Additional thoughts on Tochecha
The prevailing minhag for the reading of the Tochecha in the synagogue is to read it faster and softer than the normal layning.This is because we don't want to be reminded of the bad stuff, and want to get it over with quickly. Whether or not it is a correct custom is irrevelant here...that's the way it's usually done. A good Ba'al K'riya will only be a little faster and a little softer than usual, because after all everyone still is required to hear every word clearly and distinctly.
In his weekly video D'var Torah this week, Rav Shlomo Riskin tells of the Klausenberger Rebbe in the early 1950's, having escaped from the Shoah, who insisted that the Tochecha be read out loud...he said the Jews had no more to fear. All the curses had happened, now it was time for the blessings. He then also told his people that the blessing would only come to Israel, and within six months had moved all his Hassidim to Netanya in Israel.
It's a moving story, and I can understand how someone who lost so much and escaped the Shoah would feel...and hope...that this must be the end of the punishments. And maybe it would have been so, as Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik wrote in Kol Dodi Dofek, if we had listened to Hashem's knocks on our door in 5708 (1948) and all packed up and moved to Israel.
But I can't believe it now. We continue to go against God in so many ways; sinat chinam and stubborn stiffnecked selfishness parading as frumkeit are rampant. So maybe we're wrong to read it quietly. Maybe we should tell the Ba'al K'riya to speak up loud, and maybe we should listen harder. Maybe then we can get some of the message through our thick skulls.
Another prevalant minhag is to consider the Aliya containing the Tochecha as 'bad luck.' To avoiding insulting anyone, rather than call up a member of the congregation, it is often given to the Ba'al K'riya since he is already there...in some shuls they don't even call him up by name.
Rav Chaim Wasserman was always opposed to this minhag, and when he was the Rav in Passaic he insisted on being called up (normally and by name) for the Tochecha. It is, after all, part of the Torah. And how do the two rebukes end?
B'chukotai: "These are the statutes and judgements, and the teachings which Hashem gave between Himself and the Children of Israel, at Har Sinai by the hand of Moshe. (Vayikra 26:46)
Ki Tavo: "These are the words of the Brit which Hashem commanded Moshe to make with the Children of Israel in the land of Moav, in addition to the Brit which He made with them in Horev." (Devarim 28:69)
The Tochecha is an integral part of our Brit with Hashem! You can't have one without the other. If you want to sign a business deal but refuse to accept any penalty clauses, the other side won't sign. If we had refused to accept this list of punishments, Hashem wouldn't have made the Brit with us! So we should be honored to be given this Aliya, with it's lofty closing sentiments.
The last time I layned a Tochecha at my shul here in Kochav Yaakov, the Gabbai gave me the Aliya and then apologized. I explained that I wasn't upset because of Rav Wasserman's reasoning. This past Shabbat there was someone else layning, because it was his Bar Mitzva parsha, and he was a Kohen...no way to give him the Tochecha. The Gabbai remembered what I had told him, and so he called me for the Aliya. I was honored and pleased.
If we could all open our ears a little more to the two Tochechot, if we could honestly examine our ways instead of rationalizing them and blaming everyone else, then maybe we can get back to the place the Klausenberger Rebbe had hoped we'd reached, and we can listen peacefully to the curses as we enter the blessing time of Mashiach.
In his weekly video D'var Torah this week, Rav Shlomo Riskin tells of the Klausenberger Rebbe in the early 1950's, having escaped from the Shoah, who insisted that the Tochecha be read out loud...he said the Jews had no more to fear. All the curses had happened, now it was time for the blessings. He then also told his people that the blessing would only come to Israel, and within six months had moved all his Hassidim to Netanya in Israel.
It's a moving story, and I can understand how someone who lost so much and escaped the Shoah would feel...and hope...that this must be the end of the punishments. And maybe it would have been so, as Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik wrote in Kol Dodi Dofek, if we had listened to Hashem's knocks on our door in 5708 (1948) and all packed up and moved to Israel.
But I can't believe it now. We continue to go against God in so many ways; sinat chinam and stubborn stiffnecked selfishness parading as frumkeit are rampant. So maybe we're wrong to read it quietly. Maybe we should tell the Ba'al K'riya to speak up loud, and maybe we should listen harder. Maybe then we can get some of the message through our thick skulls.
Another prevalant minhag is to consider the Aliya containing the Tochecha as 'bad luck.' To avoiding insulting anyone, rather than call up a member of the congregation, it is often given to the Ba'al K'riya since he is already there...in some shuls they don't even call him up by name.
Rav Chaim Wasserman was always opposed to this minhag, and when he was the Rav in Passaic he insisted on being called up (normally and by name) for the Tochecha. It is, after all, part of the Torah. And how do the two rebukes end?
B'chukotai: "These are the statutes and judgements, and the teachings which Hashem gave between Himself and the Children of Israel, at Har Sinai by the hand of Moshe. (Vayikra 26:46)
Ki Tavo: "These are the words of the Brit which Hashem commanded Moshe to make with the Children of Israel in the land of Moav, in addition to the Brit which He made with them in Horev." (Devarim 28:69)
The Tochecha is an integral part of our Brit with Hashem! You can't have one without the other. If you want to sign a business deal but refuse to accept any penalty clauses, the other side won't sign. If we had refused to accept this list of punishments, Hashem wouldn't have made the Brit with us! So we should be honored to be given this Aliya, with it's lofty closing sentiments.
The last time I layned a Tochecha at my shul here in Kochav Yaakov, the Gabbai gave me the Aliya and then apologized. I explained that I wasn't upset because of Rav Wasserman's reasoning. This past Shabbat there was someone else layning, because it was his Bar Mitzva parsha, and he was a Kohen...no way to give him the Tochecha. The Gabbai remembered what I had told him, and so he called me for the Aliya. I was honored and pleased.
If we could all open our ears a little more to the two Tochechot, if we could honestly examine our ways instead of rationalizing them and blaming everyone else, then maybe we can get back to the place the Klausenberger Rebbe had hoped we'd reached, and we can listen peacefully to the curses as we enter the blessing time of Mashiach.
posted by meturgeman | 1:15 AM
<< Home