By Rabbi Dovid Markel
This week’s parsha, Parshat Bechokotai, deals with the rewards and punishments that result upon one following or transgressing G-d’s will.
The story is told (Hayom Yom, 17 Elul) of the second Rebbe of Chabad, Rabbi Dovber of Lubavitch, that when he heard the curses as they are expressed in Devarim for the first time from someone other than his father (the first Chabad Rebbe, Rabbi Shneur Zalman), he was so distraught that it was questionable if he would be able to fast on Yom Kippur, which falls out a few weeks later.
When asked how is was that he became so pained this time, though he hears the same curses every year, he responded, “When father reads one does not hear curses!”
Though the basic intent of this statement was that when he heard these curses from his father, he understood a more spiritual dimension of the verse, there is perhaps another intent “that when one realizes that these statements are coming from our loving father in heaven, one sees the love imbedded in these statements rather than the pain.”
Tanya (Chapter 26) explains that: “one should accept [misfortune] with joy, like the joy of a visible and obvious benefit, for “this is also for the good,” except that it is not apparent and visible to mortal eyes, because it stems from the ‘hidden world’ which is higher than the ‘revealed world.'”
In truth, misfortune comes from a higher source than revealed goodness, but just as when a light is too bright, it pains us, so too when G-dly revelation is too intense it is translated to us as curses. In truth then, not only do the curses expressed in our parsha serve a positive goal, but they are not curses at all.
Chassidus explains concerning one of the curses expressed in this week’s Torah portion, that “ten women will bake your bread in one oven.” Though this sounds like a tremendous curse, in actuality, it expresses something much deeper-that all the ten attributes of our soul with be warmed with the love of the one G-d.
Just as this curse is truly expressive of the greatest spiritual revelation, so it is with the rest of the “curses.” May we very soon see the revelation of their true spiritual significance with the coming of Moshiach-now!
