Parshat Ki Tavo - 5763

The “Tochachah,” the Severe Reproof, and the Promise

The terrorist organization Hamas, may HaShem erase its name and remembrance, has just gone on another rampage, spilling Jewish blood like water in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Among their victims was a Jewish doctor, a Dr. Applebaum, who was the Head of the Emergency Room at Shaarei Tzedek Hospital in Jerusalem, and head of a private clinic that was the source of medical treatment for a good percentage of Jerusalem’ites. In these dual roles, he was probably involved in the treatment of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Arabs during his long period of service in those holy institutions. A friend and teacher to many, he was also an expert in the field of Jewish Medical Ethics, and was a frequent lecturer on that subject. With him in Café Hillel on Tuesday was his daughter, Naava, who was to be married on Wednesday, but who instead was murdered along with her father. The deaths of these two alone (and there were other deaths and injuries) was a mind and spirit-numbing tragedy.

Earlier on Tuesday, a young student called to ask me a question her teacher had asked the class to think about. It seems from various places in Bereshit that HaShem made an unconditional promise to the “Avot,” the Forefathers, to give Eretz Yisrael to their descendants. One of those places was where HaShem commanded Avraham to accept Brit Milah, circumcision. In return, HaShem promised (Bereshit 17:8), “And I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land in which you have lived temporarily – all of the Land of Canaan – as an everlasting possession; and I shall be a G-d to them.” And yet we find among the dire predictions of the “Tochachah,” the severe reproof of Parshat Ki-Tavo in Devarim 28:63, “...and you will be torn from upon the ground to which you had come to possess it.” And the People saw this prediction become reality twice; in Galut Bavel, that hit us together with the destruction of the First Temple, and in the seemingly endless Galut Edom, that began with the destruction of the Second Temple.

What happened to the promise to the “Avot?” There appear to be a number of possible solutions:

- The merit of the Forefathers will see us through yet again. We are approaching Tishrei, also called the “Yerach HaEitanim,” the Month of the Mighty, where “Eitanim” refers to the “Avot.” And on Yom Kippur, we pray, “May He, our Master, yet remember on our behalf the love of the Mighty (Avraham), and for the sake of the son (Yitzchak), who was bound, may He nullify our Adversary, and in the merit of the perfect one (Yaakov) may the Awesome One bring forth our judgment in righteousness...”

- Even if “tama zechut Avot,” the merit of the Forefathers becomes exhausted, and the gigantic bank account left for us is depleted by our equally gigantic sins, we still have the plaintive voices of our “Mothers” (Yirmiyahu 31:14-16), “So says the L-rd, ‘A voice was heard in Rama; lamentation and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children, she refused to be comforted for her children, for they are not.’ So says the L-rd, ‘Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears, for your work shall be rewarded; says the L-rd, and ... your children shall come back again to their own border’ ”

- And even if both our Fathers and our Mothers would abandon us, which is impossible, King David assures us in “LeDavid HaShem Ori” that our Father in Heaven would come to our aid (Tehilim 27:10), “For even if my father and mother would forsake me, HaShem would take me in.”

But the last verse of this week’s Haftarah does utter another promise with regard to the Redemption (Yeshayahu 60:22), “... I am HaShem; I will hasten it, in its time.” The Midrash explains that if we deserve it, the “Geulah” will come quickly. If we do not deserve it, it will come anyway, but slowly, “in its time.”

Apparently, as the terrible events of the past week remind us, we have not yet proved ourselves worthy of a swift Redemption, even in these final days of “Ikvesa D’Mashicha,” when we can literally hear the “footsteps of the Mashiach.” Our only option is to remain faithful to HaShem, and “clean up our act” by Teshuvah individually and nationally, so that HaShem will hasten our Redemption.

Rabbi Pinchas Frankel
Rabbi Frankel is an Educational Coordinator at the OU

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