Moshe relates to Bnei Yisrael the tochacha—a detailed admonition, describing the extremely difficult consequences that can occur as a result of … as a result of what? Well, at some point in the tochacha the Torah informs us, “Because you didn’t serve Hashem, your God, with simcha and with goodness of heart…,” and Rav Gedalia Schorr (Ohr Gedalyahu, Ki Tavo) brings the Arizal who learns that this is the reason for the entire tochacha!
This would seem to imply that the tochacha is talking to a person who may technically be doing the mitzvot, keeping the Torah, yet lacks simcha and goodness of heart when doing so. In other words, a person could be a “frum” Jew, but might still be a subject of this tochacha if his observance lacks these components of his service of Hashem. In fact, the aforementioned Arizal (which is actually quoted by the Shlah in Shnei Luchot Habrit, Ki Tavo) says that the pasuk is teaching us that “even though you may have served Hashem through doing the mitzvot, however, you didn’t do it with simcha and goodness of heart.”
Interestingly, the word the Torah uses for “because” is “tachat,” which literally means “instead of.” Hence, Rav Gedalia Schorr quotes an explanation from Rav Henach m’Alexander that the Torah is teaching us: Why is it that one doesn’t experience joy when serving Hashem? It must be because there is something instead that one is involved with.
The implication of this perhaps is that simcha is an organic byproduct of serving Hashem—it’s a natural result of being engaged in spirituality. But this might be conditional, for if a person’s heart truly desires and aspires to materialism and physical pleasure, then that could interfere with simcha being experienced from spirituality. One could externally be very involved in serving Hashem, but his internal state—his mind and heart—might be involved in things, places and ideas that are earthly and self-serving.
Rav Elya Lopian (Lev Eliyahu, Ki Tavo) quotes the pasuk above and then brings Rabbeinu Yona (Shaarei Teshuva, Shaar 2) who speaks at length about a person he calls wicked, rasha. He states, “You should know, that the soul of a rasha which, during his life, desires nothing other than physical pleasures, and whose desire is separated from the service of the Creator [Hashem] and is (thus) disconnected from its (Heavenly) source, will descend, when he dies, down to the earth, the place [that was the focus] of its desire. Its [i.e. the rasha’s soul] result will be like the nature of [the] dust [of the earth], to descend and not to ascend, but it will [temporarily] be brought up to the Heavens [which is against its nature], to be tried and judged and to see how it [foolishly] exchanged Heaven for She’ol (i.e., Gehinnom), just like a stone is propelled upward [against the downward pull of gravity] by a slingshot. After it [his soul] has gone up to the Heavens, it will naturally fall down to the earth, just as the stone falls back down to the earth after being thrown … and [the Sages] of blessed memory stated: [After death] both the souls of the righteous and the souls of the wicked ascend to the Heavens, but the souls of the wicked subsequently descend, crashing down to the earth.”
At first glance, it might seem that Rabbeinu Yona is referring to a full-fledged rasha. However, Rav Lopian says that it isn’t so. For such a person, Rabbeinu Yona doesn’t need to go to such lengths to warn about his doom. Rather, Rabbeinu Yona is referring to the observant Jew; the one who is frum!; the one who does the mitzvot, who serves Hashem. As Rabbeinu Yona says, this person’s “desire is separated from the service of the Creator”—i.e., he indeed serves his Creator, but his desire for it isn’t present, but is instead for physicality.
In our parsha, Moshe tells Bnei Yisrael, “This day you have become a nation to Hashem, your God” (27:9). Didn’t we become a nation to Hashem a long time before “this day”? Rashi (29:3) brings an explanation that provides the backstory to Moshe’s statement: When Moshe gave the Torah to the sons of Levi, all of Bnei Yisrael came to Moshe and said, “Moshe Rabbeinu, we too, stood at Sinai and we accepted the Torah, and it was given to us. Why do you put the sons of your tribe in charge of it? For one day they may say to us, ‘It was not given to you—it was given to us.’” Upon hearing this, Moshe rejoiced, and in response said, “This day you have become a nation to Hashem, your God,” meaning, “This day I have understood that you cleave to and desire Hashem.”
Rav Henach Leibowitz points out that the implication from Rashi is that before “this day,” Moshe didn’t know that Bnei Yisrael cleaved to and desired Hashem. Rav Leibowitz thus asks, Bnei Yisrael were in the desert for 40 years learning Torah and performing the mitzvot! How is it that Moshe didn’t understand until now that Bnei Yisrael cleaved to and desired Hashem?
We can, perhaps, suggest that although Bnei Yisrael may have been doing the mitzvot and serving Hashem in the desert, it still wasn’t clear to Moshe that this is what they really desired, for maybe their desires and aspirations were for physicality. Now, however, when Bnei Yisrael think the Torah is being “taken away from them” and they approach Moshe to protest—that clearly shows that Bnei Yisrael’s desires and aspirations are for Hashem—for Torah and mitzvot; that their efforts toward and sense of fulfillment and happiness are not to be gained from physicality, but rather, from spirituality.
Binyamin is a graduate of Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yitzchok Elchanan, and of Wurzweiler School of Social Work.
