On the first words of our parsha: אתם נצבים היום כלכם לפני ה , you are standing today, all of you, before Hashem, Rashi states, “this teaches us that Moshe gathered all the people on the day of his death to enter them into a covenant with ה'.”
Rashi then quotes a Midrash that says the reason the parsha of אתם נצבים follows the parsha of the curses is after the Jews heard all the curses that would befall them if they didn't listen to 'ה, they were traumatized into thinking, “who can bear these curses?” Moshe began to console them saying, אתם נצבים היום כלכם you are all still standing, no matter how much anger you caused 'ה in the past, you see he still didn't destroy you; you are still standing today.
Was Moshe implying that the curses were meaningless, asks ר' אליהו לופיאן, that they were said for nothing?
In explanation, he says we have to understand why 'ה brings hardships on a person. It’s not out of revenge or anger, but rather only for the good of a person. Hardships soften a person’s heart & prepares one for teshuva. Like the גר"א explains, when one wants to plant a field, first one has to plow it & turn over the soil. Otherwise, the seeds won't grow. So too, a person’s heart must be overturned and softened to allow the seeds of teshuva to grow. Therefore, 'ה gives hardships to soften the heart in order that one could do a complete teshuva.
However, if a person could get the message without the hardships, 'ה would rather do it that way. At the Tochacha, when the בני ישראל heard the curses & were practically paralyzed with fear, that was enough to keep them in line so that the curses would never have to come about.
The דובנא מגיד presents a mashal that הגר"י ניימן uses to emphasize this point. When a very pampered, wealthy child had a stomach illness, the doctor said that the boy had to drink a certain potion to make him vomit & then he would be cured. However, this boy had never drunk anything so vile before & could not bring himself to drink this vile potion even though his life depended on it.
Because of this, the doctor took the potion, mixed it with some other medicines & boiled it up next to the boy. When the foul smell reached his nostrils, he threw up & then was able to be healed.
This is what 'ה does with us. He warned us with all these curses so that the people would hear them & be frightened enough to keep in line so that He wouldn't have to actually carry them out. However, this only works for the people that took the curses to heart & repented. The ones who hear the curses, and as the posuk continues, say to themselves שלום יהיה לי כי בשרירות לבי אלך I will have peace even though I go as my heart sees fit. A person like that 'ה will not forgive & the curses will take effect.
The בן איש חי asks when do find that the whole כלל ישראל is standing before 'ה? On Rosh Hashana. When we all come to be judged by 'ה is when we are all נצבים before 'ה. Therefore this parsha of אתם נצבים היום is hinting to Rosh Hashana.
Perhaps the Torah is telling us here that the way to a good judgment on Rosh Hashana is to take it to heart; to really feel it. Don't say, “I can do what I want & 'ה will forgive me” for those are the ones upon whom the curses occur. The ones who take the warning to heart & resolve to be better, don't need any hardships & will merit to have a peaceful happy year!
No comments:
Post a Comment