Devar/5769/Ki Tavo
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עברית
English
And all the peoples of the earth shall see that the name of the LORD is called upon thee; and they shall be afraid of thee (Deut 28:10)
When will they "be afraid of you"? When your army is bigger than the other nations? When you have the upper hand? No! The Torah tells us that it will only be when thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, and walk in His ways (Deut 28:9), then the nations of the world will see and be afraid -- and not before then.
It is understood that an enemy is frightened by an army which is stronger and better trained than his own. But he has hope that if he invests in his own army, one day he will be able to prevail. And therefore he is not really afraid, because he knows that in the natural scheme of things he has a solution to the problem of balance of powers. There is no weapon in the world which is impossible to defeat in some way.
If that is so, why will the nations be afraid of us if we follow God's commandments? Because then "God's name will be called upon us", that is to say that we will have transformed into the army of the God of Legions -- and not the army of some flesh and blood ruler. Tit for tat: if we "guard" His commandments, may He be blessed, then He will guard us. "Guarding" for guarding. We witnessed His strong arm when we left Egypt -- who would not be afraid and in awe of a such a strong and faithful guardian?
There is only one small condition: that we guard His commandments and walk in His ways. That is, guard His commandments while walking in His ways. What does "walking in His ways" mean? So [our Sages] learned the explanation of this commandment: just as He is gracious, so should you be gracious. Just as He is merciful, so should you be merciful. Just as He is holy, so should you be holy. (Laws of Personality Development 1:11) -- and so on for all the other personality traits. It is a commandment to walk on the "good path" -- that is, is the "middle road". The balanced path among personality traits will lead us to the balance we need in order to perfect ourselves so we can properly guard the rest of God's commandments. Then will He guard us and protect us, may it be His will.
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