‘That Could Never Happen to Me’ (Nitzavim-Vayelech)

“A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true.” –Demosthenes

There is a certain uneasy curiosity in the suffering of others. One of the most familiar examples is the traffic jam that forms in the opposite lane of a car accident. People slow down, sometimes out of concern, but often also from a natural curiosity to see what happened to someone else.

We may feel a brief pang of empathy for the victims, remind ourselves to fasten our seatbelt or to drive a little slower and more carefully, and then continue on our way. Somewhere in the back of our minds, we reassure ourselves that we would never be quite so careless, unlucky or vulnerable as the person being wheeled into the ambulance.

Ibn Ezra on Deuteronomy 29:18 describes a similar mental calculation when a person hears the curses and punishments that God warns will come upon those who disregard His commandments. A person may quietly reassure himself, saying, “That curse, that punishment, won’t fall upon me.” He may even come to believe that blessing himself somehow shields him from consequences, while failing to recognize that he may already be heading in their direction.

It is remarkably easy to see danger, poor judgment and consequences in the lives of others while assuming that we ourselves are somehow exempt.

May we have the clarity to recognize our own vulnerabilities, the honesty to question our comforting assumptions, and the wisdom to choose safer roads before we discover where poor paths lead.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To the start of the school year!