Kids Question, Netzavim 2025
Question
Answer
Which parsha to which week?
Did you know the division of the Torah into weekly "parshos" is actually a minhag? The most broadly accepted version of the minhag is to divide the Torah up so we can complete it once a year at the end of Sukkos with Simchas Torah. But it's not the only minhag. The gemara discusses a system in Bavel where the parshios were spread over three years (Megilah 29b)!
To make the minhag to finish the Torah every single year work, we need to carefully divide the parshas up across the shabbosos of the year. There are 54 parshas in the Torah, but only about 50 shabbosos in a typical year. We manage to fit all the parshas in by sometimes reading a double parsha in a single week. There are actually seven "parsha pairs" that can be read together or separately depending on how the shabboses of the year fall out. If a lot of chagim fall out on shabbos, there are even fewer weeks available and we need to combine more of these pairs. If it's a leap year there are more weeks and we need to separate more of them. As a result, every year is likely to have a slightly different combination of parsha pairs than the previous year.
That still leaves the question how we choose which of the seven parsha pairs to combine each year. That's based on arranging to be able to read specific parshos on specific shabboses. We already know we want to read Bereishis right after Simchas Torah. The Shulchan Aruch in Orach Chaim 428:4 lists out a four other considerations
- Tzav must be before Pesach in a normal year, Metzora must be before Peasch in a leap year
- Bamidbar must be before Shavuos
- Ve'eschanan must be after Tisha b'Av
- Netzavim must be before Rosh Hashanah
We either combine or split parsha pairs as needed to facilitate each of those four rules. Every other parsha falls out naturally across the year based on these four rules.
The last rule we mentioned from Shulchan Aruch should stand out - "Netzavim must be before Rosh Hashanah." Notice it says only netzavim, not netzavim vayelech? Let's do a quick calculation
- Netzavim must be before Rosh Hashanah
- Bereishis must be on Simchas Torah
- The last parshios of the Torah are Netzavim, Vayelech, Ha'azinu, and v'Zos Habracha
- We don't read a normal parsha on Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkos, or Chol Hamoed. Depending on what day of the week Rosh Hashanah is that means there is either one or two normal shabboses from Rosh Hashanah to Simchas Torah
Leave the curses behind...
What's the reason for reading netzivm before Rosh Hashanah? It's based on a gemara
עזרא תיקן להן לישראל שיהו קורין קללות שבתורת כהנים קודם עצרת ושבמשנה תורה קודם ר"ה מאי טעמא אמר אביי ואיתימא ריש לקיש כדי שתכלה השנה וקללותיה
Ezra established that klal yisroel should read the curses in Toras Kohanim before Shavuos and those in Mishneh Torah before Rosh Hashanah. Why? Abbaye, or possibly Reish Lakish, said "In order that the year and it's curses should end"
Megilah, 31:2
"Toras Kohanim" is another name for Vayikra and "Mishneh Torah" is another name for Devarim. And the "curses"? That refers to the two times in the Torah when Hashem warned us of the terrible things that would befall us if we refuse to listen to his mitzvos. First, there are 98 curses in Bechukosai at the end of Vayikra, then another 49 in Ki Savo in Devarim.
We're required to read the Torah every year. That includes reading these two parshos and reminding everyone of these terrible curses. They're not pleasant, but we have to read them. Chaza"l used the calendar to create some artificial distance from the curses. By arranging to read the parshios with the curses immediately before a new year starts, we can say to ourselves, "it's okay, those curses were for last year; it's a new year now."
If the curses are in Bechukosai and Ki Savo, why does the Shulchan Aruch mention Bamidbar and Netzavim instead? Those are the parshios after the curses! Tosfos actually discusses this
נראה לר"י דלהכי אנו קורין לעולם אתם נצבים לפני ר"ה כדי להפסיק בפרשה בין קללות דשנה שעברה דוהיה כי תבוא לשנה הבאה ולכך נמי לעולם אנו קורים במדבר לפני עצרת כדי להפסיק בה בין קללות דאם בחקותי לעצרת שהוא ר"ה לפירות האילן
It seems to the R"y that the reason we always read Netzavim before Rosh Hashanah is in order to create a parsha separating between the curses of the previous year (in Ki Savo) and the new year. This is also why we always read Bamidbar before Shavuos to create a parsha separating between the curses in Bechukosai to Shavuos which is the new year for the fruits of the tree.
