Do it well and do it fast

And your life will hang in suspense before you. You will be in fear night and day, and you will not believe in your life. [Deuteronomy. 28:66]

Life is full of curses: things that go wrong just when you think they’re going right. Good times that flip into bad when you least expect it. Tragedy that befalls your enemy, and then boomerangs.

Our weekly Torah portion, Ki Tovah, or “When you will come,” devotes 54 verses to the curses prepared for a Chosen People that wants to choose another god. The curses include no money, no food, no health and no peace.

But toward the end of the curse fest comes the most chilling part — dread. Oxford defines dread as “anticipate with great apprehension or fear.” You no longer trust anything, whether your friends or loved ones. You dismiss the good and brace for the worst.

Shlomo Yitzhaki, known as Rashi, explains this verse. “Perhaps, I will die today by the sword that is befalling us.” You hoard food and anything else of value. Perhaps there will be nothing left at the store or even the market tomorrow. And the worst part is you are convinced it will not get better.

In the morning, you will say, “If only it were evening!” and in the evening, you will say, “If only it were morning!” because of the fear in your heart which you will experience and because of the sights that you will behold. [Deuteronomy. 28:67]

Regardless of whether we care to admit it, most of Israel has been living this way for nearly a year. Hundreds of thousands of people have been driven from their homes since Oct. 7, 2023. The latest headline talks about another 16,000 evacuated from the north in fear of a massive Iranian-sponsored attack. Israel’s hi-tech industry is threatened by massive layoffs and bankruptcy. Oh, there were the fools who fell over themselves in laughter over the exploding pagers. But the mirth has already faded by the gnawing feeling that the joke might well be on us.

How does Israel reach this stage of desperation? A people who dismisses the Almighty to embrace the idols of man at first feels elated. We are free to do what we want any old time. Then, when the high wears off, the people look around and find they’re alone. G-d can’t be seen, and the glittery and smooth-talking idols have betrayed us.

Arthur Ruppin was born in Rawitsch in Czarist Russia, later Poland, in 1876. The man who would become the most important Zionist in the 20th Century came from a traditional family. Most of the kibbutzim, moshavim, Tel Aviv and even Hebrew University owe him their existence. Ruppin’s grandfather studied with Rabbi Akiva Eger, one of the greatest sages in the 19th Century. In his diary, Arthur describes the change soon after his bar mitzvah, when he was “one of the most religious boys” in Rawitsch.

“I would rather have bitten off one of my fingers than desecrated the Sabbath by tearing paper, writing and so forth. Now, I tear paper or write on Saturdays with absolute indifference. I cannot even say that I am sorry to have reached this state. I don’t think a Jew is one who keeps the commandments of Moses, but one who believes in a single, all-powerful and eternal G-d.” [Arthur Ruppin: memoirs, diaries, letters. Arthur Ruppin. Page 61. Herzl Press, New York. 1972]

Ruppin could have been talking about most of us. We know there’s G-d. We just want a break so we can party in the material world. We don’t really believe in other gods, but they sure are fun — for a while.

Moses Ben Nachman, or the Ramban, refuses to comment on the curses in Ki Tavo. But the 13th Century sage has plenty to say in the previous round of curses in Bechukotai, the end of Leviticus. The two sets of curses are significantly different. In Bechukotai, G-d is uttering the curses; in Ki Tavo, it is Moses. Bechukotai has far fewer curses than Ki Tavo. The former reflects the prophecy of the destruction of the First Temple. In Ki Tavo, the reference is to the Second Temple.

During the First Temple, the Children of Israel were steeped in heavy sin, particularly idolatry, adultery and homicide. And yet, the exile lasted 70 years. During the Second Temple, the Jews kept many or even most of the commandments. Torah was widespread. But their biggest sin was needless hatred, usually turning in their fellow Jews to the Romans. And that exile continues to this day.

For Ruppin, Germany was his god. Even during the darkest days of the Holocaust, he never believed that Hitler would kill the most devout believers of German culture, science and power. By the time, German Gen. Erwin Rommel swept through North Africa in mid-1942 and was within a day of Palestine, Ruppin was seriously ill. He died soon after Rommel was pushed back from Egypt and, with that, the end of the threat of Nazi genocide to the Land of Israel. Perhaps we’ll never know whether Ruppin had second thoughts.

The panic that gripped the Land of Israel 82 years ago would be familiar today. Then, the Zionist leadership begged the British for a safe haven for their families and money. Today, amid the shameless lies of the regime, the well-to-do are leaving Israel to build communities in Cyprus, Greece, Georgia and Rhodes. The elite have already decorated their homes in London and New York and spend much of their time abroad.

And the Lord will bring you back to Egypt in ships, through the way about which I had said to you, You will never see it again. And there, you will seek to be sold to your enemies for slaves and handmaids, but there will be no buyer. [Deuteronomy. 28:68]

Today, there are no buyers of Jews. Yes, there are many who will be glad to take their money and then kill them. But the days of the Diaspora are over. What we are left with is a rickety home in tiny Israel surrounded by enemies with ballistic missiles and nukes.

For many, that is the dread referred to in this week’s Torah portion: Yesterday was always better while today might be your last. They seek escape, called vacation, anywhere. Even the old killings grounds of Austria and Romania will do. Just get us out of here!

There is an alternative. The Ramban points out that the Torah does not demand the performance of any specific commandment to end this inglorious exile. Instead, G-d wants one thing — repentance. Do it well and do it fast.

And suddenly the fear is lifted, and light comes in.