A.
Our parasha this week is known for the presence of a long passage called the Tohacha, or “Rebuke.” After detailing all the blessings which would flow to Israel for heeding the Torah and doing their level best to adhere to its precepts (XXVIII, 1-14), the passage begins: והי' אם לא תשמע בקול ד' אלקיך לשמר לעשות את כל מצותיו וחקתיו אשר אנכי מצוך היום ובאו עליך כל הקללות האלה והשיגוך (“And it will be, if you do not listen to the voice of Ha-Shem your G-d to keep [i.e., “learn”] to do all His mitzvoth and His laws which I am commanding you today, and all of these curses will come upon you and engulf you”).
Our passage then proceeds to detail the horrors which, as any student of Jewish history can assure us, were all too accurate a description of our sad history: Conquest, expropriation, exile, enslavement, lives of terrible uncertainly and upheaval, תחת אשר לא עבדת את ד' אלקיך בשמחה ובטוב לבב מרב כל (“Because you did not serve Ha-Shem your G-d with joy [simha] and goodness of heart [uvë-tuv lévav] from an abundance of everything”; ibid., 47). The Talmud quotes this verse, and asks: איזו עבודה שהיא בשמחה ובטוב לב הוי אימר זו שירה (“What service is with simha and tuv lév? I would say, this is song [shira]”; ערכין י"א.).
So in the midst of plenty, all the blessings of Ha-Shem, Israel did not sing as they performed their service; for this, all the gruesome horrors of Jewish history have been heaped upon us?!. How is this justified?
B.
The great Rabbi Eliyahu Eli‘ezer Dessler זצ"ל, in his classic work the Michtav Mé-Eliyahu, discusses the conditions of gratitude (in Hebrew, hakkarath ha-tov, literally, “recognition of good”) and ingratitude (këfiyath tova, which really means something like “extinguishing” or “averting” good, by refusing to recognise it gratefully). In the course of his discussion, he makes the observation that ‘Ésav possessed the midda, the “measure” of a notél, a “taker,” in that he saw it as his right and privilege to take whatever he wanted, as much as he was able, from the world, on the theory that בשבילי נברא העולם, “For me [alone] was the world created!”; עיי' למשל סנהדרין ל"ז.), such that he is entitled to everything in it.
Such a terrible characteristic, continues Rabbi Dessler, inevitably leads to another bad midda in that he becomes këfuy tova, ungrateful for each and every good thing, for he is convinced that it is his by right and entitlement. Këfiyath tova leads to permanent dissatisfaction, envy and hatred, because the mere fact that anyone has anything which the këfuy tova would find desirable means that he is being victimized, that what he sees as his property by right is being wrongfully withheld from him. It is this sense of permanent dissatisfaction which underlies ‘Ésav’s remark on his reunion with his brother Ya‘aqov: יש לי רב, “I have much” (rov; Genesis XXXIII, 9), much but not everything, and so not enough (מכתב מאלי' ח"א קונטרס החסד פ"א וי"א).
This may be contrasted with Ya‘aqov’s character, exemplified by what he told ‘Ésav: כי חנני אלקים וכי יש לי כל (“...For G-d has been gracious to me, for I have everything [kol]”; ibid., 11). Ya‘aqov’s midda, by contrast, is that of a nothén, a “giver,” whose purpose in life is to do for others, to perform Ha-Shem’s mitzvoth out of sheer love of G-d, as a gift to Him; such a person is filled with a sense of gratitude. Indeed, the very generality of the sense is suggested by the slight grammatical anomaly between the terms hakkarath ha-tov and këfiyath tova. As my good friend Rabbi Dr Alan Corré שליט"א has pointed out to me in a different context, the masculine gender of the word tov indicates the quality of goodness in general, whilst the feminine tova points to any singular act or instance of goodness (for other examples, cf. shoshan, a lily motif, in e.g. I Kings VII, 19, 22, 26, vs, shoshanna, a single lily; dema‘, “weeping,” tears in general, vs. dim‘a, a single tear; geva‘, “hill-country,” vs., giv‘a, a single hill; and so on). Ya‘aqov’s general attitude is thus suggested by his prayer as he awaited ‘Ésav’s arrival: קטנתי מכל החסדים ומכל האמת אשר עשית את עבדך (“I am less [literally, ‘smaller’] than all the kindnesses and all the truth which You have done with Your servant”; Genesis XXXII, 11).
This is the quality with which G-d wished Ya‘aqov’s descendants to be imbued.
C.
With this in mind, our passage becomes relevant. The hint lies in the accusation being made against Israel, that we have not served Ha-Shem with joy mé-rov kol, “from,” that is, “because of” a sense that we have rov kol, “much of everything,” but not, in fact, everything.
