The section of blessings and curses in Parashat Ki Tavo, which we read last week, concludes with a bleak forecast:
And the Lord will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way of which I had said to you: "You shall see it no more again." And there you will sell yourselves to your enemies for menservants and maidservants, but no one will buy you. (Devarim 28:68)
Aside from the punishment itself, the significance of being sent back to Egypt and being sold into slavery is that it is a reversal of the Exodus – and thus a nullification of the covenant forged at that time between God and Israel. Once God has rendered the Exodus null and void, things seem hopeless for Am Yisrael, and the unit ends on that note. But is this the reality? Is it possible that God could return Am Yisrael to Egypt, and never redeem them?
Actually, the tokhacha (lit. "rebuke," a reference to the unit listing the blessings and curses) set forth in Parashat Ki Tavo raises several difficulties. This unit has an obvious parallel in Parashat Bechukotai, with some conspicuous differences between them that highlight the distressing outlook of Ki Tavo. One of these differences is the order of the curses: the tokhacha in Parashat Bechukotai reflects a progression (the curses become gradually more severe), while in Ki Tavo there is no apparent progression. In Bechukotai, if the Jewish people continue to treat God in the manner described with the word "keri" (indifference), then God will treat the nation in the same manner of "keri" – while Parashat Ki Tavo gives no indication that if the people mend their ways, the situation will return to normal.[1] Moreover, some of the verses in Parashat Ki Tavo explicitly describe ongoing, lasting punishment; for instance, "and they [= the curses] shall be a sign and a wonder, amid you and amid your descendants, forever" (Devarim 28:46). It appears from this unit that if Bnei Yisrael violate the covenant between themselves and God, then the covenant will be breached from God's side as well, and He will no longer uphold it.
However, despite this grim message from the end of the tokhacha, it is quite clear that the unit continues in Parashat Nitzavim, which starts with mention of a covenant and an oath:
Not with you alone do I forge this covenant (brit) and this oath (ala), but with those who are here with us, standing today before the Lord our God, and also with those not here with us today. (Devarim 29:13-14)
The "oath" (ala) seems to refer to the list of those who are cursed, which is to be declared upon Mount Eval, while the "covenant" (brit) refers to the blessings and curses of the tokhacha.
We are told at the beginning of our parasha that if an individual (i.e., one person, family, or tribe – as opposed to the entire nation) thinks he can violate the Torah's prohibitions and evade punishment, he will be separated from all of Israel and will be personally afflicted with all the curses set out at length in the tokhacha. We must therefore conclude that this detail is the continuation of the covenant: the covenant in Ki Tavo deals with sins of the nation, and the consequent punishments; the continuation in Nitzavim deals with the sin of the individual, and his punishment.
Thus, the beginning of Parashat Nitzavim represents a continuation of the ceremony on Mount Gerizim and Mount Eval. Just as there, anyone who sins in secret is cursed, so at the beginning of our parasha, God promises to punish anyone who acts in violation of the covenant. In our parasha we read, "The secret things belong to the Lord our God; but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law" (29:28), and in the list of those who are cursed, in Parashat Ki Tavo, we find many transgressions that belong to the category of "secret things." After Am Yisrael engage in teshuva, their situation will return to what it was prior to the curses: "And the Lord your God will grant you over-abundance in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, and in the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of your land, for good" (30:9), along with the blessings in Ki Tavo: "And the Lord will grant you over-abundance for good, in the fruit of your body, and in the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of your land, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you" (28:11).
The end of Parashat Nitzavim represents a summary of the covenant that God forges with Israel, as it has been set forth in both parashot:
I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse; therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your seed. (30:19)
This is the conclusion of the broader unit that started with Parashat Re'eh: "See I place before you this day a blessing and a curse," and it is also a summary of the covenant: God places before us a blessing and a curse, and it is our responsibility to choose life.
The question we will address here is why the Torah summarizes the covenant (28:69) before all of its details have been presented (which does not conclude until Parashat Nitzavim).
