Ki Tavo- The Evil That Men Do and Divine Retribution

V’nish’artem bimtei m’at tachat asher hayitem k’khokhvei hashamayim larov ki lo shama’ta bkol Hashem Eh-lohecha.

And you will be left few in number whereas you were like the many stars of the heavens since you did not heed the voice of Hashem your God.

The text of the Torah speaks in glorious terms.  Blessings and curses are absolute.  Because of this, throughout our history tragedy has often been taken as a divine sign instead of the evil that men do.

Following the Holocaust, many Jews had one of two reactions.  Some lost their belief in God.  After all, how could God allow such a horror to be perpetrated?  Others moved in the opposite direction.  As Jews of ancient times, they saw the destruction of such a large percentage of Jews as a sign these curses had come to pass.  They reacted by turning inward, attempting to increase their piety, and cutting themselves off from the rest of the world.  Both groups continue to have an effect on our people today.  They are the two extremes, and interestingly, they often come full circle to connect with each other. 

Using the traditional terms of left and right, on the left we have the secular world of Jews.  These are the Jews who embrace only the social action aspects of Judaism, rejecting God and religious tradition.  These are the Jews who, in the name of “doing right,” too often lose their way, and find themselves standing with the enemies of Jews and Israel.  On the right are the haredim.  These groups move ever rightward in an attempt to “heed the voice of God.”  In their extremes, such as the Neturei Karta, they have aligned themselves with those who would propagate another Holocaust in order to protect Judaism from Jews.  In both cases the circle comes together with Jews situating themselves with their own enemies.

Interestingly, the beginning of the verse speaks to us in the plural, “and you (plural) will be left few in number whereas you (plural) were like the many stars of the heavens.”  The end of the verse is in the singular, “since you (singular) did not heed the voice of Hashem your God.”  Throughout the Torah we are told to care for others, especially within our own community.  We are reminded that we came out of Egypt a mixed multitude, and we are commanded to follow God’s mitzvot.  We are also taught not to add or take away from these mitzvot.  When we, as individuals (singular), act in ways contrary to this, we, as a community, suffer. 

The evil that men do is not a sign of divine retribution, but it should serve as a reminder to build our community, to strengthen it, and to support it, and with a strong Jewry and a strong Israel we can stand together to be the or lagoyim, the light to the nations, that we were called to be.