(from Kedushat Levi on Devarim)
“Today’s Blessing”
The Parsha opens with, “See that today I place before you a blessing and a curse.” The word “today”, asks the Kedushat Levi, seems superfluous. Why didn’t the Torah say, “See that I place before you. . . “?
The Parsha opens with, “See that today I place before you a blessing and a curse.” The word “today”, asks the Kedushat Levi, seems superfluous. Why didn’t the Torah say, “See that I place before you. . . “?
The explanation lies in clarifying our conception of the reward for keeping the commandments. The Sages teach us that the real reward and punishment for following G-d’s commandments lies in the World-to-come. However, they also teach us in Pirkei Avot that the reward for a mitzvah is a mitzvah. This means, in the Kedushat Levi’s words, that “there is no need for any more reward, for there is no greater reward than the mitzvah itself – having the merit (‘zechut’) of being able to give pleasure to the Creator through following his commandments.”
This explains the wording of the verse. The blessing itself is that you are able to fulfill the Divine commandments. That is why the Torah uses the word “that” instead of “if”. The Torah is not only speaking of a future blessing that is contingent on fulfilling the commandments, but about the blessing that is inherent in fulfilling them right now.
That is the “today” of the first verse of the Parsha. The “today” in the sentence “See that today I place before you a blessing and a curse,” is not only the day that Moshe Rabbeinu spoke to the people of Israel, but every day that any Jew fulfills a mitzvah. As we are doing the mitzvah today we are experiencing the blessing.
[prepared by Eliezer Kwass]
