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September 2, 2009
The largest part of Ki Tavo is known as the Tocheha, the rebuke. It presents the blessings that will occur if Israel obeys God’s laws and the curses that will ensue if it does not. The presentation of curses at first parallels the blessings — in fact, mirror images — but the curses then go on at considerable length and in gruesome detail. They are all the more horrible because the fulfillment of many of these curses is recorded in the history of the Jewish people.
The curses of the Tocheha are not limited to physical punishments — disease, drought, famine, war, and exile — the Torah also offers insight into psychological punishment. We read, “In the morning you shall say, ‘If only it were evening,’ and in the evening you shall say, ‘If only it were morning’ — because of what your heart shall dread and your eyes shall see.”
Rashi explains the verse this way: In the morning you will wish it were the previous evening and in the evening you will wish it were that morning because things keep getting worse; every hour increases the severity of the curses. Rashi’s grandson, the Rashbam, however, explains that the verse means that in the morning you will wish for the coming evening and in the evening you will wish for the next morning, because people in distress long for their pain to pass.
Obviously, the verse can be read either way, but both Rashi and Rashbam agree that this curse’s meaning is you will not be able to bear living in the present. And there’s an interesting connection between this and another verse of the Tocheha. The Torah says, “All these curses shall befall you…because you would not serve the Lord your God in joy and gladness over the abundance of everything.”
In his book Growth Through Torah, Rabbi Zelig Pliskin writes:
“Man’s nature is to constantly want more than he presently has…. If you think that you will be happy only when you have more, you will never be happy. When you finally get what you were hoping for, you will once again focus on getting more and will feel unhappy until you acquire yet more… You can only be happy if your mind is focused on appreciating what you presently have and what you are presently doing.”
Some people are unhappy because they don’t have everything they want — they’re sure they would be happy if only they had more money, a better job, a bigger house, a smaller dress size, or the perfect mate. Other people are unhappy because they miss the good old days — when kids were respectful, when you could feed a family of four on $20 a week, when a Sunday drive was a pleasure instead of an obstacle course, when life was kinder and gentler. They long for the days when they made the winning touchdown or were elected prom queen.
In the morning they wish for evening, and in the evening they wish for morning. And by doing so, they forfeit everything that today has to offer. They sacrifice actual life for a dream of a time when life was or will be if not perfect, then better. They become embittered as they wish for the impossible. They turn their backs on the only time that each of us has — this moment.
Not being able to appreciate living in the present truly is a curse. In Pirkei Avot, Ben Zoma taught, “Who is rich? The person who is content with his or her portion.” Particularly at this season of the year, it’s important to remember that it’s not how much money you have or how long you live, but what you do with what you have been given.
May we all experience the blessings of living in the present.
Rabbi Joyce Newmark, a resident of Teaneck, is a former religious leader of congregations in Leonia and Lancaster, Pa.
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