Ki Savo – “I have everything”

The תוכחה.

An extremely vivid and scary section of this week’s פרשה. Atrocities and sufferings that we can’t even imagine in our worst nightmares are expressed here. And the Torah gives us the famous reason for these punishments coming:

תחת אשר לא עבדת את יהוה אלהיך בשמחה ובטוב לבב מרב כל

Those last two words מרב כל, are both extra and oxymoronic. How do you have a lot of everything? Either you have a lot or you have it all. What is more puzzling is that the other time these two words are mentioned together in the Torah they are in complete contrast and juxtaposition of each other. Way back in פרשת וישלח, יעקב is going to meet עשו. It’s been 22 long years since he stole the בכורה and the ברכות out from under the nose of עשו. יעקב offers עשו a present and עשו says the arrogant words יש לי רב אחי, I have so much Brother, you can keep your presents, I have way more than I need. And Yaakov replies יש לי כל, I have exactly what I need, this present is for you, and after I give it to you I will still have what I need since this is meant for you, and עשו takes the present.

The מהר”ל says that when something is complete, if anything is added to it that takes away from the completeness the same way subtracting would have. It is simply perfect as it is. Take a painting as an example, you sit down with a blank canvas and make many strokes with a plethora of colors, you can’t leave out one stroke. But once the picture is complete, adding another stroke will ruin the painting. When יעקב says יש לי כל, he is saying that whatever I have I know it is what Hashem has given me and I trust that He will give me exactly as I need, so for me to keep this gift that you are denying would take away from my completeness. This is the meaning of the word כל. In contrast when עשו says יש לי רב he is saying that I don’t need you יעקב before I have much more than I can possibly need. But with that mindset, עשו is constantly looking for more and more, and the only thing stopping him from accepting the gift from יעקב is his own sense of accomplishment and arrogance. I don’t need you I have so much without you. But because of that עשו is on a never-ending journey to get “more”. He can never be satisfied, and he feels pompous at how much he has. This is what the word רב means.

Coming back to our פרשה, what does it mean when the Torah tells us תחת אשר לא עבדת את יקוק אלקיך בשמחה ובטוב לבב מרב כל how can we mix the idea of “רב” and the idea of “כל”?

I heard the following answer from R’ Reuven Leuchter: the key lies in כל. כל means everything. אין עוד מלבדו, Hashem is Everything. And each Jew has a כל inside of them. We all have a חלק אלקי ממעל. Before we are born Hashem lovingly takes a chunk out from underneath the כסא הכבוד and assigns it to a chunk of carbon matter. These two diametrically opposed forces become married and intertwined for a full lifetime. They can either fight each other and stay at odds, or they can work in harmony and the earthly matter can be lifted to the heights of where the soul came from. The way for that to happen is for the body to attach itself to the “כל”.

DNA is a perfect משול for this. Each person has a unique DNA pattern and when we grow the cells use this DNA as an instruction booklet to make more of “us”. What’s amazing is that each cell carries the whole set of DNA, so an eye cell can also technically make a lung cell. Luckily, part of the reproduction process is that the cells know which type of cell they are supposed to be so we don’t end up with brain cells growing back on our fingertips after we cut our nails. But the point that I’d like to point out in the sense of “כל” that DNA shows us.

The Torah is a living and dynamic entity and each of the מצות of the torah carries within it the entire Torah, just like the DNA in our bodies. Each and every one of us have a unique soul within the Jewish people and we each have a mitzva or part of a mitzva that we are connected to. It isn’t always obvious to see or pinpoint but based on our specific personalities and inclinations there are certain מצות and הלכות that we are drawn to. That is our “כל”. That part of the Torah is our calling, and that is the avenue through which we have a relationship with Hashem. And because each piece of the Torah contains within it the whole Torah just as DNA contains the potential to be any cell in the body, we each have our own access point to Torah in its entirety and to Hashem, and it is when we plug into our כל that we achieve true happiness.

Coming back to our פרשה. תחת אשר לא עבדת את יהוה אלהיך בשמחה ובטוב לבב מרב כל Hashem says, I gave you רב כל, I gave you an innumerable amount of מצות and הלכות so that you can find the one that speaks to you and use it to find yourselves with and to attach to Me, and you still were not able to serve Me with happiness that means you don’t understand your own specific potential and unique contributions that you can make to the Jewish people and to the world. And for that these curses come so that we are able to come back to Hashem, each in our own unique way.

May we all be zoche to do the מצות in a conscience way, which will open up our souls to get lit up by our specific mitzva and then we can begin finding nuances and details about that mitzva which will help us develop our own unique relationship with Hashem.