Tosfos, Bava Basra 88b, Dibur hamaschil "Vkil'lam b'esrim v'shtaim"
By arranging to leave the curses behind in last year, chaza"l created a problem - now the year would end off on with a terrible note. Just like we want to distance ourselves from the curses with a new year, we want don't want to label the previous year as if it were cursed. So, we add one more parsha between the curses and the start of the new year. Hence, Bamidbar comes before Shavuos and Netzavim comes before Rosh Hashanah. That way we can leave the curses behind and still end the year on a positive note.
The minhagim to distance ourselves from the curses don't stop with when we read the parshios. It's common to whisper the words of the parsha during the kriah. It's common not to call anyone up by name for the kriah itself. We even add extra pesukim before and after the curses.
All of this is to dissociate ourselves from these curses as much as possible. But why so much effort? Are we suggesting these curses are somehow not relevant? Doesn't klal yisroel need to hear them and take mussar from them?
That's an easy question to ask in our generation. We're already disconnected and desensitized to the words in these curses. They sound more like fantastical stories than anything that could really happen to us. That wasn't true for previous generations. They lived and breathed a fear of Hashem that we cannot fathom today. When they heard the words of Beha'aloscha and Ki Savo, it truly terrified them. As such, these minhagim weren't a way of downplaying the curses. They were actually a way of highlighting them. We're so afraid of just how real these curses are and just how much impact they can have on our lives that we have to be careful about how we even discuss them.
But what about us?
This level of fear of Heaven is not exclusively for earlier generations. It's true we don't feel the natural and automatic fear our ancestors felt when they heard the curses. But chaza"l taught us there's a tool we can use to acquire that fear. The way we think and the way we feel is directly governed by the way we act.
דע כי האדם נפעל כפי פעולותיו, ולבו וכל מחשבותיו תמיד אחר מעשיו שהוא עוסק בהם, אם טוב ואם רע. ואפילו רשע גמור בלבבו וכל יצר מחשבות לבו רק רע כל היום, אם יערה רוחו וישים השתדלותו ועסקו בהתמדה בתורה ובמצוות, ואפילו שלא לשם שמים, מיד ינטה אל הטוב, ומתוך שלא לשמה בא לשמה, ובכוח מעשיו ימית היצר הרע כי אחרי הפעולות נמשכים הלבבות. ואפילו אם יהיה אדם צדיק גמור ולבבו ישר ותמים, חפץ בתורה ובמצוות, אם יעסוק תמיד בדברים של דופי – דרך משל, שהכריחו המלך ומינהו באומנות רעה באמת, אם כל עסקו תמיד כל היום באותה אומנות – ישוב בזמן מן הזמנים מצדקת לבו להיות רשע גמור.
You must know that a person is activated according to his actions. His heart and his thoughts constantly follow after the actions that he is involved with whether for good or for bad. Even a total rasha in his heart whose entire thoughts and desires are only for evil all day, if he would awaken his spirit and place his efforts and actions into Torah and mitzvos, even if he doesn't do so for the sake of Heaven, he would immediately turn to good. From doing it for any reason he would come to do it for good reasons, and the strength of his actions would come to kill his yetzer hara, for his heart is drawn after his actions. And even a total absolute tzadik with a straight and pure heart, who desires Torah and mitzvos, if he would continually engage in bad - for example if the King were to force him and appoint him in a truly wicked trade, so that all day long all his activity was in that trade - he would at some point turn away from the righteousness of his heart to become a total rasha.
Sefer hachinuch, mitzvah 16 - Do not break the bone of the korban pesach
We can choose what actions we perform with our bodies. We can choose to shake a lulav, as the Chinuch said, and make ourselves more straight-thinking people. But we can also apply this tool to the curses. Listen to the whispered curses and think of how scary they are. When Netzavim comes, breathe a sigh of relief that your year is ending on a positive note. On Rosh Hashanah thank Hashem that he left the curses behind in the last year. Engage with every minhag as an action you take to drive your fear of Hashem. When you make the actions, your mind will follow.
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