Parsha Pearls: Parshas Ki Savo

We Accepted the Three Oaths at Sinai

We Will Not Be Redeemed by Humans

Yosef Mokir Shabbos

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Ramban is teaching us that this promise to watch over us applies only when we have the atonement of living in exile. If the Jewish people were to go back and live in Eretz Yisroel before the atonement of exile is complete, even if the gentile nations gave them permission to do so, they would, G-d forbid, be vulnerable to those who wish to destroy them, for they would not have G-d’s special protection. A small community of Jews may live in Eretz Yisroel, since the decree of exile is being fulfilled with the majority of the nation. But a large scale movement in which nearly half the world’s Jews (5 million out of 12.9 million) live in Eretz Yisroel during exile is quite a dangerous phenomenon. (Vayoel Moshe 1:14)

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Rabbi Dov Ber Treivish, rav of Vilna during the Gaon’s lifetime, in his commentary Shir Chadash on Shir Hashirim, discusses the oath: “I have adjured you, daughters of Jerusalem, not to arouse or awaken the love before it is desired” (2:7). This oath occurs three times in Shir Hashirim, and the Gemora (Kesubos 111a) says that it refers to the Three Oaths that are in effect during the Jewish exile: not to go up as a wall, not to rebel against the nations, and that the other nations not subjugate the Jews too much. When and where, asks Rabbi Dov Ber, did the Jewish people accept this oath?

 He answers that at Mt. Sinai and again in the land of Moav, we accepted the entire Torah with a covenant and an oath. Included in that oath was the warning that if we would not keep the Torah, all the misfortunes listed in Parshas Bechukosai and Ki Savo would come upon us. These misfortunes culminate in our going into exile and living under the nations (Vayikra 26:33 and Devarim 28:64). Therefore, included in the oath of the Torah is the acceptance of the yoke of exile, not to rebel against it, and not to attempt to end it on our own. (Shir Chadash)

This resolves a question posed by the Satmar Rov in Vayoel Moshe 1:34. The halacha is that one cannot impose an oath on unborn people (Yoreh Deah 228:35). If so, how can the oaths at the giving of the Torah and the Three Oaths of exile apply to future generations who were not alive at the time the oaths were made? Regarding the oaths at the giving of the Torah, says the Satmar Rov, we can say as Chazal say (brought by Rashi on Devarim 29:14) that the souls of all Jews who would ever live, as well as the souls of converts who would later convert, were present at the giving of the Torah and at the covenant in Moav. But what about the Three Oaths?

He answers based on the Midrash Rabbah (Yisro 28) that all the words of the prophets were derived from Sinai, and thus the scroll of Shir Hashirim, in which the Three Oaths are written, was said then as well. The Avnei Nezer (Yoreh Deah 454) answers that the oath was imposed on the roots of the Jewish souls in Heaven, and the gentiles’ oath was imposed on the angels of each nation. But according to the Shir Chadash the question is answered simply: the command to stay in exile until the redemption comes is implicit in the warnings of the Torah about exile, which were accepted under oath.

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Full Reading:

https://torahjews.org/2023/11/26/parsha-pearls-parshas-ki-savo

Tags:

Rambam – Shir Chadash – Shir ha Shirim – Midrash Rabba -  Avnei Nezer – Yore Deah –