25 Aug PARSHAS KI SAVO: IT’S A MITZVAH TO BE HAPPY

It’s a Mitzvah to be
Happy
This week’s parsha
contains the mitzvah
of bringing one’s first
fruits (Bikurim) to
Jerusalem. The farmer
must thank G-d for the
bounty with which he has been graced. In
addition to the declaration, the Torah
commands the farmer to rejoice: “You shall be
glad with all the goodness that Hashem, your
G-d, has given you and your household…”
[Devarim 26:11]
Rav Mordechai Gifter (1916-2001) asks, why
it was necessary for the Torah to add the
command for the farmer to be happy? The
farmer has just had a bountiful harvest and has
arrived in Jerusalem loaded down with first
fruits. He already feels terrific. So why must
the Torah specify a new positive command —
be happy with all that G-d gave you?
Rav Gifter explains that this command is
necessary. A person could come up to
Jerusalem with a bounty of Bikurim and still
be thinking to himself “it could have been
better!” He could be jealously looking at his
neighbor’s fruits and thinking, “he had a better
crop than I did”. Unfortunately, one can be
blessed with the biggest bounty and yet choose
not to be happy. Therefore, as part of the

mitzvah of Bikurim, The Torah commands
that we should be appreciative. We must look
at what we have and be happy about what we
have.
We must be happy with what we have even if
it COULD have been better and even if our
neighbor DID have a better crop. If G-d has
seen fit to bless us with this, then we must be
happy with it.
In fact, this may be the interpretation of the
verses in the middle of the Tochacha [Curses]
in our parsha [Devarim 28:47-48] “Because
you did not serve Hashem your G-d, amid
gladness and goodness of heart, when
everything was abundant”. These terrible
curses, described in graphic detail in the
Tochacha, are occurring because we failed to
serve G-d out of joy and happiness — when
we had abundance of everything (m’rov kol).
These two words (‘rov’ and ‘kol’) should
remind us of an earlier passage in the Torah.
Eisav is the one who said [Bereishis 33:9]
“yesh li ROV” [I have plenty] and Yaakov is
the one who responded [Bereishis 33:11]
“yesh li KOL” [I have everything I need]. The
difference between an Eisav and a Yaakov is
that however much Eisav possesses, he only
sees it as “plenty”. Yaakov, however,
recognizes that what he has is, in fact, “kol” –
everything that he needs.
The pasuk in the Tochacha is explaining that

the source of a person’s unhappiness is “m’rov
kol” — the fact that he views all the good
things that he possesses as only “plenty”, in
the same way that Eisav viewed his
possessions. Anytime a person thinks that he
does not have “kol” [everything], he will never
be happy. The greatest amount of “rov kol”
[plenty] will never make a person happy, as
the Talmud teaches, “One who has one
hundred wants two hundred”.
‘Faithful’ Illnesses Are Part of the Curse
At the end of the Tochacha [Devorim 28:59]
the pasuk states, “Then Hashem will make
extraordinary your blows and the blows of
your offspring — great and faithful blows
(makos gedolos v’Neemanos), and evil and
faithful illnesses (Cholayim gedolim
v’Neemanim).” The Talmud [Avodah Zarah
55a] comments on the peculiar choice of
adjective for the blows and the illnesses:
faithful. This is certainly not a modifier that
we would ever choose to describe an illness.
The Gemara teaches an amazing insight.
Before G-d decides to send illness upon a
person, he (figuratively speaking) makes the
illness take an oath. The illness is instructed
that it will reside within the person for so
many days, it will cause so much amount of
pain, and it will be cured by such and such
medicine and then depart. The illness ‘swears’
that it will abide by these instructions and only

then is it sent out to
inflict the person.
Sometimes a person
may have a chronic
disease. It can drag
on for days and
weeks and even months and then one day it
disappears. Then it can reappear later and the
cycle is repeated. Chronic illnesses can be like
that. But whatever the case may be, the
Gemara teaches, is all part of the oath. The
oath ensures that the illness will cause a
specific amount of suffering, will last a specific
duration and not a moment longer.
Rabbeinu Tam [Rosh HaShanna 16a D.H.
Kman Matzlinan] states that the exact time
when a person will become sick is in fact a
decree from Heaven, however the timing of
the cure is not decreed. This statement of
Rabbeinu Tam seems to contradict the
previously quoted Gemara in Avodah Zarah
that explicitly states that the cure and duration
of the illness is also decreed.
The Yavetz in Tractate Rosh HaShanna
explains that Rabbeinu Tam means to say that
the suffering can leave earlier than expected
through the power of prayer. In other words,
Rabbeinu Tam agrees that there is a decreed
time when the illness will leave, however a
person has the power through his prayers to
expedite that departure.