, "and you will quickly perish" and the end of verse 20 are a row of escalating curses which are retribution for abandoning Torah, i.e. abandoning Torah study. When one abandons study of the Torah it is viewed as if one had abandoned G'd Himself. This is why this paragraph concludes with the words אשר עזבתני, "for you have abandoned Me."

ידבק השם בך את הדבר, "G'd will make the pestilence adhere to you, etc." The penalties introduced with this verse through verse 44 ending with the words: "you will be the tail," refer to your failure to observe the negative commandments. This is the reason verse 45 concludes appropriately with: "because you have failed to hearken to the voice of your G'd to observe His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you." Any intelligent student will realise that all these terrible curses are the result of the commission of sins. The reason the Torah uses the simile "G'd will make the pestilence adhere to you," is because we know that if one commits only a single transgression the spiritually negative force one has created thereby attaches itself to the personality of the guilty person and eventually becomes part of his soul. This is the mystical dimension of mental illness. This evil part of man is called דבר, pestilence, as we have learned in Chabakuk 3,5: "pestilence walks ahead of Him." Satan, here called "pestilence," is described as preceding G'd. All the forces of evil are branches of Samael i.e. Satan, and are called by his name. All the various diseases and afflictions mentioned in our chapter are variations of the theme. When Rabbi Ami in Shabbat 55 claims that there is no death which is not due to sin and that there are no afflictions which are not the result of sin, he meant that sin "gives birth" to a variety of bodily afflictions. Jeremiah 2,12 speaks of the bodily afflictions being the result of Israel's wickedness.

והיו שמיך אשר על ראשך נחשת, "And the sky above your head will turn to copper." We may understand this with the help of the Zohar volume one page 6 that the sources of G'd's goodness will be blocked through our sins. We have an allusion to this in Job 14,11 "that the river is destroyed and dries up."

יתנך השם נגף, "G'd will cause you to be struck down by your enemies, etc." This too is the direct result of your sins as hinted at in Kohelet 8,9: "when a man rules over another to his detriment." Solomon means that the reason man experiences another force ruling him is that he has sinned and the forces he created now try to control him. Similar considerations govern all the various curses written in this chapter. All of them are outgrowths of sinful conduct.

והיו בך לאות ולמופת, "They will be a sign and a wonder in you, etc." When a person commits even a single sin this is somehow engraved on his forehead.

ובזרעך עד עולם, "and in your offspring, forever." The reason for this is that the soul of man becomes evil, corrupt, through all the spiritually negative forces his sins have created and which become progressively more and more part of his personality. We described these outgrowths previously as being like children one sires or gives birth to. We have also explained in connection with Genesis 49,3 that the mystical element of death which G'd decreed upon Adam and all his descendants is due to the fact that all his descendants have at least indirectly tasted the sin which Adam tasted. The transformation in Adam's character brought about by his eating from the forbidden fruit became part of his genes, and therefore, albeit in a less intense form, part of the genes of his descendants. [Seeing that both Eve and Adam transmitted this, it could easily not become diluted through subsequent matings of one human being with a guilt-free and therefore unpolluted human being. Ed.] This is what the Torah means here when it writes: "and in your offspring, forever."

תחת אשר לא עבדת…בשמחה, "Because you did not serve…out of joy, etc." This punishment and what follows until verse 58 אם לא תשמר לעשות is for non-performance of the positive commandments of the Torah. The Torah repeats the same words in verse 58 to make certain that we appreciate which set of curses is in response to which set of sins. The reason the Torah speaks of our failure to perform the commandments out of joy is to contrast joyful מצה-performance with the absolute opposite, i.e. exile experienced amid the most depressing conditions. The Torah paints a picture of the punishment fitting the crime. The Jewish people who shook off the yoke of G'd's commandments will instead have to bear the far heavier burden of their captors' yoke around their necks.

אם לא תשמור לעשות, "if you will not be careful to carry out, etc." This verse reminds us that we will be punished for non-performance of positive commandments. The Torah includes all the positive commandments as designed to demonstrate our fear/reverence of the Lord. Fearing the Lord is itself one of the positive commandments as stated by Maimonides at the beginning of his Sefer Hamada, Hilchot Yesodey Ha-Torah chapter 2. We have already explained in connection with 27,26 why the Torah did not write the conditional "if you will not perform the commandments, etc." The reason is that many people will simply never be able to perform some of the positive commandments.

It is also possible that this verse intends to parallel what the Torah wrote in a parallel paragraph in Leviticus 26,23 "and if in spite of all these penalties you still refuse to be disciplined." Similarly, our verse may be an introduction to a renewed set of curses in the event the experience of what G'd brought upon the Jewish people still did not have the effect of making penitents out of them. The words תשמור לעשות may then refer to the violation of negative commandments plus the non-performance of the positive commandments. G'd warns that after all the curses He has already brought upon the recalcitrant Jewish people He has still more curses at His disposal to make them realise their mistakes. מכות גדולות ונאמנות וחלים רעים ונאמנים. "great and lasting blows, malignant and chronic illnesses." The Torah uses the expression נאמנים, normally translated as "faithful," to tell us that though there are well-known medications which usually cure these diseases, in this instance the illnesses will remain "faithful," i.e. they will not respond to treatment.

