פרשת נצבים/וילך
“You are standing today, all of you, before the Lord your G-d…” Rashi tells us that Moshe Rabbeinu gave this speech after the Jewish people heard the curses mentioned in the previous parsha. The nation was collectively discouraged and frightened at the prospect of the curses befalling them. Moshe Rabbeinu, in this week’s parsha, comforts the Jewish people with this speech, reassuring them, “You are standing today! You have angered Hashem many times before now and He didn’t destroy you! Look, you have endured before Him!” This narrative is puzzling. What is Moshe trying to tell the people? That they don’t have to worry about the curses? That even if they sin Hashem will not bring about the retribution that He threatened? Were the curses given for no reason? Is Moshe Rabbeinu ignoring the lesson that he himself taught in the previous parsha?
Rav Eliyahu Lopian, in his book, Lev Eliyahu, explains that the purpose of the curses is not merely to threaten the Jewish People that terrible things will happen if they transgress the Torah; rather, the purpose of the curses and, in truth, all suffering, is to bring us back to Hashem. Through experiencing difficulty and tribulation, a person can reach a new and profound understanding of his role in the world and subjugate himself completely to Hashem. This is in truth the real purpose of existence and suffering is not a mere punishment but a means to bring us to this lofty goal. However, if a person can reach this level and humble himself without experiencing such troubles, the need to go through such adversity becomes obsolete. If a person can subjugate himself to Hashem without being punished, he has actualized the purpose of his existence. After hearing all the curses, the Jewish People sincerely resolved to keep the Torah and took to heart the danger inherent in abandoning the Torah. They committed themselves whole-heartedly not to stray from the dictates of the Torah, and with this they negated the need for the curses to be inflicted upon them. Therefore, Moshe Rabbeinu comforted them. Since the Jewish People had grown from hearing about the curses, and pledged total allegiance to the Torah, they earned their right to exist. They nullified all need for the curses. If we, by taking the curses seriously, come to the same firm resolve to keep the entire Torah, we can rest assured that we will not undergo such terrible suffering.
However, as evidenced by Jewish history, we fail to take the lesson of the curses to heart, and continue to suffer. Even though we read the curses every year, many of us are unable to integrate their lesson and feel true humility before Hashem. There are a few reasons for this. The Sforno says that many people rationalize that since they are only one person, they don’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Surely there are enough tzaddikim to keep the boat afloat regardless of their own actions. The Ramban says that another reason why people don’t appreciate the severity of the curses is that they are too steeped in their desires. If only they had the clarity of mind to envision how painful suffering could be, they would surely exert themselves to avoid tragedy before it’s too late. The Targum Yonasan Ben Uziel says others get discouraged because they think that they have no chance of doing teshuva, assuming that they can’t possibly return to a state of purity from where they are now. The Lev Eliyahu says that young people in particular are vulnerable to procrastination because they think that they’ll be able to break out of their sinful habits as they get older. In fact, the opposite is true. The older a person gets and the more time he persists in his habits, the more difficult it becomes to change his ways. In truth, all of us should be inspired to humble ourselves to Hashem as quickly as we can. The gift of life was only given to us so that we could fully keep the Torah.
We should especially humble ourselves as Rosh HaShana approaches. We see throughout Chazal that humbling ourselves before Hashem gives us our greatest chance to get a favorable judgment for the new year. The gemara in Rosh HaShana 16b says that whenever the Jewish People make themselves “poor” at the beginning of the year (i.e., on Rosh HaShana) they will benefit greatly from their efforts at the end of the year. The gemara in Rosh HaShana 26b also says that particularly a bent ram’s horn is used on Rosh HaShana to symbolize this humility. The Rambam says in Hilchos Teshuva 3:4 that the blowing of the shofar is, in truth, really a call for us to do teshuva. Rav Aryeh Finkel, the Mashgiach of Mir, says that when we subjugate ourselves to Hashem when we hear the shofar, we are actually making a powerful argument to Hashem that we deserve His mercy and merit another year of life. We are actively proclaiming that we have accepted upon ourselves the purpose of our creation.
There is a story told of how a bucher was once caught misbehaving in the Sanz Yeshiva in Netanya. The boy had been reprimanded many times for his mischief and the Mashgiach decided that the time had come to expel the boy from the yeshiva. The bucher’s behavior couldn’t be tolerated any longer. Understandably distraught after receiving the news, the boy didn’t know what else to do but to go to the Sanzer Rebbe. Surely the Rebbe would be able to help him. Crying, the boy poured his heart out to the Rebbe and asked if he could have another chance. He admitted that he was wrong for what he had done and sincerely promised to change. Upon hearing the boy’s plea, the Rebbe immediately called in the Mashgiach and told him to give the boy another chance. However, the Mashgiach explained that the boy had disobeyed the yeshiva’s rules so many times that any promise he made would surely be broken. The Rebbe, suddenly shedding tears of his own, cried out to the Mashgiach, “And perhaps Hashem shouldn’t have forgiven me and given me another chance as well, has v’shalom! How many times have I promised to Hashem that I’ll be better and that I’ll never sin again and I have still gone back to my old ways!” The Rebbe told the Mashgiach that one never knows. Sometimes, if a person makes a sincere promise to change, he can become a new person. “Maybe this time,” said the Rebbe, “the boy truly means it.”
May we all be zoche this year to completely subjugate ourselves before Hashem!!!