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Parshas Ki Savo - We Are Here! (Video)

By Rabbi Zvi Teichman

Posted on 08/30/18

Parshas HaShavua Divrei Torah sponsored by
Dr. Shapsy Tajerstein, DPM - Podiatry Care.
(410) 788-6633

Check out a video version of this essay here


The portion of Ki Savo and its recording of the Tochacha, the ninety eight curses that will befall our people as a result of our sins coincide with the initiation, among Ashkenazic Jews, of the reciting of the special selichos prayers on this Motzei Shabbos, Saturday evening.


The Hebrew root of this text called selichos, is: סלח, forgives, since within these selections are petitions to Hashem for forgiveness.


It has been observed by many great sages that the numerical value of סלח, equals ninety eight, indicating that within these supplications lay the ability to stifle the terrible curses.


What is the secret of these powerful prayers? Where does our hope for forgiveness lay?


A cursory glance at the selichos doesn’t seem to forebode much encouragement. The very first words we utter in our opening salvo is: לך ד' הצדקה ולנו בשת הפנים, Yours, my Lord, is the righteousness and ours is the shamefacedness. We start off admitting we have nothing to show for ourselves just to place our heads down in shame.


The next series of selichos only create an even bleaker outlook. We first declare how we loathed Your forthright and honest paths; we clung to abominations and despicable deeds. In the second selichah we go on to admit there is no one who calls to You in righteousness; the good man today is compared to a thornbush. Lastly, in the third one we bemoan that we have spoiled straight paths and perverted Torah, and therefore we avert our faces to the ground.


So how are we to gain Hashem’s forgiveness? Is it merely enough to abashedly admit our deficiencies in order to capture Hashem’s favor?


In the last selichah we recite, the pizmon we do responsively, a sudden and startling transformation takes place.


Standing with confidence we joyously express before Hashem how as the day of rest departs we come before You first of all; bend Your ear from on high, o You Who sits to hear Israel praise Him, O that You listen to our song and our prayers. (במוצאי מנוחה-סליחות)


How did we so quickly shed our burden of shame and guilt and now sense entitlement to ask Hashem to ‘bend His ear’ towards us?


The assertion how on this eve after Shabbos has departed, קדמנוך תחילה, we have preceded Your coming, arriving ‘first’ as worthy evidence of being deserving of His attention seems almost childish. After all, we’ve been so bad and have misbehaved, where do we get the audacity to ask of Hashem to listen to ‘our song’, our joy, after our own admission of worthlessness?


Even more striking is our proudly presenting ourselves as having taken the initiative to, as it were, preempt Hashem in arriving so early. We are facing a day of judgment in merely ten days, where our health, livelihood, children and spouse’s welfare, and our very lives are at stake, and we conceitedly state ‘we beat Hashem to the punch’?!


Over two decades ago when I was privileged to live in the holy city of Jerusalem, there was a period of time when I would come home midday grabbed a bite and then catch a local mincha. My youngest child, then a young boy of three or four, would often accompany me to mincha, which was a moment of exquisite joy and bonding for the both of us.


One day I was in a particular rush and my son had been misbehaving so I decided he wouldn’t deserve that treat that day and I left my house alone.


We lived in Har Nof, which is neighborhood built upon a mountain. Agassi Street, where we lived, was one of the upper streets, while Rechov Rezhin, the street where the Bostoner Shul I davened in is located, was among the lower ones. The mountainside was dotted with numerous sets of steps, situated between the concrete jungles of apartment complexes that enabled one to descend rather rapidly to the lower regions. I generally drove my car down the mountain which would inevitably take much longer than going down by foot since one had to follow the circuitous road as it wended across and down the mountainside until one would arrive several streets below.


As I was about to enter the shul I see a little familiar figure anxiously running towards me from the distance. Lo and behold, my little boy with a smile from ear to ear affixed upon his cherubic face, blurts out in absolute pride and ecstasy, “Abba, I came to Mincha!”


Thoughts of his prior misbehavior evaporated into thin air. My mind raced wildly as I calculated how many streets this little tyke had to cross on his own, one of them, Rechov Shaulson, a major thoroughfare, with buses hurtling down it opposite directions, and the danger that had been involved in his mighty trek. Yet, my heart calmed when I felt the deep love and connection that was overwhelmingly flowing at that precious moment. 


I lovingly grasped my little boy’s hand, holding it tight, and we proceeded to daven Mincha.


We are that ‘little boy’.


Despite our mindlessly childish ways and reckless behavior, we arrive on the night of selichos, overpowered with emotions of affection for our Abba, our Tatty, our Daddy, and we shout out with joy, “Abba we came to selichos!”


“Listen, Tatty, to our song of joy, and our desire to connect to You through prayer.”


The Meor V’Shemesh teaches that when we recite the expression regarding Lavan’s nefarious intentions to uproot our people, ארמי אבד אבי, the Amarean, Lavan, sought to destroy our father, the father we refer to here is our Father in heaven.


Lavan lived in a world of manipulation, jockeying for advantage in utilizing any device available to him in achieving his objective. Whether it was the ‘art’ of negotiation or that of the occult, seeking privileged information to gain an upper edge, it was absent of a consciousness of a benevolent Creator who directed the events of life for everyone’s ultimate benefit.


We are often guilty of this Amarean attitude that distracts us from remembering Hashem’s care, attention, and endless love. We immerse ourselves in a world of ‘commerce’, calculating our every move to our advantage in the transactions of life, oftentimes overstepping the boundaries of what is righteous, proper and just.


We scamper down the mountain in a sudden burst of enthusiastic awareness, thrusting ourselves into our Abba’s embrace, proudly exhilarating, “Tatty we came to selichos!”


If we place ourselves into His open arms, we are hopeful that He will clutch our hands firmly and never let us go!


באהבה,


צבי יהודה טייכמאן