In other words, our final exile, this one in which we have been immured for so long, with such a horrific history, came about because, in the Torah’s judgment, by the end of the Second Temple Period Israel had begun to adopt the morés of the prevailing culture, that of the Romans, descendants of Edom, that is, ‘Ésav, the overlords of that day. They had begun to become a bit këfuyei tova, which led to tzaruth ‘ayin (“envy, stinginess”), which tended to amplify every difference and disagreement between one Jew and another, resulting in the infamous sin’ath hinnam, “groundless hatred” between Jews, culminating in the Jewish War, the destruction of the Second Temple, as the Talmud informs us (יומא ט.), and our present exile.
D.
How to solve the problem? Hazal relate the phrase simha vë-tuv lévav, as we see, to shira, and shira, quite simply, is a metaphor for Torah: ועתה כתבו לכם את השירה הזאת ולמדה את בני ישראל שימה בפיהם למען תהי' לי השירה הזאת לעד בבני ישראל, Moshe enjoins is later: “Write for yourselves this shira and teach it to the bënei Yisra’él, place it in their mouths, so that I shall have this shira amongst the bënei Yisra’él for ever”; XXXI, 19; ועיי' בענין זיהוי השירה בתורה סנהדרין כ"א: ועירובין נ"ד: בין השאר). Learning Torah, teaching Torah, observing Torah, not as a burden but in the spirit of Yisra’él sabba, of our Grandfather Ya‘aqov, amidst love and joy, in the critical mass of most, if not all, of Israel will surely counter the sin’ath hinnam.
The Maharal mi-Prag, points out another way in which the shira of Torah is related to rov kol, in that כאשר יש לאדם עושר ראוי לו ללמוד ביותר בתורה אחר שיש לי כל וגו' (“when a man has wealth it is fitting for him to learn more Torah, since he has everything”), deriving the principle from our verse. Engaging in the shira mé-rov kol, then, is in his view a given, והפך זה העוני מבטל את האדם מתורתו שאי אפשר לו לעסוק בתורה שצריך להשתדל אחר מזונו ומחייתו (“and the opposite of this, poverty abates a man from his Torah, for it is impossible for him to engage in Torah, since he must scramble after his sustenance and livelihood”; דרך חיים פ"ד מ"ט ). Indeed, Hazal tell us: איזהו עשיר השמח בחלקו (“Who is wealthy? One who is happy with his lot”; תמיד ל"ב.), and: כל המבטל את התורה מעושר סופו לבטלה מעוני (“Anyone who neglects the Torah from wealth is destined to neglect it from poverty”; אבות פ"ד מי"א).
The month of Tishrei with its quartet of holy days, Rosh ha-Shana, Yom ha-Kippurim, Sukkoth, and Shëmini ‘Atzereth, is fast approaching us. No Jewish observance better exemplifies the principle of hakkarath ha-tov than Sukkoth, called by Hazal not coincidentally in our tëfilloth, zëman simhathénu, “the time of our rejoicing.” Sukkoth occurs at the harvest, specifically at the time when a person is most likely to feel the sense that yésh lo kol, “he has everything.” At this very time, Israel are enjoined to demonstrate their character as nothënim, “givers,” in that throughout the seven days of Sukkoth, 70 qorbanoth, for the benefit of the 70 other nations, are brought in the Béyth ha-Miqdash, Israel’s own qorban occurring only on the eighth day, the final holiday of Shëmini ‘Atzereth.
And during the entire time the seventy qorbanoth are being offered, each ish mi-Yisra’él leaves his permanent home to dwell in a temporary hut, one whose roof is typically constructed of the discarded remains of the harvest, stalks, branches, and vines, a demonstration that, even with regard to his life in this world, he dwells bë-tzilla di-mheimnutha, “in the shade of faith,” as the sëfarim ha-qëdoshim term the sëchach, the thatch on the hut.
We must persist in this eternal shira, we may not despair, for this spirit is destined to triumph in the world around us: והי' כל הנותר מכל הגוים הבאים על ירושלם ועלו מדי שנה בשנה להשתחות למלך ד' צב-אות ולחג את חג הסכות (“And it will be, the remnant of all the nations coming against Jerusalem will ascend, year on year, to bow to the king of Ha-Shem Tzë-vaoth, and to observe the holiday of Sukkoth”; Zechariah XIV, 16).
“Ésav’s këfiyath tova will vanish, to be replaced by hakkarath ha-tov, as the nations come to sit with us bë-tzilla di-mheimnutha.
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