This week’s parsha, weekly Torah reading, can be a difficult one to read. It contains a section of text known as the tochecha, the rebuke. Here, the rebuke is given preemptively, as the Israelites stand ready to finally enter the land of Israel after their forty years in the desert. They are offered a blessing, if they create the just society that God has tasked them with, or a curse if they fail to follow through on God’s vision. The list of curses is long and painful, and is traditionally chanted in an undertone, to soften the impact of the words on those listening.
The upside to this painful text is that it is not a prophecy, but a possibility. The people maintain the power to shape their society into one where such curses will never come to pass. While the blessings and curses of this parsha seem at first glance to be a system of reward and punishment meted out by a vengeful God, when we read more carefully, there are hints that perhaps it is in fact a system of natural consequences.
The parsha begins with a passage that many of us know from the Passover hagadah, instructing each person to bring the first fruits of their yearly produce to the Temple to express their gratitude, and acknowledge that success is not an individual achievement. Then comes a list of who will be cursed, primarily those who ignore the demands of a society that values regard for one’s fellow human beings. Cursed are those who selfishly put their own impulses above the wellbeing of their families, friends and neighbors. When we read the blessings and the curses in detail, it turns out that they run in parallel, with curses that are the direct opposite of the blessings. It also starts to become clear that the blessings, things like safety, security, plentiful harvests, thriving livestock and thriving children, are blessings that come about naturally when a community respects one another and takes care of one another. The curses, the opposite of those things, along with vulnerability to outside enemies, come about naturally in a community that does not come together in support of one another.
It is abundantly appropriate that we read this parsha in the one of the final weeks leading to the High Holy days, days in which we traditionally steep ourselves in self reflection, looking back on the past year and forward to who we will be and what blessings and curses will come into our lives in the coming year.
It also strikes me as abundantly appropriate for the beginning of the school year, when we are re-engaging with and reinvigorating the community of our school both within the walls of the building and extending into the community of our school families. While the opening day charges given by our leaders, Rav Hazzan Scott Sokol and Hamerakezet, Associate Head of School Gretchen Brandt focused, appropriately, on the positive things that this new year can bring, rather than warning of what could be if students behave inappropriately, we know that the year at school will be shaped by the attitudes and openness that everyone brings to the table, teachers, administrators and students. May we find it within ourselves to bring our community the blessings of generosity, respect, kindness and caring. And may we come together this year to become a stronger and healthier community where all of our children grow and thrive.