This summer is flying by way too soon. It is so difficult to stop time, oh wait, its impossible to stop time. Okay, so I guess we just need to embrace it, and live with it. Time is of the essence right now as we are nearing the ימים נוראים, the High Holy Days. ראש השנה is first and as a rabbi I am fully aware of its nearing each day… I have often pondered the following question: is ראש השנה meant to be a serious day of reflection and requests, or is it a day of celebration of time? Or… perhaps it is something in the middle. Not everything can be so readily classified, but what do you think?
Now to the meat of the post: the weekly פרשה/Portion:
From chapter 27:14 – All of chapter 28, we have a very interesting discussion. When we crossed over the Jordan River into the Promised Land, we were to hold this ceremony where the Levites were to proclaim some curses that we would see if we did certain bad things. We were to say אמן/amen, after each and every single one of them. Then משה/Moses continues to enumerate a list of blessings that we will receive for our obedience to the תורה/Torah. But this is quickly followed up with a second set of more in depth curses that we will absorb if we are not obedient, and just a little warning, some of them are gross, okay a lot of them are gross.
What I am most interested in is the Levite ceremony. Here is the text:
Chapter 27
11 Thereupon Moses charged the people, saying: 12 After you have crossed the Jordan, the following shall stand on Mount Gerizim when the blessing for the people is spoken: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. 13 And for the curse, the following shall stand on Mount Ebal: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphthali. 14 The Levites shall then proclaim in a loud voice to all the people of Israel:
15 Cursed be anyone who makes a sculptured or molten image, abhorred by the Lord, a craftsman's handiwork, and sets it up in secret. — And all the people shall respond, Amen.
16 Cursed be he who insults his father or mother. — And all the people shall say, Amen.
17 Cursed be he who moves his fellow countryman's landmark. — And all the people shall say, Amen.
18 Cursed be he who misdirects a blind person on his way. — And all the people shall say, Amen.
19 Cursed be he who subverts the rights of the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. — And all the people shall say, Amen.
20 Cursed be he who lies with his father's wife, for he has removed his father's garment. — And all the people shall say, Amen.
21 Cursed be he who lies with any beast. — And all the people shall say, Amen.
22 Cursed be he who lies with his sister, whether daughter of his father or of his mother. — And all the people shall say, Amen.
23 Cursed be he who lies with his mother-in-law. — And all the people shall say, Amen.
24 Cursed be he who strikes down his fellow countryman in secret. — And all the people shall say, Amen.
25 Cursed be he who accepts a bribe in the case of the murder of an innocent person. — And all the people shall say, Amen.
26 Cursed be he who will not uphold the terms of this Teaching and observe them. — And all the people shall say, Amen.
This ceremony, this very public ceremony does not mention the good, only the bad… Why? According to the description of the ceremony in verses 11 through 13 we find some tribes were to stand on Mount Gerizim for the blessing, and others were to stand on Mount Ebal for the curses, the Levites and Kohenim were to stand in the valley between the two and orchestrate this whole ceremony. But where are the blessings in this text?
This is a photo of the two mountains with the valley in the middle…
The blessings found in chapter 28 are not the ones that we are looking for. Those were blessings that משה was expressing for general obedience and are better linked to the curses that follow them. רש’’י/Rashi draws our attention to the תלמוד/Talmud in מסכת סוטה/Tractate Sotah, to explain the procedure:
“Six tribes ascended the summit of Mount Gerizim, six tribes ascended the summit of Mount Ebal, and the Kohenim and Levites with the ark were stationed below in the center. The Levites turned their faces towards Mount Gerizim and began the blessing: blessed be the man that does not make a sculpture or molten idol. And these and these responded: Amen. They then turned their faces towards mount Ebal and opened with the curse: cursed be the man that makes a sculpture or molten idol, and both parties responded amen. [so they continue] until they complete the blessings and curses.”
So the question needs to be asked as to why the text was written in such a fashion. רש’’י provided us with a very rational understanding. But there are other ways:
The כלי יקר/Kli Yakar explains it in the following way: “Before reciting the curse, the Levites recited each verse in the form of the blessing. (רש’’י?) Nevertheless, the Torah itself only records the curses. The blessings are not explicitly mentioned, to allude to the fact that the principal reward for the performance of Mitzvot is not seen in this world. It will come only in the spiritual realm of the World to Come.”
I really like this idea because of the mentality it sets up. We cannot expect to see rewards for doing things. We cannot do good simply because we expect to be rewarded in some tangible way. We must do good because we believe it is the right thing to do. But we need to believe that when we do bad there are real consequences and that we will need to accept those consequences. It is okay to have a worldview where the bad are punished but the good is just maintaining the status quo, not to be praised and not to be rewarded.
Then there is the viewpoint of בית שמואל אחרון/Beit Shmuel Acharon: Whoever sins in public, there is hope that he will turn around and repent his deeds. But whoever sins in secret there is no hope.
I can live with this one because we all know that when we miss the mark in private we are a little more okay with it because nobody saw it. The curses that were enumerated in the chapter seem to allude to the types of sins that we would commit in private, and not in public and so the curses are being used as a deterrent and a motivation to repentance.
This jives well with the אבני אזל who explained:
“The worst sin of all is to make a graven or molten image, an idol, and offense to Hashem and set it up not for all to see but in secret… To hide the idol beneath a veil of pretty speeches and high sounding ideals such as “culture” and “civilization.” For this reason the Torah deals so harshly with one who sets up his idol in secret.”
Okay so we have all of these different concepts, none seems to exclude the others. But I still have one issue to resolve and that is the saying the word אמן/Amen after each curse. When we say אמן what are we saying? There are actually some disputes about this, but we understand it in the way that the Septuagint understood it. The word אמן means “Let it be so…” In other words, “I agree with that statement and you are saying it on my behalf.” We answer אמן when we want to be included in something somebody else said. We also answer אמן whenever we hear a blessing to show we are agreeing. Recently our daughter Ayelet has taken to saying אמן whenever we say a blessing in our house. It is beautiful, and it makes us so happy. This concept of curses and our daughter saying אמן has led me to ponder the issue of what we are teaching our children through our own behavior. I am sure that we all can agree that we have taught them good and bad… But imagine for just one second if we all constantly thought that what we were doing would be a lesson (positive or negative) learned by our children and the children of others. What would the impact be? Would it be a blessing or a curse?
Your Turn…
צא ולומד – Go and Learn
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