Parshas Ki Savo
The Mystery
This week's parsha deals with the frighteningly accurate prediction of the
awful fate of the Jewish people over its long exile. The tochacha
chillingly forecasts the horrors of the Holocaust and of all of the
previous destructions, persecutions, pogroms and disasters that have
befallen the Jews over the long centuries of dispersion. The Torah itself
in a forthcoming parsha asks the obvious question: "Why all of this anger?
What justifies such a fate for Israel?" In our generation there have been
many Jews whose faith and Jewishness itself have been compromised or
negated by the events of the Holocaust. Therefore, what message is to be
gained from the detailing of all of these curses and disasters? Even more
directly, what has been 'gained,' so to speak, by the actual occurrence of
these events? The Torah itself is not exactly clear on this subject. It
states that the abandonment of Torah by the Jewish people is the root
cause for all of its troubles. Yet, many of the tragedies have befallen
the Jewish people when they were, at least on the surface, a Torah abiding
society. The majority of Eastern European Jews destroyed in the Holocaust
were observant, traditional Jews. God therefore retains His inscrutable
face, so to speak, and no satisfactory answer to the troubles of Israel is
easily forthcoming. Part of the curse of the tochacha therefore is its
apparent mystery and even unreasonableness. It is this very
inexplicability that fuels the doubts and and hesitations about faith and
observance that pervade the Jewish world of today. The tochacha assumes
the role of being the greatest of all of God's mysteries, the ultimate
challenge to faith, belief and tradition.
Yet, it is the very fact that the tochacha declaimed by Moshe thousands of
years before the event, is so chillingly accurate down to the smallest
detail that itself testifies to its Godly origin. Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman
(Ramban) alluded to this already in the thirteenth century. How can we in
the twenty-first century not be stirred by this eerie accuracy of
prediction and detail? We are powerless to know the 'why' to the tochacha
but we can certainly testify as to its author and source. "Is it not from
the hand of God that good and troubles both emanate?" said the prophet
Yirmiyahu. This is perhaps the ultimate comfort that we may derive from
reading this sad parsha. We are like infants who do not comprehend the
measures taken by our father to insure our survival. But we may be certain
that we have a father who takes a direct hand in raising us. Rabbi Akiva
upon witnessing the ruins of the Temple taught that just as it was
apparent that the painful predictions regarding Israel had come to pass in
dreadful and perfect accuracy, so too was he assured that the blessings
foretold for Israel and its redemption also would be fulfilled down to the
last point of detail. That view is our point of hope as well. The curses
and pains of the past difficult year may disappear and the new year bring
to us and all mankind the fulfillment of the great vision of redemption
and peace as promised to us by the great prophets of Israel.
Shabat shalom.
Rabbi Berel Wein
Text Copyright © 2005 by Rabbi Berel Wein and Torah.org
Visit www.rabbiwein.com for a complete selection of Rabbi Wein's books and tapes.
