KI TAVO
09/20/2024 12:47:04 PM
"Instead of your serving G-d… in joyfulness and with gladness of heart through abundance of everything." (28,47)
May the year with its curses end and may the new year with its blessings begin
The Parsha of Ki Tavo is always read in the month of Elul, the last month of the year. We find an allusion to this in that which is written in Masechta Megilla: "Ezra the Scribe set that Israel should read the 98 curses in the Book of Devraim (in our Parsha) before Rosh Hashanah in order that "the year and its curses shall end".
This entails the idea that if, G-d forbid, decrees were decreed on Israel from Heaven – they should be fulfilled by the 98 curses in the Parsha of Ki Tavo being read out, in the manner of "our lips shall pay up for the bulls" (= the curses shall only be said on the lips and will not actually materialize). Thus, at the beginning of the new year the saying of "The year and its curses shall end, the new year and its blessings shall begin" shall be fulfilled.
On this matter of the curses the holy SHLAH wrote in the name of the ARIZ'L that the source of all the 98 curses in our Parsha is due to Israel not serving G-d in happiness, as it says in the Parsha, " And all these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you… Instead of your serving G-d… in joyfulness and with gladness of heart through abundance of everything."
Therefore, the holy ARI writes, "When a person performs any mitzvah or learns Torah or prays, he must be happy with a gladness of heart more than when he earns or finds thousands of gold coins, and that is the meaning of the verse "Instead of your serving G-d… in joyfulness and with gladness of heart through abundance of everything" – i.e. he should be happier than when would earn a great amount of money."
The "Shem Shmuel" brings down a wonderful idea form his father the Avnei Nezer: "The 98 lambs that are sacrified on the holiday of Succot in the Beit Hamikdrash are in order to cancel out the 98 curses in the Parsha of Ki Tavo."
We can say that since the reason for the punishment of the curses is "Instead of your serving G-d… in joyfulness and with gladness of heart through abundance of everything" – therefore the sacrifice of 98 lambs specifically on the holiday of Succot when is the "Time of our Happiness" cancel out the 98 curses and admonitions.
SHABBAT SHALOM!!!