The Desolation of the Land
Further on in the parasha (30:1-2), the Torah foretells that after the blessings and the curses have befallen Am Yisrael, they will eventually be moved to return to God. The Torah does not give a clear indication of when this process will happen, nor what it is that will finally cause the nation to repent after all the curses failed to achieve this effect. We can, however, find the answers in our parasha: the progeny of Am Yisrael (as well as the nation that will come from a distant land) will see the woeful state of the land; this will impact them more than the curses themselves impacted their ancestors, as they draw conclusions regarding the behavior that brought about such desolation. As a result, the nation will repent and return to God, and God will forgive them.
And indeed, "Why has the Lord done such to this land"? Why does the land suffer when Bnei Yisrael are exiled from it? The Torah gives a few explanations. First, the desolation of the land is a punishment to Bnei Yisrael for their sins. Second, the land lies fallow to compensate for the Shemitta years that were not observed. A third reason (which is emphasized by Ramban) is that the land remains desolate so that Israel's enemies will not settle it. Here, the Torah adds an additional reason for the land lying waste: so that Am Yisrael will contemplate the desolation and be moved to do teshuva. We see, then, that just as the land "banishes" Am Yisrael because of their sins, so it causes them to engage in teshuva and to return to it.
Dual Teshuva
The Torah describes the nation's teshuva twice in our parasha:
And it will be, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, that I have placed before you, and you will take [them] to heart, among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, and you will return to the Lord your God and obey Him… then the Lord your God will return your captivity and have compassion upon you, and He will return and gather you from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you… And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your progeny, to love the Lord your God…." (30:1-6)
And you will return and obey the Lord, and you will perform all His commandments which I command you today. And the Lord your God will grant you over-abundance in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb, and in the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of your land, for good…." (30:8-9)
We might have thought the Torah was describing a gradual process of teshuva: Am Yisrael returns to God; God "circumcises their heart" and improves their condition; and again, Am Yisrael obeys God, and God improves their lot. Once the people embark on the process of teshuva, God helps them and "circumcises their heart" in order to improve their spiritual state; as a result, their material conditions improve as well. But this process doesn't really make sense: it is difficult to see what improvement comes about in their behavior after God circumcises the heart, and it is also difficult to point to a material improvement in their situation after they come back to obeying God the second time.
We might therefore offer a different interpretation. It seems that the Torah is proposing two possibilities for teshuva, each introduced with a similar formula. The first part of the parasha addresses the conclusion of the curses – where Am Yisrael is in exile, and out of the depths of that exile, they return to God. As explained, the state of exile signifies the violation of the covenant between God and Israel, and thus the repair of that situation requires a return of Am Yisrael to the land and a reforging of the covenant. In the first group of verses, the Torah describes the ingathering of the exiles, the improvement of the situation in the land, and the forging anew of the covenant (symbolized by the circumcision of the heart). This possibility begins with a return to God, and only afterwards comes obedience.
The Torah then describes a different scenario, in which teshuva comes before the situation deteriorates to the point of exile. In this case, the covenant has not yet been completely violated (the Exodus from Egypt has not been annulled), and therefore there is no need to forge it anew. Thus, after Am Yisrael engage in teshuva, they do not need to return to God – for they never distanced themselves from Him. All that is needed is a return to obeying Him. Once the nation obeys God, God fulfills His part of the covenant, and the material situation improves to the same level that once prevailed.
We might therefore sum up the essence of the difference between the curses in Parashat Bechukotai and those of Parashat Ki Tavo as concerning the manner in which the situation is presented. In Bechukotai, the curses grow progressively more severe, while alongside them, there is a possibility of teshuva. In Ki Tavo, the curses are described separately from the process of teshuva, to emphasize that teshuva here is a kindness bestowed by God, not something that is assured. After reading Parashat Bechukotai, Am Yisrael might think they can sin a little, receive their punishment, and then turn to teshuva. Parashat Ki Tavo, however, makes it clear that sin can lead to an abrogation of the covenant, and once this happens, it will be impossible to restore the situation to what it was before.[2] To emphasize this point, the Torah ends the unit of the curses with a concluding verse that brings the whole section of the covenant to an end and signifies that the covenant is null and void.