ונשארתם במתי מעט, "and you will remain few in numbers, etc." This is due to your "not listening to the voice of the Lord your G'd." The latter comment by the Torah refers to the Israelites failing to correct their neglect of Torah study. והיה כאשר שש ה׳ עליכם להיטיב אתכם, "And it will be just as the Lord enjoyed to grant you benefits, etc." The Torah reminds us that a person should not say that G'd's virtues include that He is so merciful and compassionate that it is imposssible to imagine that He would allow the misfortunes of the Jewish people to continue after the curses which the Torah has spelled out thus far have already been visited upon His people. This is why the Torah has to tell us that there are circumstamces when G'd has to feel joy in disciplining His people. According to this concept nature does not recoil from these kinds of joy. We have a statement in Proverbs 11,10 that "there is joy when the wicked perish." Our sages in Sanhedrin 39 interpret the verse (Kings I 22,36) ויעבר הרנה, "that a note of jubilation was heard throughout the country when people heard that Achav had fallen in battle." According to the Talmud that joy was heard in the celestial regions. Yonathan ben Uzziel translates the verse in question as "G'd will bring joy to the people because a king who had been rebellious against G'd perished." Nonetheless, the plain meaning of the verse is not uprooted by this translation and has been properly translated by Onkelos as: "a shout or proclamation went through the camp when the sun set: 'every man to his town, every man to his village.'"

We need to understand why the Torah does not include verses of comfort in the list of curses which are recorded here as it did in Leviticus chapter 26,42-44. Besides, why did Moses altogether repeat the curses already recorded by G'd in Leviticus?

I believe the reason Moses repeated the curses here is because in Leviticus they were all addressed to the people as a whole, not to each Israelite individually. Someone might have argued that if part of the nation would live their lives as Torah-observant people G'd would not be so particular about the part who did not. This is why Moses saw fit to write the curses in this chapter all in the singular so that every Israelite would understand that he personally was being addressed by the Torah. In order not to be misunderstood Moses uses a plural on occasion, such as when he speaks about "your skies turning to copper," seeing the individual Israelite does not each have his own sky. At the same time, Moses speaks about the sky being above the head of the individual Israelite, i.e. ראשך. On another occasion Moses says ישא ה׳ עליך גוי מרחוק, "G'd will bring up against you (pl) a nation from afar." Clearly, G'd would not command an entire nation to march against Israel because of an individual sinner; rather Moses speaks here about the possibility that part of the Israelites are disloyal to G'd. At any rate, in the main Moses uses the singular for the reasons that we have mentioned.

Now we can also understand why Moses did not see fit to include verses of comfort as did G'd in chapter 26 in Leviticus. G'd had to reassure the multitude that they would not be subject to total extinction; this is why we have verse 42-46 in Leviticus 26 affirming this. In our chapter, where the individual is addressed, such words of comfort would be counterproductive. If these individuals insist on their wayward behaviour G'd will most certainly destroy them. We have clear evidence of this in the legislation dealing with the עיר הנדחת, the city whose inhabitants became idolators (Deut. 13,14-19). There G'd had commanded to wipe out an entire Jewish city, lock stock and barrel. There certainly was no need either to tell us that a sinner will be brought to court and executed. In Parshat Nitzavim (29,19) the Torah deals with individuals or even a whole tribe becoming wicked and the fact that G'd will single them out for destruction at His hands. There too, the Torah does not bother to write lines of comfort and reassurance.

Do not raise the question that there are two or three instances in our chapter where the Torah addresses the multitude rather than the individual, such as the statement "you (pl) will remain few in numbers, or the words להאביד אתכם, "to destroy you" (pl). In each of those instances the Torah had already addressed the message of the paragraph to the individual Israelites first. Everybody understands that the individuals to whom the Torah speaks are part of a great multitude, i.e. of the same people.

You may counter: "why did the Torah not address the curses in Leviticus in the singular and then there would have been no need to repeat all these curses a second time in our chapter?" I would then have concluded that all these terrible punishments would be meted out only to individuals and not to the people as a body. Or, I would have reasoned that even though the Torah describes these sins as very major, the people as a whole would learn from what happened to sinful individuals and would mend their ways. By mentioning verses of comfort and referring to the continued validity of the covenant between G'd and the Patriarchs, the Torah made it plain that not only individuals but the whole people may become the target of these curses.

To sum up, we have found that G'd punishes us separately for neglect of Torah study, for violating the negative commandments as well as for failure to carry out the positive commandments. Although we have a statement in Menachot 41 that G'd does not mete out punishments for failure to carry out positive commandments unless He happens to be very angry at the time on account of some other sin, there are two positive commandments for which the Torah legislated the karet penalty as a matter of routine. Failure to be circumcised or to be included in the eating of the passover lamb are punishable by extinction from one's people. Furthermore, if a person deliberately decides not to carry out positive commandments written in the Torah, G'd will curse him and he is subject to all the disasters listed in our chapter.