Curses: Unpleasant, but also Empowering

On a regular Shabbat, there is a difference of opinion as to which aliyah is the most honorable: shlishi or shishi. This week, there’s no debate. Everyone would rather have shlishi. Shishi consists of the Tochecha, a set of curses directed at the Jewish People individually by Moshe for failure to live up to their potential and the expectations of the Torah. Noone wants to get an aliyah that is full of curses, especially when those curses are written in the singular as they are in Ki Tavo. So who should get the Aliyah?

The story is told about the members of a certain Shul who were all terrified of being called up for the Aliya of the Tochacha.  They called a special Board Meeting, and decided to hire someone to take the aliyah of the Tochecha.  It wasn’t easy, but finally a willing candidate was found and hired.

Parshat Ki Tavo arrived and the Gabbai looked around for the contracted individual to call him for shishi.  But, he was nowhere to be found in the Shul. “Perhaps he’s running late,” suggested one of the Ba’alei Batim, “let’s wait a few minutes for him.” They sat for about a quarter of an hour, getting more and more impatient by the minute.  After all, this was not proper.  An agreement had been made.  Money had been paid.  Where was he?

 Right then, the contracted man entered the Shul.  The Board members ran to him and demanded to know his reason for being late. The individual calmly turned to the angry group, and replied, “I was davening in the shul down the block.  Do you really think that a person can make a living from only one Tochacha?”

This story may be a joke, but the Maharil, in his classic book of Ashkenzaic customs (Hilchot Kriat Hatorah) writes that in Magence the custom was to stipulate with the Shamash that part of his job (what he was getting paid to do) was to take the Tochacha aliyah when no one else wanted it. 

In other communities, there was a serious concern that the Gabbai might call a person up for the sixth aliyah today, and that person due to his fear of the curses, would just not come forward. This led to the ruling of Rabbi Moshe Isserliss that the aliyah be given to “anyone that is willing.” Understood to mean either that the Gabbais have to find someone ahead of time willing to take this aliyah, or that the Gabbai is supposed to simply call out “Ya’amod mi sheyirtza” for today’s sixth aliyah.

Rav Chayim ben Betzalel, the brother of the Maharal of Prague, relates in his Sefer Ha-chayim that this “fear” of the tokhecha in Parashat Ki-Tavo led to some serious disruptions and lack of honor for the Torah.  He describes that in some synagogues, the Torah would remain open, in the middle of the reading, for several hours, as no congregants were willing to come and recite the berakhot over this aliya.  The Biur Halacha records that there were synagogues in which they actually cancelled Torah reading on the Shabbatot during which the curses should have been read (ie Bechukotai and Ki Tavo).

It is understandable why the Tochecha (selection of curses) is not the most popular Aliya. It contains a number of scary predictions of what can occur to the Jewish People. There are some fundamental messages that emerge from the tochecha:

1      One of the greatest curses is to fear the unknown:

7In the morning, you will say, "If only it were evening! " and in the evening, you will say, "If only it were morning!" because of the fear in your heart which you will experience and because of the sights that you will behold.

סזבַּבֹּקֶר תֹּאמַר מִי יִתֵּן עֶרֶב וּבָעֶרֶב תֹּאמַר מִי יִתֵּן בֹּקֶר מִפַּחַד לְבָבְךָ אֲשֶׁר תִּפְחָד וּמִמַּרְאֵה עֵינֶיךָ אֲשֶׁר תִּרְאֶה:

2 Curses come from the absence of joy in our lives, not the absence of material wealth:

because you did not serve the Lord, your God, with happiness and with gladness of heart, when [you had an] abundance of everything.

מזתַּחַת אֲשֶׁר לֹא עָבַדְתָּ אֶת יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ בְּשִׂמְחָה וּבְטוּב לֵבָב מֵרֹב כֹּל

And happiness is a choice. Just ask students of Positive Psychology.

It emerges that many of the curses are up to us to avoid: by constantly learning and thinking we can avoid the unknown. My choosing to live life through a prism of happiness we can avoid those curses that emerge from the absence of joy.

The depiction of the curses is unpleasant. But upon further consideration I found their underlying message to be empowering. This enhances my understanding of the calendric insistence to read this portion before Rosh Hashanah. We want to start the New Year past the curses. And we also want to enter the New Year empowered, knowing that avoiding many of the curses is up to us.