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The timing of the page of the Talmud read around the world last Shabbat triggers two related but independent discussions.
The most obvious discussion is based on the fact that the Tochecha, the curses and punishments articulated by G-d for implementation if the laws aren’t followed, was discussed explicitly in the daf yomi (page 88 as to the version in Vayikra and 89 as to the version in Devarim) on the exact same day as it was recited throughout the world in the Torah reading of Ki Tavo (Chapters 27 and 28 in Devarim).
(Somehow the blessings discussed in the same parsha are less dramatic and controversial – bad news and bad behavior often tends to get more coverage than good news.)
Let’s take one example of following G-d’s laws. In a discussion on the standards of honesty we are to live up to in our business dealings, Rabbi Levi goes so far as to say that robbing an ordinary person is a more severe sin than robbing what is consecrated to G-d! (88b) An abuse of one of the creations of G-d is by definition an abuse of G-d as well.
In a similar but perhaps more venal vein, although it is known that maintaining fair weights and measures is one of the three activities for which the Bible speaks of the award of long life, this same Rabbi Levi said that the punishment for using false measurements (presumably not just for one customer but for all customers) is more severe even than the punishment for participating in forbidden sexual relations. A whole complicated pilpul follows, but the Talmud eventually comes around to a conclusion we can all understand. A person who sins by allowing himself or herself to succumb to desires can always repent, while by contrast a person who intentionally uses false measurements as a regular systematic practice not only can’t convincingly claim victimhood to passion but, more importantly, has no possibility of meaningful repentance. This calls to mind the classical story of the rabbi and the pillow.
The classical rabbi and pillow story, of course, is where a person who asked a rabbi how he could make amends for slandering some people was told to bring a pillow filled with feathers, to then puncture the pillow, to watch the feathers waft out by the wind into the great outdoors, and was asked to return the feathers to the pillow. This was as impossible as the merchant who was dishonest with his or her scale to be able to make proper amends even to all local customers, let alone to those one-time passersby from other neighborhoods or cities.
The connections to the current election campaigns are direct as well as indirect.
An obvious direct connection is that so much disinformation knowingly and intentionally circulated by spokespeople for both political parties cannot possibly be withdrawn since even an attempted withdrawal would not necessarily reach all the affected people, nor would it be effective even if it would be withdrawn, and first impressions are more impactful (especially those formed at the one and only presidential debate, thus far, and the analyses that immediately followed it) than later corrections, but the worst part is that some of the misinformation is fundamental while some is trivial or simple exaggerations. And above all the people who have circulated the misinformation have generally shown no remorse or interest in withdrawing or correcting it. Hopefully, this scenario can be dealt with effectively.
Delving into the attempt to do the right thing, as discussed above, and to be worthy of Heavenly blessings from G-d above and votes from mere earthlings below rather than curses and negative votes gets much more complicated, however.
Historically, it has been considered a blessing to live in the United States of America, though all too many people have been feeling cursed lately – some literally – for a variety of different reasons, an intolerable situation which will hopefully be resolved soon.
When it comes to blessings, for good behavior, which precede the Tochecha of curses, all too few people seem to be able to appreciate both points of view as to the blessing of immigration to the United States through our southern border.
Millions of people have the best of intentions and believe they should be universally blessed based on their advocating for completely open borders welcoming and offering an immediate path to citizenship to everyone from every country in the world, including hundreds of thousands or maybe millions of “gottaways” who are not being processed or checked for covid and other communicable diseases nor checked for criminal records nor for terrorist backgrounds or intentions.
On the other hand, millions of people with the best of intentions believe just as strongly that they should be just as universally blessed for pointing out that we have a shortage of hospitals and health care professionals even now, let alone housing and essential social services, not to mention Social Security, funded and subsidized by the citizens constituting the current tax base, so that eventually, if current trends continue, Americans will have unintentionally (in many cases) caused many migrants to become sorely disappointed and under-served, and many citizens and non-citizens may be forced to disobey laws now on the books, G-d forbid, just for their very survival.
Here is hoping, praying, and urging urgent brainstorming so that a way will be found for all of us to be worthy of Heavenly blessings without Heavenly curses by finding ways to accommodate as many potential citizens as possible in an orderly, reasonable, considerate, and humane way without causing the breakdown of society as we know it.