Machshavot HaLev - Yeshivat Lev HaTorah

223
Ki Tavo
STOP!!!
Noah Cohen
W hile his mom was watching from the top floor of an apartment building, Yoni
was running around on the sidewalk below. Yoni ran this way and that way with a big
smile on his face. His mom could tell he was having a blast.
In this week’s parsha, Ki Savo, the pasuk states: “And it will come to pass that even as
Hashem rejoiced over you to benefit you and to multiply you, so will Hashem rejoice
over you to make you perish and to destroy you” (28:63).
Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch comments on the pasuk and says that it is coming to
teach us that “just as He rejoiced for your sake to cause you to prosper, so will He
rejoice for your sake to cause you to perish.” Rav Hirsch says this is coming to teach us
that just like it is for our benefit when Hashem gives us a beracha, so too it is for our
benefit when He brings upon us seeming misfortune. The bad things that seemingly
happen to us are always out of love.
While running on the sidewalk approaching an intersection, Yoni heard screaming
and yelling coming from his mom in the apartment above. To his shock and anger, it
was his mom screaming, “STOP!!! STOP!!! Get back here right now!” Yoni, extremely
frustrated at his mom for interrupting his playtime on the sidewalk, walked slowly
back up to his apartment at the top of the building.
Why did Yoni’s mom suddenly get so angry and punish him by taking away his
playtime? Yoni’s mom had a better view of the streets below. She was higher up and