Date: September 16th 2022

PARSHAS KI SAVO – CONNECTING MORE DEEPLY TO HASHEM


Parshas Ki Savo (26:16) relates that at the end of his life, Moshe said to the Jewish people: “Today Hashem your G-d commands you to perform these statutes and laws; you should observe and do them with all your heart and with all your soul.”

The Commentary of Rabbenu Bachya raises an obvious question: The words of this posuk seem to be saying that Moshe told the Jews that they were commanded to keep the mitzvos that day. Moshe was speaking to the Jewish people at the end of his life, 40 years after the Jews were commanded to observe the Torah at Mount Sinai. Why does it say, “today Hashem your G-d commands you” when they were already commanded 40 years before?

Rabbenu Bachya writes that the Rabbis explained this verse to mean that the mitzvos should be as dear to you today as if you accepted them upon yourself at Sinai this very day. He then goes on to discuss why this dictate was necessary. Why was it so important to instill this unusual idea that a person should view something that happened in the past, perhaps many generations ago, as if it happened today?
Rabbeinu Bachya answers that generations come and go and with the passage of time the sentiments of people change. Human nature is to be mindful of that which is in front of your eyes and to forget that which was experienced in the past. The experiences of the open miracles of the Exodus and the Revelation at Mt. Sinai were foundational events that formed the bedrock for true belief in the Creator and the imperative of the dictates of the Torah. Those miraculous events had to come to an end at some point. The natural tendency is that over time the memory of those events fades when Hashem’s Presence is hidden. Moshe therefore exhorted the Jews saying that they should always remember those seminal miracles. Even when the Almighty will be more concealed, one’s faith and service of G-d should nonetheless be as strong as it was at a time when G-d’s Presence in the world was apparent for all to see. This is what the Torah was alluding to with the words, “today Hashem your G-d comm
ands you.”

At first glance this spiritual level seems almost impossibly difficult to attain. How can someone presently living in the world as we know it aspire to the holiness of the moment when G-d appeared on Mt Sinai and spoke the first two of the Ten Commandments for all to hear?

There is another instance of a similar obligation. During the Pesach Seder we recite: “Bechol dor v’dor chayiv adam liros es atzmo k’ilu hu yatza mimitzrayim – In every generation, one is obligated to see himself as if he left Egypt.” This means that, to a certain extent, when sitting at the Seder each year a person is supposed to experience the same measure of ecstasy and oneness with Hashem that the Jews felt at the time of the Exodus. Here too, the same question can be asked: how can contemporary Jews be charged with aspiring to the exalted emotional and spiritual heights attained by those Jews who actually experienced the slavery in Egypt and the subsequent miraculous redemption?

If anything, the obligation in Parshas Ki Savo is even more extreme. In the case of the Seder, it is a once a year obligation during the powerful ceremony of the Pesach seder. The obligation of Parshas Ki Savo applies every single day of the year.
Apparently, as much as it is human nature to forget historical events or even one’s own past experiences, it is also imprinted within human nature to be able to arouse oneself to reach a state of full emotional awareness of something that happened even several thousand years earlier.

To take a deeper look at this concept by way of illustration - imagine a person who was in a terrifying situation and facing an immediate, painful, and certain death and someone came to their aid and saved them. At that moment, when the person realized that they were saved they would be completely overcome with a sense of intense gratitude and a feeling that they owed their life and everything they ever did from that point and on to their savior. However, if their savior moved away to a faraway city and had no more contact with them, over the passage of many years the memory of that situation would fade, and their awareness of their debt would fade along with it. Over time it would no longer be in their conscious mind and perhaps they would not even think of it for years at a time. However, from a strictly rational perspective, the truth of their initial recognition is no less applicable twenty years later than it was on the day of their salvation. Every experience they have
on a given day twenty years later could not have happened had they died all those years before.

This text teaches that we have the capacity to access a past dramatic event and thereby to maintain an awareness of it to the extent that it is so completely in our consciousness as if it actually happened that day.

This recognition can go far beyond one’s own experiences. In the example of the person above, imagine further that after they were saved, they married and had a child. That child’s life is just as much a result of the action of the savior as that of their parent. In truth, their life and every experience they have is owed to that person.

This dynamic of being in a heightened state of mindfulness is at the core of the ethical imperatives of the Torah. A Torah observant Jew is required to call to mind the foundations of faith on a constant basis. We remind ourselves each day that the fact that we are alive is not a given. The Torah teaches that in each and every moment of each and every day, Hashem grants life to all the people and living creatures on Earth. He continuously maintains the universe and all the cosmos. Just as someone whose life was saved from certain death feels tremendous gratitude, those who fully recognize that Hashem does this for us on a constant basis can feel that same gratitude.

Every day we have the obligation to repeat the events of the Exodus and the giving of the Torah to keep in constant focus the incredible events our ancestors experiences all those generations ago. Through this constant focus we can become more aware of the truth of the Torah and our obligation to adhere to its laws.
The founder of the Mussar Movement, Reb Yisrael Salanter (1810 -1883) dealt extensively with this issue of mindfulness. He pointed out, for example, that any person who somehow knew that he would die and meet his Maker the next day would surely act very righteously during his last day. Yet, all people know intellectually that they will one day die, yet they sin with impunity as if they were assured of living forever.

Rabbi Salanter taught that people need to constantly remind themselves every single day of the obvious yet overlooked basic truths – such as the fact that life on this world is temporary. One can raise himself to the point of feeling this manifest truth, but years of work are necessary to connect the intellectual knowledge with one’s emotional state. In Reb Yisroel’s words: “The distance between the mind and the heart is very small, but it can take a lifetime to traverse.”

Many of the obligations of the Torah apply not only to our physical actions but to the state of our emotions. Through utilizing our innate power to be mindful of an intellectual awareness of truth we can access a measure of sanctity that will enable our souls to connect with our Creator. We possess the ability to actually feel our ancient covenant with Hashem as if the revelation at Mount Sinai just occurred. We can feel the miracles of yetziyas mitztrayim - even while sitting at a Seder thousands of years later. However, how powerfully these sublime feelings emerge correlates to the extent one develops this awareness and connects to Hashem on a daily basis.

As the “Days of Awe” approach, these ideas become especially relevant. On some level, most observant Jews accept that The Almighty judges people during this period and He decides, “Who will live, and who will die.” However, if this basic belief is only felt while sitting in a synagogue on Rosh Hashanah, its impact will be short lived. Soon after Yom Kippur, the constant press of the mundane will stifle one’s focus on their spiritual existence. However, if we put in the effort to constantly remind ourselves throughout the year of our own mortality and of Hashem’s great Power and Love for us the spiritual and moral awakening of the High Holy Days will remain with us throughout the entire year.


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