REACHING FOR PAPA
Our Sages who arranged the calendar and the order of the weekly Parshios designed it such that we should read this Parsha of Ki Savo two weeks before Rosh Hashana. The reason for this arrangement was because a large portion of Ki Savo contains a prediction of a horrific period of our history.
The Sages wanted the reading of this prediction to coincide with the ending of the year. The reading of this Parsha should constitute a prayer to HaKadosh baruch Hu that the curses that should come upon us should come to an end just as our year comes to an end.
This is truly a beautiful notion and may HaKadosh baruch Hu, in fact, fulfill that prayer. I would like to suggest that this prayer goes beyond the simple hope and desire that we should no longer suffer any curses.
There is much more that we are suffering than the actual pain of the exile. The curse that is described in our Parsha which is predicted that our people
will suffer includes famine and drought, war and exile, dire hunger compounded with fear and panic. Such horrific scenes are depicted that it makes one wonder how HaKadosh baruch Hu could allow such horror to occur. Nevertheless, in spite of all of this there is yet a greater pain. It is a gnawing pain that we could feel and perhaps should feel even if we were living in the lap of comfort and luxury. It is the pain and trauma that a child feels when kidnapped from home by captors who intend no harm to the child. The captors only tell the child that he will never see his parents again. The pain of a child being detached from his parents can be far more traumatic and its impact can be more damaging than other horrors.
When we contemplate our relationship with HaKadosh baruch Hu and our utter dependence upon Him we will discover a deeper dimension of the pain that these curses bring. In fact, every physical and psychological torture described in our Parsha is coupled with this pain of separation. All this pain is the consequence of the separation. We are so vulnerable because we are separated from Papa. Papa cared for us, He protected us, He sustained us and He loved us. Now that we are so far away from Papa anything can happen to us.
Perhaps for this reason in the beginning of our Parsha, Moshe identifies for us the nature of our relationship with HaKadosh baruch Hu. Moshe tells his people that they have separated HaKadosh baruch Hu from all other powers and identified Him as their exclusive Guide and Director. Moshe continues by saying that HaKadosh baruch Hu, as well, separated the Jewish nation from all the other nations to be His own exclusive nation. He describes the relationship as a mutual relationship that is exclusive to everything and everyone else in the world. Can you have a more romantic connection!
Only after Moshe establishes this point does he begin the ominous prediction. Moshe wants us to know that as painful and traumatic the exile will be we must remember that at the root of our relationship we are closer to HaKadosh baruch Hu than any force or any nation that may show its strength. It is just a matter of time and perhaps a matter of our trusting in Him that prevents that closeness from displaying itself.
So as the year comes to its close we turn to Hashem with a prayer that the distance that separates us from each other should also come to a close. With that, we then prepare ourselves to bring HaKadosh baruch Hu into our lives and into our homes.
May HaShem grant us much success in preparing for the great holiday of Rosh Hashana and may it bring about the closing of the gap that lies between us.
Have a wonderful Shabbos.
Paysach Diskind