An MLB executive once said, “We never evaluate a player based on his worst day.” While I can appreciate the fairness of that rule, evaluating someone’s character based on their worst circumstances is clearly a powerful barometer for measuring how strong their character really is.
In this week’s parsha there is a section of 48 verses that record 98 horrifying curses destined to befall the Israelites if they do not observe the commandments and follow the Torah. It’s a sobering read, traditionally read quickly, in a more hushed tone than usual and unfortunately, they all came to pass at various times during our long and painful history.
When the annual Torah reading schedule was set up, the sages instituted that this section be read in close proximity to Rosh Hashanah. There is a wealth of Torah literature explaining why and I’d like to focus on one possible explanation.
This Wednesday will mark one month since the passing of my grandmother, Mrs. Devorah Greenberg. When she passed I shared a brief overview of her life, which started off in Soviet Russia under the oppressive communist regime. The Jews trapped behind the Iron Curtain lived a life that reflected one of the searing curses in this week’s parsha. “And among those nations, you will not be calm, nor will your foot find rest. There, G-d will give you a trembling heart, dashed hopes, and a depressed soul.”
When she was a teenager her family moved to Bolshevo, a suburb of Moscow where she eventually married and started her own family before immigrating to Israel in 1966. Living close to Moscow came with the advantage of having access to one of the only government-sanctioned Mikvahs in the entire USSR. Although hundreds of Mikvahs throughout the land were shut down, the communists sought to project religious tolerance in their socialist utopia and a handful of genuinely kosher mikvahs operated in some major cities.
Nonetheless, her father Rabbi Aharon Chazan built a small Mikvah under their kitchen floor in case the authorities closed down the Moscow Mikvah. However, the Chazan women did not regularly use their in-house Mikvah to observe the laws of “Taharat Hamishpacha - family sanctity” and they always made the trip to the main Mikvah instead. Here’s why.
The KGB kept tabs on the women using the official Mikvah in Moscow. Everyone knew the Chazan family was strictly observant and if the KGB realized the Chazan women were not using the main Mikvah, they would know without a doubt there was another one operating in the area and finding it would become a top priority.
Here you have a family living a nightmare, but their commitment to living Jewishly was so strong that even their sworn enemies took it as a matter of fact.
On Rosh Hashanah we crown G-d as King of the universe through blowing the Shofar and committing ourselves to be loyal and obedient subjects. To live our lives in accordance with G-d’s will to make our world a place that reflects the true purpose of its creator. While we pray and beseech G-d to provide us with the best circumstances so we can live up to this annual commitment in comfort and freedom, reading these curses two weeks earlier teaches us how strong and ironclad our commitment to Judaism can and should be. One that can withstand even the harshest circumstances and certainly any and all distractions.
May G-d bless all of us with a Shana Tova Umetuka, a good and sweet new year!