This one should not be so difficult owing that I practically gave it away. Let's review the issue:
It appears that Moshe Rabbenu takes a time-out in the middle of his lengthy tirade of Kellalos to give us a commercial break - a message from the Sponsor about what we have been doing wrong. This commercial break seems to comprise three pasukim - Devarim 28:45, 46, and 47. In other words, pasuk 28:47 - that we have not served G-d with joy and good-heartedness - is a follow up of the 2 previous pasukim. I.e., it is part of the problem. Then, from pasuk 28:48 and on, we return to our regular programming and continue with the [final] solution.
In other words, pasuk 28:47 has very much to do with the 2 pasukim before it and very little to do with the pasukim that come after it.
This is how I understood the pasuk for over 3 decades. I asked my 2 study partners (both of them are older than I am), and that is how they understood the pasuk as well. For decades. This seems to be the simple way to see the pasuk and I think virtually everybody sees it that way.
I think it's a mistake.
I looked at the pasuk this year and saw somehing I never noticed before. Let's look at this pasuk again:
מז תחת אשר לא עבדת את יהוה אלהיך בשמחה ובטוב לבב מרב כל
Now lets look at the pasuk after it:
מח ועבדת את איביך אשר ישלחנו יהוה בך ברעב ובצמא ובעירם ובחסר כל
Did you notice something? I think pasuk 28:47 has a lot more to do with the next pasuk - and a lot less to do with the previous pasukim - than we have thought all these years.
Pasuk 28:47 is not telling us why we are enduring these kellalos! That concept was wrapped up in the previous 2 pasukim - primarily pasuk 28:45 which says that we have not been observing the mitzvos.
Pasuk 28:47 is the beginning of the next round of Kellalos! It is the opening premise of pasuk 28:48 and it is saying this:
Your next Kellala is that in place of serving Hashem your G-d in an environment of joy and good-heartedness out of sheer abundance of all...
Or, in other words -
Instead of sitting around a Shabbos table in fancy clothes with 9 kids and 25 grandchildren, fressing on Chulent and kugel with your pantries overflowing with groceries and your wine-cellars stocked floor to ceiling and all your bills paid and singing zemiros and saying over vertlach, etc., etc., etc., (pasuk 28:47)...
...That you could have and should have done but you didn't; instead of all that...
You will instead be serving your enemies (and their gods) in foreign lands in an environment of hunger, and thirst, and nakedness out of a lack of all (pasuk 28:48)....
Now we see that this pasuk is not giving a new and perplexing reason for the Kellalos. It is a Kellala! And now we understand the conjoining "vav" at the beginning of pasuk 28:48.
I truly think that this is the rudimentary pshat in the pasuk.
תכלה שנה וקללותיה, תחל שנה וברכותיה
Very reasonable! But I think you could say it better -- not just as a statement of fact (i.e., instead of this you will get that), but as a cause-and-effect: "Since you did not serve Hashem your G-d despite being in an environment of joy and good-heartedness out of sheer abundance of all, you will therefore serve your enemies (and their gods) in foreign lands in an environment of hunger, and thirst, etc."
ReplyDeleteI actually have this deja-vu of having heard a similar interpretation once upon a time, but that just might be because it seems to fit so well.
You are absolutely right. That is really what I meant to say but did not do it right. I made a small change to reflect it.
ReplyDeleteThank you.Good shabbos.
Chezkel