Rabbi Eli Rosenfeld, president of Chabad Portugal, has just issued this week's Dvar Torah:
"BH. In Parshat Ki Tavo we read about the beautiful blessings we are assured of receiving when we fulfill what G-d expects of us, keeping the Torah and its Mitzvot. Conversely, we are told that when we do not live up to what is expected of us, the opposite occurs as a consequence. As the verse states, "It shall be, if you do not listen to the voice of the L-rd your G-d, to listen to do all the commandments and statutes which I command you today, all these curses will come
upon you" (Devarim 28:15).
Rabbi Yitzchak Abarbanel reads this verse and asks a question we might all ask: what do the words "to listen to do all the commandments" really mean? Can it be that if a person misses just one Mitzvah, and therefore has not fulfilled “all the commandments”, all of the terrible misfortunes listed will occur?
Rather, he explains, the Torah means something entirely different, and far more encouraging. When the Torah says "to listen to do all the commandments," it is describing the resolve every Jewish person carries within, the sincere commitment to what G-d asks of us. This is something we all strive to accept and to live by to the fullest. And when a person makes a mistake and does not fulfill one of the Mitzvot, he has not stopped listening to G-d. He has simply made a mistake that needs fixing, not abandoned his commitment to G-d.
All the wonderful blessings, and by extension all the descriptions of the opposite of blessings, depend on one key factor: to "listen to the voice of G-d," meaning the universal acceptance of G-d's will, what we often call accepting the yoke of heaven.
That acceptance is already in our hearts. And when we live with it, we are assured of the abundance of blessings the Torah sets out for us, in a beautiful and healthy manner.
Shabbat Shalom."
