1) נָת֤וֹן תִּתֵּן֙ ל֔וֹ וְלֹא־יֵרַ֥ע לְבָבְךָ֖ בְּתִתְּךָ֣ ל֑וֹ כִּ֞י בִּגְלַ֣ל׀ הַדָּבָ֣ר הַזֶּ֗ה יְבָרֶכְךָ֙ ה׳ אֱלֹקיךָ בְּכׇֽל־מַעֲשֶׂ֔ךָ וּבְכֹ֖ל מִשְׁלַ֥ח יָדֶֽךָ׃
R' Ben Tzion Aba Shaul raises a safeik whether וְלֹא־יֵרַ֥ע לְבָבְךָ֖ בְּתִתְּךָ֣ ל֑וֹ is a bracha or an issur. He quotes the Minchas Chinuch (479:3) who writes that the word הַזֶּ֗הIt in the phrase בִּגְלַ֣ל׀ הַדָּבָ֣ר הַזֶּ֗ה is not referring back to the act to giving, נָת֤וֹן תִּתֵּן֙ ל֔וֹ, but rather refers back to doing so b'lev shaleim, וְלֹא־יֵרַ֥ע לְבָבְךָ֖ בְּתִתְּךָ֣ ל֑וֹ. The implication is that this is not a bracha, but a command to the one who gives. It's hard enough to give, but the Torah demands more than that -- you have to feel good about it too.
The Maggid of Dubno told the story of the man who lost $100 and was quite upset. Next day he found $200, but he was still upset because he thought to himself that if he hadn't lost the original $100 he would now have $300, not just $200, in his pocket. Contrast that with the story of the farmer who was carrying a bag with $100 of grain from the field back to his home and didn't realize there was a hole in the bag. By the time he got home the bag was empty, leaving him pretty upset. Not too long afterwards that same farmer noticed all along the path he took home through his fields there were now new stalks of wheat that had started to spring up, promising an even greater crop than he had originally harvested. The sadness at the loss of his original bundle was now replaced by the joy of the prospect of greater abundance.
When we give tzedakah, we often feel like the man who lost that $100. Even if we receive bracha and get something more in return, we still feel like we lost something. ְלֹא־יֵרַ֥ע לְבָבְךָ֖ בְּתִתְּךָ֣ ל֑וֹ means feeling like the farmer. Whatever we gave up was the seed from which sprang the bracha in return.
2) רְאֵה אָנֹכִי נֹתֵן לִפְנֵיכֶם הַיּוֹם בְּרָכָה וּקְלָלָה
B'shlama according to Rashi who explains that the ְּבְּרָכָה וּקְלָלָה which the pasuk is referring to are the brachos and klalos that will be given on Har Grizim and Har Eival, neicha, that the pasuk is speaking only to us. But not everyone learns like Rashi. Ralbag, for example, explains the pasuk to mean that we have free choice זכר שכבר נתן השם יתעלה לפני ישראל ברכה וקללה והענין הוא בבחירתם וזה שאם ישמעו אל מצות השם יתעלה תבא להם הברכה והקללה אם לא ישמעו אל מצותיו. Well, doesn't everyone have free choice? Doesn't an aku"m have the choice to do good or do wrong?
The GR"A in Aderet Aliyahu answers this question as does the CH haRI"M. GR"A writes:
ושמא תאמרו הבחירה ניתן לאדם בימי בחרותו אבל לא אחר שהורגל במעלליו הקשים לכן אמר היום בכל יום ויום הרשות נתונה והבחירה בידו לילך בדרך טובים
The key word in the pasuk is הַיּוֹם. Everyone has free choice to some degree, but it gets harder and harder to break bad habits the more time they have to become entrenched. Hashem gives us an opportunity each and every day to start anew, irrespective of the choices of the past.
The Ch haRI"M, quoted in the first piece in Sefas Emes, says that the key word in the pasuk is לִפְנֵיכֶם:
אא"ז מו"ר ז"ל הגיד פי' ראה אנכי נותן לפניכם. שנקבע בכל איש ישראל שיוכל להבחין ולבחור רק בהברכה.
I've written before that choosing right vs wrong is not such a big challenge for most people. True, a person can succumb to temptation, but that amounts to a passing moment of weakness, not a fundamental character flaw. Most people will not deliberatly choose the wrong thing to so. The real challenge is figuring out in any given situation what the right vs wrong thing to so is. For example, the Jews I wrote about recently who cry about "starvation" in Gaza think they are choosing to do the right thing, but their whole concept of right/wrong is distorted. They think that are choosing bracha, but they are supporting the enemy, supporting evil. It's not enough to have free choice between right and wrong; a person needs a compass to point them to what the right thing is. Hashem put that compass לִפְנֵיכֶם, inside each one of us. The outside world is like a magnetic field that pulls the compass in a wrong direction, but so long as we remain true to ourselves, it will show us the right path.
R Tzadok haKohen in Pri Tzadik points out that the pasuk uses the word נֹתֵן, meaning that it is speaking about a gift that Hashem gives us. Bracha is of course a gift, but the word נֹתֵן applies to the וּקְלָלָה as well. How is that a gift? If you understand the pasuk like the CH haR"IM's reading, it makes perfect sense. The gift which Hashem gives us is not בְּרָכָה or קְלָלָה themselves, but rather is the ability to discern between them and find the correct path in a muddled, befuddling world of confusion.
The GR"A in Aderet Aliyahu answers this question as does the CH haRI"M. GR"A writes:
ושמא תאמרו הבחירה ניתן לאדם בימי בחרותו אבל לא אחר שהורגל במעלליו הקשים לכן אמר היום בכל יום ויום הרשות נתונה והבחירה בידו לילך בדרך טובים
The key word in the pasuk is הַיּוֹם. Everyone has free choice to some degree, but it gets harder and harder to break bad habits the more time they have to become entrenched. Hashem gives us an opportunity each and every day to start anew, irrespective of the choices of the past.
The Ch haRI"M, quoted in the first piece in Sefas Emes, says that the key word in the pasuk is לִפְנֵיכֶם:
אא"ז מו"ר ז"ל הגיד פי' ראה אנכי נותן לפניכם. שנקבע בכל איש ישראל שיוכל להבחין ולבחור רק בהברכה.
I've written before that choosing right vs wrong is not such a big challenge for most people. True, a person can succumb to temptation, but that amounts to a passing moment of weakness, not a fundamental character flaw. Most people will not deliberatly choose the wrong thing to so. The real challenge is figuring out in any given situation what the right vs wrong thing to so is. For example, the Jews I wrote about recently who cry about "starvation" in Gaza think they are choosing to do the right thing, but their whole concept of right/wrong is distorted. They think that are choosing bracha, but they are supporting the enemy, supporting evil. It's not enough to have free choice between right and wrong; a person needs a compass to point them to what the right thing is. Hashem put that compass לִפְנֵיכֶם, inside each one of us. The outside world is like a magnetic field that pulls the compass in a wrong direction, but so long as we remain true to ourselves, it will show us the right path.
R Tzadok haKohen in Pri Tzadik points out that the pasuk uses the word נֹתֵן, meaning that it is speaking about a gift that Hashem gives us. Bracha is of course a gift, but the word נֹתֵן applies to the וּקְלָלָה as well. How is that a gift? If you understand the pasuk like the CH haR"IM's reading, it makes perfect sense. The gift which Hashem gives us is not בְּרָכָה or קְלָלָה themselves, but rather is the ability to discern between them and find the correct path in a muddled, befuddling world of confusion.
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