The Pain And The Gain | Rabbi Stewart Weiss | Beit Midrash

Torah Portion and Tanach
Ki Tavo

קטגוריה משנית

Have You Ever Traced The Journey Of Your Life? This Is What The Farmer In Our Sedra Does As He Recalls The Path - From Slavery In Egypt To Independence In Israel - As He Lovingly Prepares To Offer The Bikurim First Fruits To G-d.

But The Beginning Of His Speech Is Somewhat Peculiar. He Says, Arami Oved Avi. On A Simple Level, This Can Mean, My Ancestor (Yakov) Was A Wandering Aramean" (For He Lived In Aram For 20 Years). This Certainly Makes Sense, As It Marks The Beginning Of The Whole Chain Of Events.

But Rashi Has A Very Different Spin On This Phrase. He Says That Arami Refers To Lavan (The Hebrew Letters Can Be Rearranged To Spell "ramai," A Cheater, Which Lavan Surely Was) Who Wished To Destroy Yakov. But Why Start Such A Positive Dialogue In Such A Negative Way? And How Big A Part Did Lavan Actually Play In Yakov’s Life?

Rav Eliyahu Ki-tov Has A Beautiful Take On This. He Says That Yakov’s Troubles Began When Lavan Switched Brides On Him, Substituting Leah For Rachel. The Result Of This Was That Yakov’s First-born Was Reuven, Rather Than Yosef, Which Led To Bitter Sibling Rivalry, When Yosef Self-declared That He Was The Heir Apparent Of The Family. From This Schism Came The Selling Of Yosef, The Descent To Egypt, The Slavery Of The Jews & Eventual Redemption.

Had Yakov Married His True Love Rachel, & Had Yosef Been Born First, Our History Would Have Been Radically Different, & None Of This Balagan Might Have Taken Place.

Yet I Want To Suggest That There Is A Profound Message Here. Not Only That It Is Hashem Who Pulls The Strings Of History - Both On A Collective And Individual Level - But That Events In Our Lives Which Often Seem To Be Negative, Even Catastrophic, Usually Have A Happy Ending.

True, We Had To Deal With Serious Challenges As The Brothers Fought One Another; We Would Suffer In Bondage For More Than A Century. But In The End, It Was All Part Of The Fabric Of Our Destiny & Necessary For Our Ultimate Survival & Triumph. We Learned How To Survive In The Most Difficult Of Circumstances & Were "steeled" Forever.

As We Mentally Review The Events Of Our Lives Before Rosh Hashana, We Will Undoubtedly Feel Pain At What We Lost, At The Opportunities We Squandered Along The Way. Yet We Hopefully Will Come Away With A Greater Sense Of Hakarat Ha-tov, Appreciation For The Way In Which G-d Has Lovingly Guided Us & Cared For Us Along Our Journey.

And We Can Then Better Express Our Gratitude When We Gather To Celebrate Another Blessed Year Of Life.

Ask The Rabbi: How Many Shofar Blasts Must We Hear On Rosh Hashana?

It Is A Torah Mitzvah To Hear The Shofar On Rosh Hashana (Though Not On Shabbat, Which Is The 1st Day Of Rh This Year), Consisting Of 3 Teruot, With An Added Sound Before & After Each Teruah (A Simple Tekiya). In All, This Would Be A Total Of 9 Shofar Blasts. But Since There Are 3 Types Of Terua Shevarim (Akin To Sighing), Teruah (Akin To Crying) & Shevarim-teruah (A Combination Of Both), Our Custom Is To Add These Sounds And So Hear At Least Thirty Shofar Blasts (Shevarim-teruah Are Considered Two Blasts). An Enhancement Of The Mitzva (For A Total Of 60 Blasts) Is To Sound The Shofar During The Chazan’s Repetition Of Musaf. Some Rabbis Went Further, Increasing The Mitzva To 100 Blasts (Or 101 For Sefardim), Including During The Silent Amida. It Was The Ari Hakadosh Who Spread This Minhag To Most Jewish Communities. In Cases Of Illness Or Extenuating Circumstances, Sounding 30 Or 60 Shofar Blasts Would Be Halachically Proper And Absolutely Fulfills The Mitzva.

Ki Tavo