KI TAVO 5783

Be Grateful or Else

Today’s Torah portion, Ki Tavo, contains an essential message—part of which is the Tochecha—98 frightening curses that will befall the Jewish people if they abandon Gd and His Torah. Every single one of them actually happened. It’s so frightening that we read these curses in a whisper. It’s almost as if we’re saying, “Gd don’t pay much attention to these curses. Let not them come upon us.” 

The Torah portion actually begins with the Bikurim 1^st Fruits ceremony. Farmers in ancient Israel were required to bring their 1^st fruits in baskets to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. How much fruit was one required to bring? That was up to the farmer. It wasn’t easy in those days making the trip to the Temple. There were expanses of land that were uninhabited; the terrain was difficult, sometimes treacherous; there were criminals laying in wait on the way; and if one lived in the north it could take up to 10 days to get there with your donkey. All this just for a basket of fruits? No, it wasn’t the fruits that were important, but to show up and show your gratitude and appreciation.

Today you can get into a car and travel from the most northern border on Israel’s modern highways, and in just a few hours, be in Jerusalem. When the Temple will be rebuilt—may it be speedily in our day—I wonder how that might look. I have in my office an artist’s rendering of people pulling up to the rebuilt Holy Temple with cars, trucks, and even helicopters. I suppose one might think that one could Fedex his 1^st fruit basket like the gift baskets we send today. But how much appreciation would $45 of shipping costs be? No, for the mitzvah of the 1^st fruits one has to show up—to be there and present the fruits himself reciting a special declaration of appreciation from today’s parsha.

So, today’s Torah portion begins with appreciation and gratitude. Since we read this portion just a couple of weeks before Rosh Hashanah, let me do an appreciation exercise with you. Think of 3 things for which you are grateful. Now think of 3 more things. Could you list 10 things for which you’re grateful?

If each of us took a moment every morning to list 10 things for which we are grateful, how might that color our day? Would we smile more? Have more patience with our kids or our co-workers? Would we feel happier? More satisfied? Might we make more generous decisions about how we use our time or spend our resources? What if we listed those things at night before we went to bed and thanked Gd for them? Would we sleep better?

Well, I think so—and there’s actually hard science supporting this. Researchers at UC Berkeley found that…people who practice gratitude consistently report a host of benefits including stronger immune systems and lower blood pressure; higher levels of positive emotions; more joy, optimism, and happiness; acting with more generosity and compassion; and feeling less lonely and isolated.

All this science just confirms what our sages taught thousands of years ago from the Bikurim 1^st fruits thanksgiving declaration in this morning’s parsha (Deut. 26:5-10) Listen as I read it to you:

         An Aramean tried to destroy my father. He went down to Egypt with meager numbers and sojourned there; but there he became a nation—great, strong and numerous. The Egyptians mistreated us and placed hard work upon us. Then we cried out to Hashem, the Gd of our forefathers, and Hashem heard our plea and saw our affliction, our misery and our oppression. Hashem took us out from Egypt by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and awesome power, and with signs and wonders. He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Wherefore I now bring the 1^st fruits of the soil which You Hashem have given me...

Did you notice how many specific statements of gratitude are included in this declaration of appreciation? I count 9: that Gd made our ancestors great and numerous; heard their cry; freed them from Egypt and did so with great wonders; brought them to this place (Israel); gave them the land; made it a plentiful land; and provided these 1^st fruits.

Why did Gd have to command that we make this declaration? Because it’s human nature to take for granted what we have. We must be trained to be grateful. That’s why our Sages prescribed that we should offer 100 blessings of appreciation to Gd every day. Every time we’re about to eat or drink—even water—we must thank Gd. We begin our Shacharit morning service with a series of blessings thanking Gd for our intelligence, our sight, our ability to afford shoes and our ability to walk. As I get older, I appreciate that more and more! There’s even a prayer to be recited after going to the bathroom in thankfulness that our internal plumbing is functioning. Now that’s an attitude of gratitude!

 The question for our Torah portion is: why does this passage of showing gratitude precede the Tochecha—the 98 frightening curses that will befall the Jewish people if they abandon Gd and His Torah? 

 The answer is found in the Torah immediately preceding the 1^st Fruits ceremony. It’s the command at the end of last week’s parsha to destroy Amalek wherever he raises his ugly head. Amalek attacked the Jewish people when they left Egypt from behind where the weakest were to be found. Amalek attacked for no reason. The Jews didn’t threaten them or approach their land. Amalek attacked simply because they were Jewish! It makes no sense. Anti-Semitism never does.

What’s the message of the mitzvah of the 1^st fruits ceremony sandwiched between the passage about Amalek at the end of last week’s Torah portion and the 98 curses at the end of today’s Torah portion? The message is that appreciation and gratitude is the ultimate defense against Amalek and curses. When we’re ungrateful—the Talmud tells us—Gd will send us an Amalek of sorts to teach us a lesson. The mitzvah of the 1^st fruits is to train us to be grateful for Gd’s many blessings.

Gd is, in effect, saying, “If you disrespect Me, if you don’t appreciate what I do for you…Amalek will be on the way to attack you.” In Biblical times it was Amalek who attacked, today it’ll be the Palestinians, Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS or Gd forbid, nuclear Iran. Gratitude to Gd is now a most appropriate and powerful lesson--especially as we approach Rosh Hashanah.

A college professor once showed his students a blank piece of paper with a small black dot in the middle. He asked them what they saw on the paper. Without fail, every student said he/she saw a black dot. The professor then said: Not one of you wrote that you see a white sheet of paper. You all only saw a small black circle…We have so many beautiful things in life—love, happiness, causes we believe in, friends, our jobs and miracles happening around us every day—but we seem to get stuck focusing on the black dot, how our financial situation isn’t great, our relationships are lacking etc…Open your eyes, don’t focus on the black dots of life. Instead, focus on the white paper, all the good you have going for you.

One last thing about gratitude. If the curses won’t motivate you to be grateful, how about happiness? Dennis Prager, in his insightful book, Happiness Is a Serious Problem, writes: Yes, there is a “secret to happiness”—and it is gratitude. All happy people are grateful, and ungrateful people cannot be happy. We tend to think that it is being unhappy that leads people to complain, but it is truer to say that it is complaining that leads to people becoming unhappy. Become grateful and you will become a much happier person.

My friends, may our reading of the Bikurim 1^st Fruits gratitude ceremony today inspire us to be grateful and better appreciate the wonderful blessings Gd has showered upon us, so that we may enter the New Year with a more grateful and a happier, more loving heart. Amen!