Ki Savo

Amidst the multitude of curses that we are told will happen and have happened throughout our history when we didn't listen to the Torah, there are also the blessings that we are told will come to us if we do listen to the Torah. The posuk states if we will listen to Hashem and keep all His commandments, then He will make us supreme over the nations of the Earth. ובאו עליך כל הברכות האלה והשיגך כי תשמע בקול ה אלקיך, "All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you, if you listen to the voice of Hashem."

The Ben Ish Chai says that if one looks at this bracha, it seems to be greater and incomparable to any other bracha. Normally, if one is worthy of a bracha, he has to do something to make it happen; he has to put in some effort, some action to make the bracha come about. He'll have to go to work so that Hashem will make him be successful. Or, as we see nowadays, when people ask Reb Chaim for a bracha he asks the people to do something to make the bracha work. He tells some people to grow a beard while he tells others to do other small things so that the bracha has something to attach itself to. However, our quoted posuk says if we listen to all the mitzvos of Hashem, then, not only will we get all the brachos, but ,והשיגוך, they will overtake us. We won't have to do anything; they will just chase us and come to us without our doing anything.

There's a story told about a simple man. One day, a rumor circulated in his town that since there was an abundance of fish that day in the market, there was high quality fish to be had at low prices. His wife heard about it and asked him to go get one of the good fish. He procrastinated, but she kept asking, so he got up and went. He went to one of the stores that was selling this good fish, but which also had some not so good fish. The merchant, seeing that this guy wasn't so bright, showed him a big fish that he couldn't sell and convinced him to get that. On his way home, he started thinking, “oh, man; what did I do? My wife wanted the good fish and I bought this one. I'm going to be in trouble. That merchant is a bad guy; I can't believe I let myself get taken." So, he figured the only way to save himself would be to take the fish into the shed, clean it up and cut it up so that she wouldn't realize that he got the wrong fish. Even if she did, it would be too late. So, he went and cleaned it. As he was cutting it up, he found a precious stone inside the belly of the fish, which he promptly took to the jeweler and sold for a fortune and became a very rich man.  

This is what the posuk tells us: if we get to this level of תשמע בקול ה אלוקיך, listening to the voice of Hashem. In every situation we're in, we should think that this is what Hashem wants me to do. If we don't deviate from what Hashem wants, then we will get the brachos without having to do anything. They will just come to us. When it's our turn to have wealth, Hashem will see to it that it finds us and there is nothing more that we must do. As the דגל מחנה אפרים explains, we don't always know what's best for us. Sometimes we are running away from the very thing that is good for us, so the Torah promises us that, even if we run from it, if it's in our best interest, Hashem will make sure it chases us until we have what's absolutely best!