פרשת נצבים - וילך תשי"ב - פרשת התשובה

And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt bethink thyself among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee,

and shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and hearken to His voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul;

that then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the peoples, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee.

And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt bethink thyself among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee,

We have to explain the need for the Torah to mention the blessing at this juncture altogether. It would have sufficed to write the word הקללה, "the curse," as this is the catalyst that sparks repentance. Perhaps the Torah describes some of the thought processes which preceded the penitence of the Israelites. As long as the Israelites had not sinned and had experienced blessings in abundance they had not attributed it to their lifestyle. They had taken such blessings for granted, considering them as their due. Only after being deprived of these blessings do the Israelites begin to perceive that the lifestyle they used to enjoy was due to G'd bestowing special blessings on them.

and shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and hearken to His voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul;

THAT YOUR OFFSPRINGS SHALL BE ALIENS IN A LAND NOT THEIR OWN. This is an inverted passuk. It is equal to saying "that your offspring shall be foreigners in a land no their own four hundred years, and they will enslave them and oppress them." [The Torah] did not specify how many years the oppression and servitude would be. There are many inverted passukim in the Torah. like, "He came to me- the Hebrew slave whom you brought to us to play with me" (below 39:17); and "And all [the inhabitants of] the land came to Egypt to Joseph to purchase ibid 41:57); and likewise, "for whoever eats leaven from the first day until the seventh day that soul shall be cut off from Israel (exodus 12:15)"; and likewise "On that day, man will cast away his silver idols and his gold idols, which they made for him, [before which] to prostrate himself to moles and to bats" (Isaiah 2:20); and likewise "Come, hearken and I shall tell all you who fear God what He did for my soul (תהלים סו טז)"; and likewise, "To Me they should cry out: My G-d we acknowledge You, Israel!"(Hoshea 8:2); and likewise, "And they shall be Mine, says the Lord of Hosts, for that day when I make a treasure, And I will have compassion on them (Malachi 3:17)." There are many like this. The point of this passuk is [that G-d told Avram] "Although I tell you, 'To your offspring I have given this land', you should certainly know that before I give it to them they will be foreigners in a land not their own for four hundred years, and also [the host nation] will enslave and oppress them." Ibn Ezra says: "Know with certainty that your descendants will be foreigners, under servitude and oppression, until the end of four hundred years from today." If so [G-d] told Avraham of a time limit for the redemption, but did not tell him how many years it would last. This too, is a correct interpretation.