To Be Blessed in the Most Incredible Way

Parshat Ki Tavo 

 by Rabbi Avi Billet 

When one reads the beginning of Chapter 28, one can surely swell up with pride over what our future was supposed to or could have looked like. Certainly there were times – such as during the Davidic/Solomonic Dynasty – when things panned out as described in this passage. But for most of what we’ll simply call “Jewish history” the opening verse of Chapter 28 probably came back to haunt us much more than it came to raise us up in the manner described. “If you obey God your Lord, carefully keeping all His commandments as I am prescribing them to you today, then God will make you highest of all the nations on earth. As long as you listen to God your Lord, all these blessings will come to bear on you.” (28:1-2) … “All the nations of the world will realize that God's name is associated with you, and they will be in awe of you.” (28:10) 

Seforno, in his commentary, notes that God will do these things for you, as outlined in the first 14 verses of this chapter, even if you don’t try hard to have them happen. The key is “if you listen/obey the voice of God,” which he defines as “when your Torah study is your main focus and your work is secondary. This will cause the blessings to reach you without a serious effort. The depiction in the text here refer to the blessings of the First Temple, as long as the people were observant of the mitzvot, going through the beginning of the second Temple and the blessings that existed during the tenure of Shimon HaTzaddik.” 

Seforno uses the example of Alexander the Great as someone who would “be in awe of you” recalling the tale of his encounter with Shimon Hatzaddik, as depicted in Yoma 69a, when he stopped before destroying Yerushalayim, descended from his horse and bowed to the Kohen Gadol. 

Surely in other times and places in history, the notion that the Bnei Yisrael would rule over their enemies and neighbors is not a concept that people would be so excited to see in print. In fact, in many cases they would probably make a superior effort to see to it that the Bnei Yisrael’s experience would be the opposite. “You think you’re going to rule over us? You think you’re better than us?” 

In most cases, due to non-observance, or due to over confidence, the failings of our people were highlighted and we were easily made into the victim or the scapegoat of problems, simply because of what was written in our sacred text. Which begs the question – why would God put this in writing, if there was a chance that others outside of our family unit might read it and jump to their own conclusions? 

Because sometimes (not all the time) transparency and putting things out in the open is really for everyone’s benefit. If we had the information in front of us for how to be the best people, and for how to always have God on our side, we have no excuse. Everyone would see it, and everyone would know what is expected of us for us to achieve that glory and grandeur. And, if done right, then as Seforno says, we wouldn’t have to explain anything – just as Alexander the Great was smitten when he saw Shimon HaTzaddik and he could only explain it as a dream/vision he had that he’d meet this leader of the Jewish people. 

With our beginning Selichos this Saturday night, we have just another reminder that Rosh Hashana is soon upon us. 

Do we do our part to remember what our task is – to keep the mitzvot? To trust in God? To remember that our focus on Torah more than on other pursuits is the key to our greatness? 

While we are certainly in a decent place as far as our commitment to the Torah goes, we can always raise the bar. We can spend more time studying, we can turn off the news and open a Sefer (book) or opt for a Torah website over a news or shopping website. 

We can occupy our time so much better by creating study groups or arranging a chavrusa (study partner) for ourselves – whether a spouse, a family member (a grandchild?), or a friend. 

It doesn’t require a superior effort, but as Rav Amital Z”L, founding Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion, would often say, “Ein Patentim!” (There are no shortcuts!) Anyone who wants to achieve greatness in these arenas must take baby steps to achieve them, and change one’s current general mode of time usage to make it more engaged with Torah. Baby steps build to bigger steps. But it takes one step at time to create the full watershed that puts us to where we need to be to see the beginning of Devarim 28 come true. 

Were we as a collective nation to only fulfill the words of the blessing as depicted here, perhaps we too would live to see a time when the rest of the blessings would in fact be our experience. The world would know in a way we could not imagine – because we are so jaded by how the media functions – that God runs the show and our task is to represent Him in the most honored and incredible ways, showing the world what we’ve always known to be true. He is in charge, and we have to declare His name and His word to the world so they (and we) can all come to the realization that we are in this world to best serve Him.