Shabbos Parashas Ki Savo - 5776

Shabbos Parashas Ki Savo - 5776

Rabbi Hal Miller

But Hashem did not give you a heart to know, or eyes to see, or ears to hear until this

day. [Devarim 29:3]

This statement by Moshe is hard to understand. Did G-d give humans eyes, ears, and heart,

or did He not? Did people walk around between Adam and Moshe without these things, and

only now receive them? What did Moshe mean?

Rashi writes, "This day I have understood that you want to cling to Hashem," and, "Now

that you see yourselves in your time of greatness and honor, do not rebel against Hashem."

Clearly, he does not see this verse referring to physical anatomy. Rather, Rashi understands

the emphasis to be on the purposes of the anatomical parts, "to know", "to see", and "to hear".

But what could we not know, see, or hear until this day?

Rav Moshe Feinstein learns that this reinforces the idea that we must study Torah with a rav,

not on our own. He says, "Anyone who feels his wisdom has developed to the point that he can

fathom the Torah's meaning on his own is in great danger of being enticed by his yetzer hara

into giving false interpretations of the Torah. Many heretical beliefs have been set in motion

when overconfident scholars misinterpreted passages from the Torah or the Talmud. Therefore

Moshe felt it necessary to warn the people that they could not yet distinguish between truth and

falsehood in the Torah, even though they had already reached a high level of wisdom."

Rav Hirsch believes that the verse is an indicator that the people fell from their position. When

the nation first came into being, they were supplied with all they needed to fill their hearts with

knowledge of the truth of G-d. On the basis of this knowledge, their eyes would look on the

world differently, and their ears would be ready to hear teachings of truth and duty. But the

people had not made use of these capabilities. Our verse teaches that at this point, G-d was

ready to give the people greater capability to understand and live a Torah existence.

Nechama Leibowitz notes that our verse comes immediately after the reiteration of the curses,

and just before the renewal of the covenant. The signs and wonders as they left Egypt did not

convince the Jewish people sufficiently of G-d's power. It was only after 40 years in the desert,

followed by the military victories at the end, that the people truly recognized Him. It was fully a

new generation, thus a new covenant was needed.

The people had seen and heard the physical aspects of the miracles before. Only now did they

begin to internalize and understand what they meant.