“When Father Reads There Are No Curses”

Curses are not real. Our default position is our blessed relationship with G-d as our Father. The definition of a curse is the hiding of that natural relationship.

Jolting and Ending

According to the Talmud, prior to the onset of the New Year we are supposed to read the Torah portion of Ki Savo with its numerous threats of retribution and curses that would befall the Jewish people if they would not remain faithful to G-d.

The reason for this practice is twofold:

First, it is intended to jolt us into realizing our responsibilities as Jews.

Second, by concluding the year with the Torah reading concerning the curses, we are imploring G-d that the end of the year should coincide with and reflect an end to all of the curses that have plagued us in the past.

Reconciling Curses with the Torah of Kindness

An obvious question concerning the curses that appear in the Torah prompted the Chassidic Masters to view them in a different light. The Torah is known as Toras Chesed, a Torah of kindness. The Biblical book of Proverbs refers to the Torah thus: “Its ways are pleasant ways and all its ways are peace.“ How could the Torah actually utter such curses and dire threats?

The curses, they explain, are actually hidden blessings. These unconventional blessings are so sublime that they cannot be expressed in conventional terms. No normal terminology could do justice to the phenomenal nature of goodness that they represent. These blessings are therefore alluded to in a coded form; by employing negative terminology.

One who is sensitive can see through the curses and appreciate their true meaning and nature. One whose attitude is unconventionally positive can also uncover the unconventional good that is inherent within the apparent curses.

Father’s Reading

A story is told of Rabbi Dovber, the son of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi (the founder of the Chabad movement whose birthday we celebrated this past week on Chai Elulthe 18th of Elul. When he was a child of twelve, and his father, the Rebbe — who was the regular Torah reader — was out of town, he heard the section of the curses read by another reader. He was so shocked and devastated by the curses that he fainted. Even after he was revived, he was so weakened by the ordeal that several weeks later there was a question as to whether he would be strong enough to fast on Yom Kippur.

When he was asked for an explanation as to why he fainted. After all hadn’t he heard the Torah reading of the curses in past years? Yet, he had never fainted before.

His answer was that when he heard the curses read by his father, there were no curses. Now that someone else was the reader, the words assumed a more ominous character. For the first time he had detected the “outer” and literal meaning of the words. They were so frightening that he had fainted.

To apply this to our own situation as the year comes to an end:

When we hear the Torah from our father, i.e., when we cultivate our father-child relationship with G- d, all of the negative things — all the curses that we read about — not only cease to be curses; they turn out to be the greatest blessings.

Thus by concluding the year with the reading of these “blessings in disguise” we are inspired to elicit our own hidden reserves of holiness — the father-child dimension of our relationship with G-d — for the new year. When they are revealed, all of the curses and negativity that we accumulated throughout the year will be washed away.

For the spiritually “unsophisticated” the curses are understood literally because it may be the only way to shock them into changing their ways. They are not ready for the father-child relationship.

But for the more sophisticated these curses are actually hidden blessings that express our intimate relationship with G-d.

The Curse of Exile and the Blessing of Redemption

These two dimensions of the “curses” reflect the difference between exile and Redemption.

Exile has been likened to a curse. There is no greater absence of blessing than when we are in exile subject to all the suffering and pain and spiritual decline. The absence of the Bais Hamikdash is a powerful curse and we pray every day for its reconstruction.

Conversely, there is no greater blessing than the Messianic Age, when all of the ills of the world will be corrected and G-d’s presence will be channeled to the entire world through the rebuilt Holy Temple.

So when we read about curse/hidden blessings we have to realize that the former is intended to jolt us out of our comfort zone in exile, while the latter is to get us to desire and long for Moshiach and Redemption.

In truth, exile already contains the powerful and unconventional blessings, but they are hidden. Moshiach will be the one to reveal these pre-existing blessings.

From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Ki Savo by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.