[Avodah] KI TAVO

[Cantor Wolberg]

The central topic of Parashat Ki-Tavo is the blessings and curses. These blessings and curses involve the establishment of a treaty between Israel and the A-mighty:  [29:11-12] 

The following is fascinating!

The curses in chapter 28 contain 676 letters (in the Hebrew text). The word "ra-ot" (reish,ayin,vov,tof) which can mean "evil occurrences" has the value of 676.  Now note that G-d's holy Name, HaShem, has the value of 26, and 26 squared is 676.  

The hidden meaning (according to the Itture Torah, Vol. Vl, p.165) is: In this coming week's portion, the Torah threatens with raot, but from all of them HaShem will rescue us. After realizing the above, I gained an addition insight. As we know, any gift from G-d can be used for good or for evil. When used for evil we have the word "ra-ot." However, when utilized for good, we can take the same letters: (reish, ayin, vov,tof) and we now have "ray-ut" or "friendship." 

The other fascinating lesson is a commentary by the Ari regarding the pasuk in Devarim: "Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse." [11:26]  Well, the Ari questioned this: "But there is no curse in the heavenly realm." He then explained it so: Take the word k'lalah, "curse," and write it backwards. Then instead of kuf lamed lamed hay, we have hay lamed lamed kuf, which gives us hallel (praise) kuf. This simply means that if we say 100 (kuf) benedictions that praise (hallel) the A-mighty, then any curse (against us) is reversed and converted into a blessing. 

You will also note that if you rearrange the English word "curse" by just switching the last two letters, you have "cures." So if we sincerely praise the Almighty, the "curse" becomes the "cures" for all ills.

Richard Wolberg
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