Deut. 26:1-29:8
Précis: The parasha contains numerous religious mandates regarding the formation of a civil and moral community (including tithes of first fruits and tithes to support the Levites). The People are promised that if they follow God’s instructions, they will be transformed into a “holy people.” They are further instructed that they have a choice in their own destiny: there are blessings and curses (the “Admonition”), and they must choose between the two, and take the consequences. The parasha ends with Moses reminding the People about all that God had done for them in bringing them from Egypt, providing sustenance, defeating their foes, and giving them the Land.
Deut.28:15-68 “But if you do not obey the Lord your God…all these curses shall come upon you…Cursed shall you be in the city and cursed in the country...Cursed shall be the issue of your womb…The Lord will make pestilence cling to you… The skies above your head shall be copper and the earth under you iron…The Lord will strike you with madness, blindness, and dismay…In the morning you shall say, ‘if only it were evening’ and in the evening you shall say ‘If only it were morning….'”
These verses include the curses of the tochacha, (the “Admonition.)” They are a paragon of threat and fear. This year, I have attempted a new tochacha, relevant to our times:
"Cursed shall you be by disease, by hunger, by floods, and by fires;
Cursed shall you be by your failure to maintain the Earth’s beauty and purity;
Cursed shall be your nation with intolerance, hatred, inequity, and fear of the stranger;
Cursed shall be your leaders who fail to agree on measures to sustain your nation and all of its people;
Cursed shall you be by your failure to acknowledge truth and clinging to false prophets of conspiracies;
Cursed shall you be with unending strife between Israel and its neighbors;
Cursed shall you be in your going out and in your coming in; you will fear to hold those most dear to you, and you shall fear for your health and for the health of those you love.”
Fear is an incredibly powerful emotion. It can paralyze us. One of the ways we can overcome fear is through unity with others, now made more of a challenge by Covid.
Nevertheless, we can believe that by living good, moral and ethical lives that the worst will not happen, and that the curses we face can be eliminated by our hope and by our actions. In this time leading up to Rosh Hashanah, we can focus on our dreams and blessings (in my case, sharing my wedding anniversary with the one I love) instead of our fears. FDR famously said that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
We delude ourselves by ignoring the real curses now upon us. In one way, however, FDR was correct: fear can be our worst enemy. We must recognize that the road ahead will be treacherous and difficult, but as our tradition reminds us, with repentance, prayer, and acts of loving-kindness, we can together overcome the severe decree.
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