Nevertheless, even after the covenant is breached and abrogated, the gates of teshuva are not locked. The process of teshuva is presented here as "digging a tunnel beneath the Throne of Glory,"[3] i.e., as a radical option that should not ordinarily be possible. The tokhacha has played out, the covenant has been annulled, and there is seemingly no hope left for Israel – yet it is still possible to engage in teshuva and to forge the covenant anew.[4]
The Conclusion of the Speech of the Mitzvot
Along with complementing the unit of tokhacha, the beginning of ParashatNitzavim also plays another role: it is the conclusion and summary of the main body of Sefer Devarim – the speech of the mitzvot, in which Moshe sets forth the laws that Bnei Yisrael must observe and concludes with the covenant that is forged over these laws. The presentation of the laws starts at the beginning of Parashat Re'eh, where we also find mention of the blessings and curses on Mount Gerizim and Mount Eval, but the speech itself actually starts before that, at the beginning of Chapter 5, where Moshe introduces his presentation of the laws with the story of the revelation at Sinai. He begins there by emphasizing that the Torah was given to Bnei Yisrael, not to their forefathers, and at the end of the speech, in Parashat Nitzavim, he emphasizes that the covenant is forged not just with that generation, but also with the generations to come. The beginning of Chapter 5 is also similar to the beginning of Chapter 29.
I have noted in the past that we already encounter a curse and a blessing at the beginning of Parashat Ekev, but the curse there is of less urgency, since before the sin of the golden calf there was no reason to focus on the possibility that Bnei Yisrael might sin. Aside from the curses and blessings themselves, there is other parallel content between Parashat Ekev and our parasha:[5] In Parashat Ekev, we are told that God has afflicted Bnei Yisrael in order to teach them that "it is not by bread alone that man lives, but by all that comes from God's mouth that God lives" (8:3), and in Parashat Ki Tavo, we are told, "You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or strong drink, that you might know that I am the Lord your God" (29:5). Similarly, in ParashatEkev we are told that Bnei Yisrael need not fear the mighty nations, and in our parasha, Moshe reminds the nation of their victories over Sichon and Og, to show them that there is no need to fear the nations.[6]
In order for Am Yisrael to do teshuva, they will have to draw conclusions from the course of history. A person whose heart is "uncircumcised" will not turn to teshuva even if God afflicts him over and over. We explained above that Bnei Yisrael will eventually do teshuva because they will have understood the significance of history: after the "last generation" and the foreigners who come "from a distant land" (29:21) see how the land has been afflicted and is desolate, they will understand that God punished the land because Bnei Yisrael sinned. As the nation is about to enter Eretz Yisrael, Moshe emphasizes that they should learn God's ways in guiding the world from the way He acts through history – just as until now they have learned God's ways from the fact that He has protected them and from the miracles they have witnessed in the desert.
This idea is also an important point of departure for Parashat Haazinu, since the entire song of Haazinu concerns God's intervention in history and the meaning of different events that the people of Israel have experienced. Only if Am Yisrael is able to arrive at a proper understanding of the meaning of God's actions in history will they be able to rehabilitate the covenant between themselves and God even after its abrogation, and achieve complete teshuva.
(Translated by Kaeren Fish; edited by Sarah Rudolph)
[1] The unit does mention reasons for the punishments (e.g., "because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and goodness of heart", etc.), but it only explains how the situation comes about – not whether or how it might be repaired.
[2] As in any contract: if there is a breach of contract by one party, the other party is no longer obligated.
[3] Editor's note: see Yerushalmi Sanhedrin 10:2.
[4] The Torah ends the tokhacha at the end of Parashat Ki Tavo and not at the end of Chapter 29 (after the exile and the desolation of the land) in order to make a connection between the foreigners who come from a distant land and the teshuva of Bnei Yisrael (as explained above, the former leads to the latter), and to clarify that if an individual violates the covenant, God will not cancel it, so long as the nation as a whole remains faithful to it. To emphasize this point, the Torah concludes the chapter with the verse, "The secret things…."
[5] The structure is also similar: Parashat Ekev contains verses that separate between the blessing and the curse, and our parasha similarly has verses that separate between the punishment and teshuva. The content of these verses is similar, as explained above.
[6] Another reason for recalling the victory over Sichon and Og is to emphasize that the conquest of the land has already begun, and thus the covenant between Am Yisrael and God is already in effect. For this reason, Moshe also mentions that the territories of Sichon and Og have been given as an inheritance to some of the tribes.
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